Effects of polypropylene fibre on the compressive and splitting tensile strength of concrete

Abstract

Concrete is a versatile construction material comprising of cement, aggregates, water and occasionally admixture. It is very good in compression and weak in tension. To complement for the deficiency in the tensile zone; cracks, reinforcements (steel, fibre, etc.) have been found suitable. A good example of fibre is polypropylene. A concrete grade (M20) was batched and synthetic fibre (polypropylene) was used. Two categories of concrete specimens; with and without propylene fibre. The fibre was introduced in varying percentages (0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6%) by weight of concrete. The compressive strength of concrete containing 0.4% polypropylene fibre at 28 days has the highest value of 32.22N/mm2 as compared to 30.22N/mm2, 30.49N/mm2 and 30.39N/mm2 for 0%, 0.2%, and 0.6% respectively. The splitting tensile strength at 7 days increases from 6.176 N/mm2 to 8.386 N/mm2 as the percentage of fibre increases from 0% to 0.4%.