A study on the mechanical properties and flexural behaviour of standard grade glass fibre reinforced self compacting concrete

Abstract

Self compacting concrete(SCC) is a recently developed concept in which the ingredients of the concrete mix are proportioned in such a way that it can flow under its own weight to completely fill the formwork and passes through the congested reinforcement without segregation and self consolidate without any mechanical vibration. When the benefits of SCC are added to those resulting from the addition of discrete glass fibres, develops a high performance material designated as Glass Fibre Reinforced Self Compacting Concrete (GFRSCC). In this investigation anti-crack high dispersion glass fibres were added to five SCC mixes of strength 30MPa and Glass Fibre Reinforced Self Compacting Concrete was developed. An attempt has been made to study properties and behaviour of SCC and GFRSCC in both fresh and hardened states. A considerable improvement in the flexural strengths was observed due to the addition of glass fibres to SCC mixes. An improvement in the Ultimate load and ultimate moment capacity was also observed by testing under reinforced SCC and GFRSCC beams in flexure. The paper also compares the structural behaviour such as load-deflection characteristics, crack widths and deflections at service loads for both SCC and GfRSCC beams. First crack load and post cracking behaviour were found to have improved due to the addition of glass fibres. Keywords: Self compacting concrete, fibres, Glass fibre, fiber reinforced SCC, admixtures.