A Study on Behavior of Chopped Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete

The growth of Self Compacting Concrete is revolutionary landmark in the history of construction industry resulting in predominant usage of SCC worldwide nowadays. It has many advantages over normal concrete in terms of enhancement in productivity, reduction in labor and overall cost, excellent finished product with excellent mechanical response and durability. Incorporation of fibers further enhances its properties specially related to post crack behavior of SCC. Hence the aim of the present work is to make a comparative study of mechanical properties of self-consolidating concrete, reinforced with different types of fibers. The variables involve in the study are type and different percentage of fibers. The basic properties of fresh SCC and mechanical properties, toughness, fracture energy and sorptivity were studied. Microstructure study of various mixes is done through scanning electron microscope to study the hydrated structure and bond development between fiber and mix.

The fibers used in the study are 12 mm long chopped glass fiber, carbon fiber and basalt fiber. The volume fraction of fiber taken are 0.0%,0.1%,0.15%,0.2%,0.25% ,0.3%. The project comprised of two stages. First stage consisted of development of SCC mix design of M30 grade and in the second stage, different fibers like Glass, basalt and carbon Fibers are added to the SCC mixes and their fresh and hardened properties were determined and compared.

The study showed remarkable improvements in all properties of self-compacting concrete by adding fibers of different types and volume fractions. Carbon FRSCC exhibited best performance followed by basalt FRSCC and glass FRSCC in hardened state whereas poorest in fresh state owing to its high water absorption. Glass FRSCC exhibited best performance in fresh state. The present study concludes that in terms of overall performances, optimum dosage and cost Basalt Fiber is the best option in improving overall quality of self-compacting concrete.