CONTENT

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION NEEDS FOR THIS STUDY

MATERIALS USED
STUDY METHODOLOGY RESULTS

CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT
The experimental work showed in this thesis was carried out a comparative study of steel and polypropylene fibers used in concrete. This composite material, which causes unique qualities of strength, can partly add into the conventional reinforced cement concrete which is popular and widely used building construction or in the application. The types of fibers, steel fibers and polypropylene fibers, which is collected from the construction sites and the company walia conschem which is the company distributing fibers in India respectively.

>>

Concrete specimens were cast with and without fibers and will test under compression and split tension as per relevant Indian standard specification.
M20 grade of concrete was designed using IS method of mix design. Fiber contents used were 0.5% by weight of concrete for 1mm thickness steel fiber and 0.5% by weight of concrete for 50mm length polypropylene fibers. Water cement ratio has been adopted 0.47 The length of the fibers used are varied from 40mm to 50mm. The test will be conducted at the end of 7 days, 14 days and 28 days of curing.

>>

INTRODUCTION
GENERAL
Fiber reinforced concrete is relatively new composite material in which steel or other fibers are introduced. So increase the fracture resistance of cementitious material. The concept of fiber reinforcement is as old as the use of brittle materials as clay, bricks or concrete.
It was with the introduction of steel reinforcement bars however that concrete came to be the dominating construction material during the industrial revolution.

>>

The modern use of fiber reinforced concrete started in the 1960s using straight, smooth and discontinuous steel fibers.

although the concept of reinforcing the concrete materials with steel reinforcement is old, the recent interest is reinforcing concrete with fibers. In this composite material, short discrete fibers are randomly distributed throughout the concrete mass.
The strength behavior of this composite material is far better than to that of plain concrete, due to this advantage the use of fibers in concrete has steadily increased in recent days.

>>

The current field of application of steel and polypropylene fibers in concrete includes airport & highway pavements, earth quake resistant structures, mine and tunnel linings, bridge deck overlays, hydraulic structures etc.
Fibers are the dominating materials, but there have many types of fibers such as glass fibers, steel fibers, synthetic fibers and natural fibers.

>>

NEED FOR THIS STUDY

Now a days construction field has reached one of the peak industries in the world. In India fiber reinforcement in concrete is more popular than steel construction because of various advantages in it. The cost of standard steel fibers are very much high than these fibers.

TYPES OF FIBER
Glass fibers Steel fibers

Synthetic fibers
Natural fibers

GLASS FIBERS
Glass fibers are made up from 200 to 400 individual filaments which are lightly bonded to make up a strand. These stands can be chopped into various lengths or combined to make cloth, mat or tape. Using the conventional mixing technique for normal concrete, it is not possible to mix more than about two percent of fibers of up to a length of 25mm.

STEEL FIBERS
Steel fibers is most commonly used fibers. Steel fibers are generally 12.7 to 63.5mm long, and 0.45 to 1.0mm in diameter. The usual amount of steel fibers range from 0.25% to 2% by volume. The benefits of steel fibers include up to 150% increase in flexural strength, reduced potential for cracking during concrete shrinkage, and increase fatigue strength. It is likely to get rusted a lose some of its strengths, but it takes place only at surface.

SYNTHETIC FIBERS
Synthetic fibers are manufactured from materials such as acrylic, aramid, carbon, nylon, polyester, polyethylene, or polypropylene. The use of synthetic fibers has been increasing at a steady rate in the past couple of decades.

The most commonly used synthetic fibers in concrete pavements are made of fibrillated polypropylene.
They are normally used in concrete at a rate of at least 0.1% by volume.

NATURAL FIBERS
The commonly used natural fibers are jute, coir and bamboo. They possess good tensile strength in their natural dry state.

MATERIALS USED
Steel fibers
Polypropylene fibers Coarse aggregate

Fine aggregation
Binding material

STEEL FIBERS
Steel fibers have been used in concrete since the early 1900s The early fibers were round and smooth and the wire was cut or chopped to a required length. The use of straight, smooth fibers has largely disappeared and modern fibers have either rough surfaces, hooked hence or crimped or undulated through their length. Modern commercially available steel fiber are manufactured from drawn steel wire, from slit sheet or by melt extraction process with producers fibers that have a crescent shaped us.

Dimensions of steel fiber

Diameter = 1mm

Length = 40mm to 50mm

Characteristic strength of steel fiber

Tensile strength = 0.5 GPa to 2 GPa

Modulus of elasticity = 200 GPa

Relative density = 7.84

Application of steel fiber in concrete

0.5 % by weight of concrete
Adding randomly to the concrete mass

Factors affecting properties of FRC

Volume of fiber : increase in volume of fibers increases approximately linearly the tensile strength and toughness of the composite. It should be less than 1 % by volume for steel

>>

Aspect ratio : It should ranges from 30 to 150 Workability and compaction of concrete : It can be done by increase w/c ration or by use some kind of water reducing admixtures. Orientation of fibers : Parallel alignment will give more tensile strength and toughness than random alignment.

