The influence of magnetic field on the alignment of steel fiber in fresh cementitious composites

This paper proposes a numerical model to simulate the rotational behavior of steel fiber in fresh cement-based materials in the presence of a magnetic field. The results indicate that as the aspect ratio of fiber increases, the required minimum magnetic field intensity to make fiber rotate in viscous fluid increases. The optimal magnetic field intensity is 0.03 T for aligning steel fiber in fresh cement-based materials to ensure that the applying time of the magnetic field can be conducted concurrently with the vibrating process to increase the aligning efficiency. The orientation factor of steel fiber in cement mortar can exceed 0.85 after aligning by 0.03 T of the uniform magnetic field. When the initial angle of the fiber to the magnetic field direction is less than 10°, the magnetic field less than 0.03 T cannot make the fiber overcome the yield stress of fluid to rotate. The coarse aggregate in steel fiber-reinforced concrete is detrimental to the rotation and alignment of the steel fiber. But the orientation factor of ASFRC under the 0.03T of the magnetic field can also exceed 0.8, while the orientation factor of SFRC without magnetic field application is around 0.6.