Projects
Status
Complete
Partners
- Australian Engineered Fasteners and Anchors Council
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Leviat
- Hilti
- Hobson Engineering
- Ramset
- Wurth Australia
Outputs
AEFAC – TN16: DESIGN OF FASTENERS IN STEEL FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETE
AEFAC – TN17: DESIGN OF FASTENERS IN HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE
Videos
Rajbhandari, P., Lee, J., Pokharel, T., Amirsardari, A., & Gad, E. (2025). Tensile performance of headed fasteners in high-strength concrete: Experimental and numerical analysis. Construction and Building Materials, 489, 142225. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CONBUILDMAT.2025.142225
Rajbhandari, P., Lee, J., Pokharel, T., Amirsardari, A., & Gad, E. (2025). A Novel Approach of Predicting Concrete Cone Capacity of Single Fastener In Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete.
Rajbhandari, P., Lee, J., Pokharel, T., Amirsardari, A., & Gad, E. (2024). Evaluation of Concrete Material Properties for High Strength Concrete and Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete at Different Hydration Ages. Australasian Structural Engineering Conference-Structural engineering for a sustainable future, 30-31 October, 2024, Melbourne.
Rajbhandari, P., Lee, J., Pokharel, T., Amirsardari, A., & Gad, E. (2025). Evaluating the Tensile Behaviour of Post-Installed Fasteners In Steel Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (SFRC). Concrete 2025, 7-10 September, 2025, Adelaide.
Rajbhandari, P., Lee, J., Pokharel, T., Amirsardari, A., & Gad, E. (2025). Development of seismic test setup for fasteners in high-strength concrete. 27th Australasian Conference on Mechanics of Structures and Materials (ACMSM27), 25-28 November, 2025, Melbourne.
The construction industry is beginning to use more innovative concrete products like high-performance concrete, steel fibre reinforced concrete, and low-carbon concrete made with supplementary cementitious materials.
But engineers and architects don’t know whether fasteners for traditional concrete will work the same way for these innovative products.
To find a solution, SmartCrete CRC brought together 6 collaborators led by the Australian Engineered Fasteners and Anchors Council (AEFAC) and Swinburne University with guidance from fastener manufacturers such as Leviat, Hilti, Hobson, Ramset and Wurth.
The 3-year project investigated whether traditional fasteners work in innovative concrete products and delivered updated designs and specifications.
Researchers conducted tests to arrive at designs for fasteners that perform well under normal conditions and earthquake conditions. The results will go towards the revised Australian Standard for fasteners – AS5216.
With standardised design guidelines for fasteners into innovative concrete products, the construction industry will be more easily able to use the new, higher performing concrete products coming onto the market.
Together, these types of concrete and improved fasteners will build stronger and longer-lasting buildings, which are therefore more cost-effective and safer.
Being able to build with less concrete, and with lower carbon concretes, will help the industry decarbonise in time for net zero by 2050.
This helps concrete compete against building materials such as timber and steel, giving the industry and its workforce a future.
While this project does much of the groundwork for establishing technical guidelines for fasteners into innovative concrete, more work needs to be done.
Together with the same partners, Swinburne University and AEFAC are investing in a sister SmartCrete CRC project to provide complementary guidelines on the fire performance of innovative concrete fasteners.
Researchers will conclude both projects by writing technical notes to be published by AEFAC on their website for use by, and feedback from, the sector. AEFAC then plans to pitch this to the Australian Standard in time for the anticipated 2028 review of the fasteners standard.
In this way, the study will produce the first Australian technical guidance for innovative concrete fasteners in normal and earthquake conditions. Engineers and designers will be able to refer to this guidance to work with innovative concrete and their fasteners within 5 years.
