Effect of polypropylene fiber on durability of concrete composite containing fly ash and silica fume

Abstract

A parametric experimental study has been conducted to investigate the effect of polypropylene fiber on the workability and durability of the concrete composite containing fly ash and silica fume. Four different fiber volume fractions (0.06%, 0.08%, 0.1% and 0.12%) were used. The results indicate that the addition of polypropylene fiber has a little adverse effect on the workability of concrete composite containing fly ash and silica fume. With the increase of fiber volume fraction, both of the slump and slump flow are decreasing gradually. However, the addition of polypropylene fiber has greatly improved the durability of the concrete composite containing fly ash and silica fume. The length of water permeability, the dry shrinkage strain and the carbonation depth of concrete containing fly ash and silica fume are decreasing gradually with the increase of fiber volume fraction as the fiber volume fraction is below 0.12%. Besides, freeze–thaw resistance of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete containing fly ash and silica fume was found to slightly increase when compared to the concrete composite without fibers. Moreover, there is a tendency of increase in the freeze–thaw resistance with the increase of fiber volume fraction as the fiber volume fraction is below 0.08%. However, the freeze–thaw resistance begins to decrease slightly after the fiber volume fraction beyond 0.08%.