ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION A Study on Elastic Deformation Behavior of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Concrete for Pavements A. Chandrashekara 1 • Nitendra Palankar 2 • L. Durga Prashanth 3 • B. M. Mithun 4 • A. U. Ravi Shankar 5 Received: 17 April 2018 / Accepted: 28 December 2018 Ó The Institution of Engineers (India) 2019 Abstract The present study discusses the experimental investigation of steel fiber-reinforced concrete slabs on ground under wheel load with the objective of under- standing the stress behavior when subjected to central and edge wheel loading. The steel fiber-reinforced fly ash concrete slabs of 900 mm 9 900 mm, 150 mm thickness were investigated in this study. Strain gauges and data acquisition system were used to measure the strains at the center and the edge of the slab under the action of the load. The load versus strain relationship under central and edge loading for reference concrete and steel fiber fly ash con- crete showed a linear variation even up to the pressure of 2.5 MPa, which is much beyond the conventional tyre inflation pressure of 0.8 MPa. The load versus strain graphs clearly signify the higher modulus of elasticity of fly ash steel fiber-reinforced concrete. The stresses were calculated using IITRIGID software and ANSYS software and were found matching significantly. The value of modulus of elasticity of fly ash steel fiber-reinforced concrete (FS) using ANSYS model for experimental values of load and strains measured was approximated to 34,000 N/mm 2 and was found to closely match with the experimentally obtained modulus of elasticity. No significant effect of Poisson’s ratio of concrete on load–strain characteristics was observed within the range 0.15–0.2 of concrete. Keywords Steel fiber-reinforced concrete Á Elastic deformation Á Load–strain behavior Á Eco-friendly concrete Á Rigid pavements Introduction India, having one of the largest road networks, consists of national highways, expressways, state highways, major district roads, other district roads and village roads. Many experts are of the opinion that concrete roads would have to be given serious consideration, for arteries of national road network, which carry a high volume of traffic with an increase in axle loads [2, 3]. Concrete roads are more attractive in case of expressways, bypasses and urban roads. Concrete roads are also preferable for coastal areas bound by hills having high rainfall, more curves and also for high- and low-traffic rural roads [2]. Although concrete is the most widely used construction material worldwide, it is not an environmentally friendly material [6, 10]. The manufacture of Portland cement is the energy-intensive & L. Durga Prashanth durgaprashanthl@rvce.edu.in A. Chandrashekara acs.nitk@gmail.com Nitendra Palankar nnpalankar@git.edu B. M. Mithun mithunbm@nitte.edu.in A. U. Ravi Shankar aurshankar@gmail.com 1 Dept. of Civil Engineering, KVG College of Engineering, Sullia, Mangalore, India 2 Dept. of Civil Engineering, Gogte Institute of Technology, Belgaum, India 3 Dept. of Civil Engineering, Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 4 Dept. of Civil Engineering, NMAMIT College of Engineering, Karkala, Dakshina Kannada, India 5 Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Srinivasnagar (P.O.), Mangalore 575 025, India 123 J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. A https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-018-00357-5