Effect of fibre addition on the static and dynamic compressive properties of ambient-cured geopolymer concrete

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the static and dynamic compressive properties of ambient-cured fibre reinforced geopolymer concrete (FRGPC) containing mono steel, mono polypropylene (PP) or hybrid steel-PP fibres. A Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) was used to carry out dynamic compressive tests under different strain rates up to 130.5 s−1. The effects of fibre addition on static compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, dynamic failure process and damage mode, dynamic compressive strength, specific energy absorption and dynamic increase factor (DIF) were investigated and analysed. The results revealed mono steel fibre as the most effective in improving static compressive and splitting tensile strengths, which increased by 21.92% and 21.05% respectively, compared to plain geopolymer concrete (GPC). The dynamic compressive strength of both plain GPC and FRGPC increased with the increase of strain rate. There is a positive relationship between DIFs of compressive strengths and strain rates for all GPC and FRGPC samples. The samples containing mono PP fibres showed the most strain rate sensitivity with respect to compressive strengths and specific energy absorption within the tested strain rates. Furthermore, empirical formulae are proposed accordingly to predict the DIFs and specific energy absorption of ambient-cured GPC and FRGPC.