Review of Japanese recommendations on design and construction of different classes of fiber reinforced concrete and application examples

The development of concrete and cementitious composites with fiber reinforcement to improve the tensile load-deformation behavior has resulted in three distinct classes of materials. These include conventional Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) with tension softening response, High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites (HPFRCC) with strain hardening and multiple cracking behavior, and Ultra High-strength Fiber Reinforced concrete (UFC) with increased tensile strength. The recommendations on the design, production, and application of these classes of fiber reinforced concrete have been established in Japan. This paper will review and compare these documents with the aim of outlining distinctive and common features of these different classes of cementitious composite materials. Examples of structural applications of HPFRCC and UFC will be described.