Study of Strength of Concrete by Using Glass and Steel Fibers

Abstract

Concrete is the most widely utilized "man-made" material globally for construction in many developing countries in all types of civil engineering works.  In addition, concrete is an environmental - friendly material and in areas of growing environment - related awareness that is of prime importance. It is construction material due to its many advantages such as high compressive strength, availability of ingredients at reasonable cost, mould-ability to any shape giving aesthetic appearance and resistance to fire and weathering.  Concrete is a material used in civil engineering constructions, consisting of a hard, chemically inert particulate substance, known as an aggregate (usually made from different types of sand and stone), that is bonded together by cement and water..  In this experimental investigation, cement used is Portland Pozzolanic Cement (RAASI GOLD’ 53 grade). Concrete is weak in tension and strong in compression. The low tensile strength is due to the propagation of internal micro cracks present even before loading. So, concrete exhibits little fracture. Hence, steel fibers are used to overcome the above disadvantage. The concept of fiber reinforcement is an old as the use of brittle materials as clay, bricks or concrete. The modern use of fiber reinforced concrete started in the 1960s and is used in different areas after investigating different properties of fiber. Steel fibers are the dominating material, but there are many others, such as polymeric fibers, mineral fibers and naturally occurring fibers. In this experimental investigation, fibers of Perma-Fil E Glass Fibers and Cold Drawn Carbon Wire Steel Fibers are used.

Fiber reinforced concrete is a composite material primarily a combination of conventional concrete or mortar reinforced by oriented, short, continuous and discrete fibers of specific geometry. The fiber is a piece of reinforcing material usually described by aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is the ratio of length to diameter of fiber. The quantity of fiber is specified by volume fraction. These fibers act as crack arrestors, thereby increasing first crack strength and ultimate strength. This chapter tries bringing some basic information on the subject and the objective of the study is reported.