BEHAVIOUR OF POLYPROPYLENE FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENTS

Abstract

Reinforcing the concrete structure with fibers such as polypropylene (PP) is one of the possible ways to increase the durability of the structure. There is an increasing world wide interest in utilizing PP fiber reinforced concrete structures for civil engineering applications. The PP fiber found to be ideal durable material having low shrinkage, good thermal expansion, substantial modulus of elasticity, high tensile strength improved fatigue and impact resistance. Concrete pavements are recently, receiving increasing attention of engineers due to easy availability of cement and its mass production. Also there is growing interest in rigid pavements due to its high strength, durability, better serviceability and over all economy in longrun. With the advent of high performance material the, emphasis is on thinner pavement sections of better quality. In the present study an attempt is made to determine the strength properties of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete (PFRC). The PFRC mix is made of hydraulic cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and discontinuous, unconnected, randomly distributed PP fibers. In this study, the compressive strength and flexural strength for plain cement concrete (PCC) mix as well as PFRC for different parentages of PP fibers. It is found that the maximum increase in compressive strength and flexural strength is for fibers with 0.2%. This study is carried out by finding the concrete properties by laying the pavement and then carrying out semi-full scale field studies on it. This study shows that in view of the adequate workability, higher values of compressive strength (11.2%), flexural strength (30.45%) and modulus of elasticity (32%), coupled with low deflections, low strains and higher load carrying capacity of PFRC in comparison to PCC makes PFRC an ideal construction material for pavements.