Steel Fiber Ball in Batching Concrete Issue

Steel fiber?

WIRAND® Steel Fibers ASTM A 820

I have experimented with fiber mesh (a fiberglass) additive to concrete, but I am unfamiliar with steel mesh! Do you have a manufacturer or Product name that we might research? Gary

While I am not an expert at explaining the science of hydration and mixing I can offer some insights on facilitating mixing. If you add most of your course aggregate in after your head water along with any air entrainment you may be using you may then add all your cement and it should evenly disperse throughout. Then add your sand and any additional rock and fibers along with additional water for proper slump. This should help to speed your mixing also. Adding any water reducing agents with or after your sand should help to eliminate any issues with air falling off as the mix is poured. ACI has guidelines for this and your add-mixture supplier should be a good source for guidance also.

Good luck and remember,

"when you're working with concrete, it just gets harder every day"

The steel fiber is added continuously during the batch process...

the steel should be added at the end of the batch process and not during. this will stop the clumping. probably best to get advice from the steel nail supplier who has ultimately more experience than the batch concrrete supplier.

Commodity-sampler@hotmail.com

regards

I signed in under guest, forgot to sign in under commodity sampler!

If I am understanding your word-picture properly, I suspect that the clumping / aggregating of cement and of steel fibers is happening to dry, or very nearly dry, material, and that once the surfaces are wetted movement and dispersal become much easier. Water is a lubricant for steel-on-steel, according to some railroad enthusiasts I've known.

I don't recall having problems of clumping when I last worked with steel fiber reinforced concrete, but that was around 1977-78; our "needles" were by-product from manufacturing steel-belted tires. Each piece was about 2-1/2" long, made of high-tensile steel wire with alternating flattened spots 90 degrees apart every half inch or so to provide flex, and flash-coated with copper to improve adhesion of the rubber. They DID clump in the boxes, but usually separated nicely in the drum. We were using an air-entraining, chemically-compensated [for shrinkage] cement, minimum water, and a special sand (no coarse aggregate at all), which might have influenced results.

Thank you

Regards,

Jim...