There is a voice that application of steel fiber that is being used mainly for civil works at present should be widened to construction works.
Steel Fiber Development Co. and the Architectural Institute of Korea (AIK) jointly held ‘the 1st steel fiber reinforced concrete ground slab application technology seminar’ on June 23 at Capital Hotel in Seoul, announcing the various outstanding features of steel fiber in the application to construction works.
Steel fiber has been widely used as material to reinforce the tensile strength of concrete and prevent the crack of concrete when mixed with concrete. Based on such function, steel fiber has been used mainly for shot concrete works of tunnels and slabs on ground at factories and warehouses. However, demand for steel fiber has recently decreased to a large extent due to the delay in construction works of tunnels and bridges not only in private sector, but also in public sector.
According to a report at the seminar of Steel Fiber Development Co. and the Architectural Institute of Korea (AIK), if steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) is used for slabs on ground, it can raise the durability of slabs and make their thickness thinner, thus bringing about a large economic effect.
According to Prof. Such Chi-ho of Konkuk University, SFRC is being widely used in large-size window and door frames and slab on ground of factories and shopping malls overseas, but the application of SFRC in Korea has been so far limited to civil works only, as SFRC has not yet been well-known in construction industry and design method of SFRC in Korea is different from overseas. Even in case that SFRC is applied to construction works, reinforcing bars have been usually used together, causing the extension of construction period and an increase in construction cost, according to steel fiber makers and the AIK, which emphasized that it is possible to use SFRC without reinforcing bars for construction works that it is necessary to take new design methods of SFRC for the wide application of construction works.

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