PERFORMANCE OF SIFCON IN SHEAR AND IMPACT

Abstract

SIFCON (Slurry Infiltrated fibrous Concrete) is one of the recently developed materials and may be considered as a special type of fibre concrete with high percentage of fibre content (5 to 20%). It may also be considered as preplaced fibre concrete through which the cement slurry or flowing mortar is infiltrated. At present very little is known about its behaviour. However, this material has exhibited a remarkabi improved performance under various mode of loading (viz compression, tension, flexure, shear and impact) over that of SFRC. Beside this it has an excellent potential for application in various structures, specially in the areas where ductility is required. The main aim of this investigation was to study the performance of SIFCON in shear and impact. 48 specimens were cast for testing in shear and impact mode. The size of specimens were 30 x 30 x 300 mm and 25 x 25 x 105 mm with fibre content varying from 6 to 10. For each volume fraction the aspect ratios 60,75,90 and 100 were used.. In order to compare the improvement in performance, the specimens of plain mortar as well as SFRC were also cast The experimental results showed an increase of 400% to 750% in the shear strength over plain mortar and 150%41? - 325% over that of SFRC, for fibres of aspect ratio 60 and 90 respectively. However, for the aspect ratio 100, only marginal change was observed. The experimental results for impact strength also showed a sharp increase in the impact strength with an increase in the percentage of fibres and aspect ratios. This study has widened the scope of the possible structural applications of this material in future.