Modeling the pullout of wire-drawn steel fibers ? ? This paper was originally submitted to Advanced

Previously, the emphasis when modeling the behavior of the pullout of an individual fiber anchored in a cement-based matrix was on bond-stress-slip relationships. In case of fibers with nonstraight geometries, such modeling approaches present obvious limitations. In this paper, a micromechanical model has been developed taking into account the different phenomena observed during pullout of a nonstraight fiber, including the mechanisms of steel deformation. Model's parameters are fitted, based on experiments carried out on specially made fibers. Finally, applications of the model to the geometries of commercialized fibers are presented. The good performances that were obtained in comparison with pullout tests confirms the validity of the chosen approach. It opens the door to a modeling of fiber behavior based on a knowledge of characteristics of the fibers themselves and to an optimization of fiber geometries.