Helix Micro Rebar - A Better Way to Reinforce Concrete
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- www.helixwest.com
Helix® is a short twisted steel 'micro bar' used as a structural replacement for conventional steel reinforcing. Helix® is much more than a fiber used for crack control. Due to its unique shape and resulting behavior, Helix® can replace 50 to 100% of traditional steel reinforcing, while improving the shear strength and durability of concrete.
The secret of Helix® is the TWISTED square profile. Similar to a cork screw in a wine bottle stopper, the only way Helix® can be removed from the concrete is for it to be twisted out. The energy required to untwist Helix® matches very closely to the energy required to pull deformed rebar through concrete.
This sets Helix® apart from other fibers which rely solely on friction to resist pull-out. And it is this 'twisting' behaviour which allows Helix® to replace conventional steel reinforcement in a wide range of applications.
A 'medium' dosage of Helix® is about 15 pounds per cubic yard which means 170,000 micro bars dispersed throughout the concrete. That's a lot of 'untwisting' tensile strength which typically provides equivalent bending moment capacity, higher shear strength and better durability than conventional reinforcing.
Helix® was invented in the 1990s at the Department of Engineering at the University of Michigan. One of the original researchers, Luke Pinkerton P Eng., went on to establish Polytorx, LLC which introduced Helix® into the market in 2003.
Since then over 13 million pounds of Helix® have been produced, the equivalent of 20,000 full height residential foundations.
Time will tell if corrosion takes away all the tensile strength you get from traditional rebar. Seems like once rust and corrosion get started, the micro-corroded network of fissures created would wick moisture in quickly and it would be throughout the concrete in short order, and poof there goes your tensile strength. Maybe this would be worst on a horizontal slab that might see moisture frequently.
Was that first wall and footing poured in one go ?
You got it. Here is the project page on that system; fab-form.com/fastfootMp/valkyries.php
Take that icf to the rafters and it'll be the way God intended
If the rebar is reduced by 95%, where is the 5% still needed?
It depends in the application. Helix eliminates background steel, so in a wall assembly, you would have additional rebar over door and window openings. In large commercial slabs you may need additional rebar in point loads etc.
The downside is that like ALL steel reinforcement it will eventually destroy the concrete in which it is embedded.
No this product creates no load or abrasive friction encased in concrete it binds well the twisted fibers locked in place