Mechanical Properties of Concrete Made with Electric Wires, Steel Fibers, Basalt Fibers and Polypropylene Fibers

Abstract

An experimental program is conducted in this research to investigate the mechanical properties of concrete made with electric wires, steel fibers, basalt fibers, and polypropylene fibers. Fibers are added to the concrete mix in three different percentages (48, 32 and 16 kg/m3 for steel and wire fibers) and (2, 4 and 8 kg/m3 for basalt and polypropylene fibers). Fifty two concrete cylinders are tested under compression and splitting tensile strength tests to investigate the compressive and tensile behaviors of the fibrous concrete. Test results have shown that steel fiber is superior over the other types of fibers in increasing the compressive and tensile strengths of concrete. The addition of 48 kg/m3 steel fiber has increased the compressive strength of concrete up to 9% and has duplicated its tensile strength compared to the control specimen. The addition of 2 kg/ m3 polypropylene fibers has increased the compressive and tensile strengths of concrete up to 8.6% and 10.3% respectively. Increasing the percentage of polypropylene fibers to 8 kg/m3 has resulted in increasing the tensile strength of concrete up to 22.8% while it has reduced its compressive strength by 9.6% compared to the control specimen. The addition of basalt fibers and wire fibers has resulted in decreasing the compressive and tensile strengths of concrete. The maximum reduction in concrete compressive strength is measured with 48 kg/m3 wire fibers where concrete compressive strength is reduced by 32.6%. The lowest tensile strength is measured with 8 kg/m3 basalt fibers where the tensile strength is reduced by 27.7%.