Experimental Study on Translucent Concrete

Abstract

Abstract: Light-transmitting concrete, known also as translucent concrete, is literally the brightest concrete development in recent years. Strands of optical fibers are cast by the thousands into concrete to transmit light, either natural or artificial, into all spaces surrounding the resulting translucent panels. The material can be used in a variety of architectural and interior design applications, such as wall cladding and dividers. The main theme of this paper is use of optical fibers in concrete, which is energy saving and green technology. It lends great energy savings in closed and non-ventilated spaces. Due to small size of the fibers, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate. By using plastic optical fibers in concrete specimens, light transmission occurs through optical fibers, which make it possible to see light, shades and even colors through very thick walls. The work presented in this paper reports an investigation on the behavior of concrete and mortar with optical fiber. Concrete and mortar cube are casted with fibers to study the properties and to compare with optical fiber. The light transmission of concrete samples made with different fiber amount varies from 2% to 4% and with thickness 0.25mm to 0.75mm were studied. The light transmission is seen to increase with the increase in fiber content and increase in the diameter. Keywords: Optical fibre, Light transmitting concrete, Translucent concrete.