Steel fibre-reinforced concrete pavements: multi-scale performance, durability, sustainability and design review

This comprehensive review synthesizes 69 core studies on Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) for pavement systems, integrating fibre characteristics, orientation, and matrix interaction with mechanical, durability, and sustainability outcomes. Spanning rigid pavements, roller-compacted concrete, bridge decks, airport pavements, industrial floors, overlays, UHPC, recycled aggregates, rubberised concrete, conductive/deicing pavements, pervious systems, and 3D-printed elements, findings are tiered by evidence maturity from laboratory-scale to field-validated results.Steel fibres consistently enhance crack bridging, residual load-bearing capacity, toughness, energy absorption, and fatigue resistance, while compressive strength effects remain variable. Combining steel fibres with supplementary cementitious materials—such as fly ash, GGBFS, and silica fume—further optimizes mixture performance. However, laboratory-scale predictions, including quarter-thickness reductions and high fatigue gains in 3D-printed SFRC, represent design models rather than guaranteed field service life.Sustainability assessments demonstrate that SFRC requires performance-normalised life-cycle evaluation. Industrial fibres may increase embodied carbon, whereas controlled recycled fibres effectively reduce it. Ultimately, this multi-scale framework bridges micro-mechanical fibre behavior and macro-scale pavement applications to advance resilient, sustainable infrastructure design.