A State-of-the-art Review of Synthetic Fibres as Shear Reinforcement in Concrete Elements

Shear failure is considered one of the most critical modes of failure in concrete structures, especially for those elements without shear reinforcement. In the last sixty years, the research community has shown much interest to solve this problem. In fact, since the 80's years, the use of fibres dispersed in the matrix as shear reinforcement has been explored as an alternative of traditional reinforcement. Several investigations have shown that the addition of fibres in correct proportions, enhances the shear behaviour in concrete elements with and without shear reinforcement. Most of this knowledge has been built using steel fibres. However, macro-synthetic fibres have also been introduced for structural applications in concrete. Some recent publications have reported the success of macro-synthetic fibres to be used as shear reinforcement in structural elements. Within this framework, the present paper aims to review the existing literature about the use of synthetic fibres as shear reinforcement in structural concrete elements.