POLYPROPYLENE FIBERS
Polypropylene fiber was first used to reinforce concrete in the 1960s. Polypropylene polymer. is a synthetic hydro carbon

Dimensions of polypropylene fiber

Diameter = 0.2mm to 2mm

Length = 40mm to 50mm

Characteristic strength polypropylene fiber

Modulus of elasticity = 5 GPa 10 GPa

Tensile strength = 0.3 GPa to 0.4 GPa

Relative density = 0.91

Application of polypropylene fiber in concrete

0.5 % by weight of concrete Adding randomly to the concrete mass

STUDY METHODOLOGY
GENERAL
The mix design for M20 grade concrete is done by using IS method. The compressive strength strength is finding out. and split tensile

MATERIALS USED
Ordinary Portland cement of 53 grade Fine aggregate Coarse aggregate Fibers

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

Cement
Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) 53 grade, Zuari Cement Initial setting time = 30 minutes Final setting time = 10 hours

Specific gravity

= 3.06

Fine aggregate
Locally available river sand.
Specific gravity = 2.6

Water absorption = 1.0 %

Coarse aggregate
Crushed granite coarse aggregate of maximum size 20 mm Specific gravity = 2.7

Water absorption = 0.5 %

>>

Water
Water available in the college campus conforming to the requirements of water for concreting and curing as per BIS 456-2000 is used for casting specimens.

Steel fiber
Collected from construction sites in college Diameter = 1mm

Length

= 40mm to 50mm

Tensile strength = 0.5 GPa to 2 GPa Modulus of elasticity = 200 GPa

Relative density = 7.84

Polypropylene fiber
Collected from walia conschem Pvt. Ltd Delhi Diameter = 0.2 to 2mm

Length

= 40mm to 50mm

Tensile strength = 0.3 GPa to 0.4 GPa Modulus of elasticity = 5 GPa to 10 GPa

Relative density = 0.91

MIX DESIGN
Mix design can be defined as the process of selecting suitable ingredients of concrete and determine their relative proportions with the object of producing concrete of certain minimum strength and durability as economically as possible.

The first object is to achieve the stipulated minimum strength and durability.
The second object is to make the concrete in the most economical manner.

Weight of material in kg/m3 for one specimen

Specimen

Cement
2.31 Kg

Fine aggregate
3.47 Kg

Coarse aggregate
6.44 Kg

Water
1085.7 ml

Cylinder

Cube

1.473 Kg

2.21 Kg

4.42 Kg

692.3 ml

Preparation of test specimens

Cement, sand and coarse aggregate were mixed in dry state and then fibers were added in small quantities and mixed further. The required quantity water was added and mixed thoroughly. Before casting, machine oil was smeared on the inner surfaces of the cast iron mould. Concrete was poured into finished by means of a trowel. The specimens were removed from the mould after 24 hours.

>>

And then cured under water for a period of 7, 14, 28 days. The specimens were taken out from the curing tank just prior to the test. The test for compressive and tensile were conducted using compression testing machine. These tests were conducted as per relevant IS code specifications. The specimens used for the tests include cubes, cylinders.

Details of test specimens

Sl. No.

Type of test

Type of specimen

Dimension in mm 150 x 150 x 150

Compression test Split tensile test

cubes

cylinders

150 dia x 300 ht

Test Results
Compressive strength of cube after 7 days curing
Sample No Loaded Area (mm2) Ultimate Crushing Load (kN) Compressive Strength (N/mm2) Average Compressive Strength (N/mm2)

Sl.No

Description

Normal concrete

1 2 3

150x150

540 520 550

24.0 23.11 24.44

23.85

Steel fiber concrete Polypropylen e fiber concrete

1 2 3
1 2 3

150x150

680 670 650

290 310 330

30.22 29.78 28.89

12.88 13.78 14.66

29.63

150 x 150

13.77

Compressive strength of cylinder after 7 days curing

Loaded Area (mm2) Ultimate Crushing Load (kN) Compressive Strength (N/mm2) Average Compressive Strength (N/mm2)

Sl.No

Description

Sample No

Normal concrete

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

141371.66 9

280 330 380 360 450 480 170 230 280

15.84 18.67 31.50 20.37 25.46 27.16 9.62 13.02 15.84

18.67

Steel fiber concrete

141371.66 9

24.33

Polypropylene fiber concrete

141371.66 9

12.83

Split tensile strength of cylinder after 7 days curing.

Split tensile Strength (N/mm2) Average split tensile Strength (N/mm2)

Sl.No

Description

Sample No

Loaded Area (mm2)

Ultimate Crushing Load (kN)

Normal concrete

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

141371.669

230 240 270 220 270 330 180 190 240

1.63 1.70 1.91 1.56 1.91 2.33 1.27 1.34 1.70

1.75

Steel fiber concrete

141371.669

1.93

Polypropylene fiber concrete

141371.669

1.43

RESULT
Compression strength of cube after curing of 7 days
Normal specimen Steel fiber reinforced specimen Polypropylene fiber reinforced specimen 23.85 N/mm2 29.63 N/mm2 13.77 N/mm2

Split tensile strength of cylinder after curing of 7 days Normal specimen Steel fiber reinforced specimen 1.75 N/mm2 1.93 N/mm2

Polypropylene fiber reinforced specimen

1.43 N/mm2

Compressive strength in N/mm2

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 7 14 Number of days of curing 28 specimen used with steel fiber specimen used with polypropylene fiber control specimen

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH ON CUBE

Split tensile strength in N/mm2

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 7 14 28 Number of days of curing control specimen specimen used with steel fiber specimen used with polypropylene fiber

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF TENSILE STRENGTH ON CYLINDER

CONCLUSION
From the experimental data and discussions we can conclude that steel fiber reinforced specimen holds good for strength. Compared with control, steel fiber reinforced specimen withstand more load during compression. In the polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete did not spall even after failure of the specimen. This is the main advantage in polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete.

BIBLIOGRTAPHY
Rogers , 1982 , pp 3-10, Marine Corrosion.
M.S.Shetty ,2002,PP 270 -280 Concrete Technology. Ezeldin,A.S.andBalaguru,P.N Sep-Oct 1989, . pp 515-524. Vol. 86, No. 5, ACI Materials Journal.
www.cement.ca www.nrcresearcers.com www.natalportlandcementfrc.com www. Waliafibers.com