Behaviour of sfrc with varying composite mixes and percentages of fibres

Concrete is one of the most common versatile building materials. It can be cast in any structural shape from a cylindrical water storage tank to a rectangular beam or column in a high-rise building, and also used as pre-stressed and post-stressed concrete. It is readily available in urban areas at relatively low cost. Concrete is strong under compression yet weak under tension. To counter the weakness in tension, a form of reinforcement is required. The most common type of concrete reinforcement is via steel bars. The concept of using fibres to improve the characteristics of matrix is as old and well established as adding straw or horsehair to mud bricks. The principal role of fibers is to bridge pre-cracks and resist their formation. The advantage of adding fibers into a matrix include enhancement of compressive strength, tensile strength, fatigue strength, flexural toughness, shear strength, durability, resistance to impact and minimize thermal cracks etc. Present study is to ascertain the behaviour of steel fiber reinforced concrete with varying composite mixes and percentages of fibers. The experiments were conducted on concrete mixes of M20, M25 and M30 grades. Straight fibers of length 28 mm and diameter of 0.28 mm with aspect ratio of 100 was used. Every grade of mix was further reinforced with different percentage of above mentioned fibers i.e. 0%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% by volume. A total of 36 cubes of standard size 150 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm and 36 cylinders of 150 mm diameter and of 300 mm high.