Fundamental understanding of the mechanical and post- cracking behaviour of ultra-high performance mortar with recycled steel fibers

•Ultra high performance self compacting mortar was developed and characterized using recycled steel fiber.•A relation between amount of recycled fiber and followability was obtained.•Addition of 1%, 2% and 3% of recycled fiber resulted in increasing 8%, 14% and 21% of flexural strength.•A linear trend between dosage of fiber and two residual flexural strengths in the service limit state and ultimate limit state was obtained.•A new model was proposed for predicting width of cracks and vertical deflections.•Numerical simulations were proposed to understand fracture mechanism of developed mortars.