DEVELOPMENT OF ULTRA HIGH PERFORMANCE FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE AND TESTING UNDER DIFFERENT LOADINGS

Abstract

Ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete is a new generation concrete possessing higher strength and performance properties at the same time, is more ecofriendly than the conventional concrete something which is required significantly. However, there are some setbacks to the increased use of the UHPFRC as regular construction material such as high cost, special design procedures etc. In this dissertation work a simplified approach to design the ultra-high performance concrete mix using the locally available materials was made. Though the use of the local materials reduces the performance as compared to the special materials like hard aggregates and high strength fibers, it still performs way better than the conventional concrete and achieves a good strength under different loading conditions. In the ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete development procedure various parameters were investigated such as silica fume, water to binder ratio, aggregates and steel fibers and under test conditions of compressive load, tensile load and workability. The above mentioned parameters were optimized and their effects were studied. Although maximum compressive strength achieved was 158 MPa with the use of hybrid fibers having mixed aspect ratio, long fibers with better aspect ratio yielded maximum flexure and split tensile strength at 53 MPa and 21 MPa respectively. This high strength achieved is far better than the conventional and can be easily developed without any special treatment. In this dissertation, ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete of good strength has been developed and performance of the developed concrete in the durability is yet to be investigated. Further there is a lot of scope to further improvise the ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete developed in this dissertation and to study its behavior and structural investigations