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Article in International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development · November 2016
DOI: 10.1080/2093761X.2016.1237396
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Western Sydney University
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To cite this article: Abdelmajeed Altlomate, Faesal Alatshan, Fidelis Mashiri & Mohamed
Jadan (2016) Experimental study of light-transmitting concrete, International Journal
of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development, 7:3-4, 133-139, DOI:
10.1080/2093761X.2016.1237396
Article views: 75
into the building interior through external walls. This paper adds distinctive knowledge to the area architecture; environment;
of sustainable construction by studying the effect of POF on the properties and performance of sustainability
concrete. In addition, the use of POF in concrete can lead to an increase in compressive strength.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
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(e) (f)
Figure 1. Examples of applications of light-transmitting concrete: (a) Abu Dhabi, United Emirates, competed in 2015, 30 mm and 40 mm
thickness, 525 m2, (b) Shanghai, China, completed in 2010, 1887 m2, (c) Izmir, Turkey, completed in 2015, 20 mm thickness, 300 m2, (d)
Berlin, Germany, completed in 2014, 20 mm thickness, 60 m2, (e) Tbilisi, Georgia, completed in 2011, 15 mm thickness, 300 m2, (f) Aachen,
Germany, completed in 2012, 102 m2 [3–5].
energy consumption, LTC can be used for a diverse range In LTC, the optical fibre occupies 2% to 6% of the con-
of applications, including floors, pavements, load-bearing crete’s volume. The distance between the rows of fibres
walls, furniture, facades, interior wall cladding, dividing ranges between 5 mm and 10 mm.
walls, and partition walls. The implementation of LTC in construction has
There are two basic materials that are used to produce increased over the last five years. Figure 1 shows examples
LTC: fine concrete and light-transmitting material. Fine of the application of LTC in different buildings around the
concrete consists of cement, fine aggregate and water, world. One of the buildings that was built using the con-
while many materials such as optical fibre, glass and cept of LTC is the Italian Pavilion at the Shanghai World
plastic fibre can be added to create LTC. Optical fibre Expo 2010 in China. No optic fibres were used in this LTC,
is most commonly used to produce LTC and consists of however; a precast concrete panel protected by adding
three parts: core, cladding and coating. The light travels special plastic resins (polymer-based material) to an inno-
through the glass core centre while the cladding surrounds vative mortar was adopted. A total of 3774 LTC panels
the core and reflects the light into it. The coating works to were used to cover a surface area of 1,887 m² (around 40%
protect the fibre from damage and moisture. of the building’s envelope). Each plate weighs 50 kg and
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING TECHNOLOGY AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 135
is 1 × 0.5 m with a thickness of 5 cm [3,4]. The Al-Aziz used when making and curing the specimens. In addi-
Mosque in Abu Dhabi is another example of a newly con- tion, ordinary Portland cement produced by the Al-Burg
structed building which uses LTC technology. The mosque Cement Plant and complying with the Libyan specifi-
was opened in 2015 and used optical fibres to transmute cation no. 340-2009 was used in the concrete mix. The
the light. LTC panels of dimensions 1.8 × 1.4 × 0.3 m LTC cement was examined for fineness (using a no. 200 sieve)
panels with a total area of 525 m2 were used [5]. The most and the result was 9.3% (<22%), which complies with
important challenge facing this technique is the casting the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
of LTC using a skilled labour force that has the capacity C150. Natural fine aggregate available in the Al-Jufra area
to make use of this technology. was used in this research. The properties of the fine aggre-
gate are summarised in Table 1, while Figure 2 illustrates
the sieve analysis of the sand. A Sika ViscoCrete Tempo
2. Literature review
12 was used to acquire self-compacted concrete, and tap
The concept of LTC was introduced by the young water was used in all concrete mixes.
Hungarian architect Aron Losonzi in 2001. Losonzi
begun working on his project with other scientists while 3.1.1. Optical fibre preparation
he was conducting a postgraduate study in Sweden’s Royal The optical fibres used in this research were prepared
University College of Fine Arts. After returning to his through the stages outlined in this section. Firstly, optical
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hometown, Mr Losonzi had completed his project and fibres of 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.75 mm and 1.5 mm diame-
presented his design in exhibitions across Europe [6,7]. ters were sourced. After this, the fibres were cut into spe-
The spread of this innovative idea reflects wide accept- cific lengths to be used in the concrete cubes. Finally, the
ance among researchers and those interested in the field fibres were inserted by passing them through holes in the
of construction materials. 100-mm cubic wood formwork made specifically for this
There are few previous studies that have addressed the research (Figure 3).
topic of LTC [8–15]. Bashbash et al. [14] examined the
mechanical impact of adding plastic optical fibre (POF) into
3.2. Mix design
concrete. The results show that the compressive strength
of LTC increases when the amount of fibre increases; how- Six concrete mixtures containing different diameters and
ever, the flexural strength decreases as the fibre percentage spaces of POF were prepared. The optical fibres with a dos-
increases. Sawant et al. [12] investigated the compressive age by mass of 0.06%, 0.12%, 0.36%, 1.43% and 1.59% were
behaviour of LTC and found that the compressive strength distributed with specified spacings of 5 mm and 10 mm in
of LTC is lower than the original mix without POF when the concrete. A trial method using the slump test according
percentage of fibre ranges from 0.06% to 1.59%. The results
obtained by Salih et al. [11] show an apparent fluctuation Table 1. Physical and mechanical properties of fine aggregates.
