Created on 06.25

Severe Ruts on Road Concrete Pavements? Cold-Drawn Steel Fibers Enhance Fatigue Resistance

In the modern transportation system, road concrete pavements frequently suffer from rutting due to long-term vehicle loads and environmental effects. Such damage significantly compromises road service life and traffic safety. Cold-drawn steel fibers, as high-performance reinforcing materials, offer an effective solution to this challenge.​

Cold-drawn steel fibers are formed through a specialized cold-drawing process, featuring a ribbed surface that provides strong mechanical interlock with the concrete matrix. When road concrete endures repeated vehicle loads, micro-cracks tend to form within ordinary concrete and expand into ruts. However, cold-drawn steel fibers distribute randomly in three dimensions within the concrete, acting like a fine "steel mesh" to bridge crack tips and restrain crack propagation. Upon micro-crack initiation, the high strength and elastic modulus of steel fibers disperse stress to the surrounding matrix, reducing stress concentration at crack tips and significantly enhancing the concrete's fatigue resistance.​

Compared with traditional reinforcement methods, cold-drawn steel fibers present notable advantages. First, they are easy to add, requiring no complex construction procedures and can be directly incorporated into concrete during mixing. Second, their dosage is flexible; adding 30 - 80 kg of cold-drawn steel fibers per cubic meter of concrete can boost the flexural strength by 30% - 80% and extend the fatigue life severalfold. Third, they are cost-effective. Although the per-ton cost of cold-drawn steel fibers exceeds that of common aggregates, overall costs decrease due to significantly reduced pavement maintenance frequency and cycles.​

In a practical application, a city's arterial road renovation project used concrete with added cold-drawn steel fibers. Tests showed a remarkable improvement in pavement fatigue resistance. Under the same traffic load, rut depth decreased by over 60% compared to sections without steel fibers, and the pavement remained in good condition three years after opening to traffic.​

With their excellent fatigue resistance enhancement, cold-drawn steel fibers provide an efficient and reliable solution for rut control on road concrete pavements. As research progresses and applications expand, cold-drawn steel fibers will play an even greater role in road engineering, contributing to more durable and safer transportation infrastructure.