of the compressive and flexure strength depending on the Test Result Standard
fibre diameter and c uring duration. Overall, the mechani- Specific gravity 2.700 BS 812 Part2:1995
Compacted unit weight (kg/m3) 1.034 ASTM C29
cal properties of concrete are not significantly affected after Voids ratio (%) 18.800 ASTM C29
adding POF to produce LTC. Fineness modulus (FM) 3.050 ASTM C125
Another study conducted by Momin et al. [13] aimed Nominal maximum size of aggregate (mm) 2.360 ASTM C125
Clay lumps and friable particles in 20.000 ASTM C142
to compare the behaviour of LTC using glass rods and aggregate (%)
optical fibres. The light transmittance of optical fibre LTC
was clearly greater than that of glass LTC for the speci-
mens used in that research. To the authors’ knowledge, 100
to date no study has investigated the behaviour of LTC (%)
Perent of Passing (%)
20
3. Materials and method
0
3.1. Materials 0.01 0.1 1 10
Sieve Size (mm)
The LTC produced for this study consists of cement, water,
sand and specific quantities of optical fibre. Tap water was Figure 2. Particle-size distribution curves of sand.
136 A. ALTLOMATE ET AL.
Table 3. The physical and mechanical properties of POF. maximum compressive strength of the LTC is 34.16 N/
Diameter mm2, which occurs with a POF of 1.43% (D1.5-S1) and
Test 0.3 mm 0.5 mm 0.75 mm 1.5 mm
is higher than the 26.52 N/mm2 of concrete with 0.00%
Tensile strength (MPa) 20.00 23.00 25.00 30.00 POF. For a POF content of 1.43% and 1.59% both the
Modulus of elasticity 9.25 10.20 13.60 15.02 7-day and 28-day compressive strengths are greater than
(GPa)
Water absorption after 0.001%
the 0.00% mix. However, the results also show that despite
24 h the increase in POF percentage from 1.43% to 1.59%, the
1.59% mix has a lower 28-day compressive strength than
the 1.43% mix. This might be due to the fact that smaller
5.3. Compressive strength spacing arrangements of POF result in weaker cubes due
The compressive strength of concrete is one of the most to the smaller interconnecting distances when macro
significant and useful properties for the design of con- cracks propagate under a compressive load. This phenom-
crete structures. For instance, as a construction material, enon will be investigated in future research. These results
concrete is employed to resist compressive stresses. At confirm that the POF has a significant impact on the
locations where tensile strength or shear strength is of compression strength of concrete and presents a favour-
primary importance, the compressive strength is used to able sustainable outcome for enhancing the compressive
estimate the required property. strength of concrete structures.
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Speed (km/s)
28
3.00
40 W lamp
21
2.00
LDR
mA
14
1.00
7
0.00
100
C1.5-1 C0.75-1 C0.75-0.5 C0.5-1 C0.3-1 C0-0
10 V
Specimen
Concrete
80
be 26.52 N/mm2, and adding POF to the concrete has [5] www.Lucem.de, in, LUCEM LICHBETON Germany,
a variable impact on the compressive strength, with the 2015.
greatest improvement (34.16 N/mm2) accomplished with [6] M.B. Bureau, Light transmitting concrete panels–a new
innovation in concrete technology. Master Bldr (2013),
POF concrete with using fibres of 1.5 mm diameter spaced http://www.lucem.de/fileadmin/templates/Galerien/
10 mm apart for a percentage of 1.43% of fibres. Based Presse/masterbuilder/masterbuilder.pdf
on the results of the UPV test in the concrete samples, it [7] R. Bajpai, Application of transparent concrete in
is clear that the compressive strength of the specimens construction world, i-Manager’s. J Civ Eng 4 (2013), pp.
increased with time. The maximum amount of light pass- 13–18.
[8] J. He, Z. Zhou, and J. Ou, M. Huang, Study on smart
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transparent concrete product and its performances, in:
mm diameter spaces 10 mm apart for a percentage of Proc., 6th Int. Workshop on Advanced Smart Materials
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parency of light is possible in concrete without affecting its of Centers for Research in Smart Structure Technology
compressive strength, as the fibres and fibre reinforcement (ANCRISST), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin,
enhance the strength and appearance. China, 2011.
[9] P. SiddarthaReddy and D. Neeraja, Light Transmitting
Concrete Using Plastic Optical Fibers, Int J Appl Eng Res 8
ORCID (2013), pp. 2507–2520.
[10] J. Sunil, K. Amol, K. Chetan, and T. Pravin, A Study on
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Abdelmajeed Altlomate http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6358- Translucent Concrete Product and Its Properties by Using
941X Optical Fibers, Int J Mod Eng Res (IJMER) 5 (2015), pp.
Faesal Alatshan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4232-7525 53–57.
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