Abstract
In hydraulic structures, abrasion resistance can be a significant driver in concrete specification. Basalt micro-fibres represent a potentially sustainable construction product and have been shown to provide various benefits in concrete, however the implications for hydrodynamic abrasion resistance are to date unclear. This paper is the first investigation of its kind to examine the abrasion resistance of basalt fibre-reinforced (BFR) concretes using the ASTM C1138 underwater test method. Towards this, concretes incorporating fibre dosages of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 3 kg/m3 were tested. The relationships between concrete abrasion and its fundamental mechanical properties are evaluated. For the particular concretes examined, it is found that based on the Shapiro-Wilks tests at 95% confidence, abrasion loss in BFR concretes followed a normal distribution; the use of basalt fibre in contents of up to 3 kg/m3 did not have a significant effect on abrasion resistance, compressive and tensile splitting strengths, as well as modulus of elasticity. It can be concluded that basalt micro-fibre can be used for their other attributes such as controlling bleeding, shrinkage and plastic cracking in concrete hydraulic structures without deleterious effects on abrasion resistance. The regression models proposed to predict concrete abrasion loss from its mechanical properties were found to be only significant at 48 h for compressive strength and 24 h for both tensile splitting strength and modulus of elasticity.
Highlights
Concrete is an important material in the construction of hydraulic structures
The ASTM C1138 results in Table 4 are in agreement with those of Kabay [17] for concrete mixtures with w/c of 0.45 evaluated using the Bohme test where negligible reductions in mean abrasion loss of 1.8%–4.4% were found for both 12–24 mm fibre lengths regardless of the Basalt fibres (BF) amount added
These suggested improvements in concrete abrasion resistance due to BF addition were subsumed in the CV values that varied from 4.6% to 10.7% which indicates the insignificance of the reported abrasion resistance improvements
Summary
Concrete is an important material in the construction of hydraulic structures. In recent years, the use of steel, glass, polymer fibres, etc. to reinforce cement-based composites has increased considerably. The use of steel, glass, polymer fibres, etc. The choice of an appropriate fibre type for concrete depends on the properties to be influenced. Macro-fibres which have typical diameters from 0.3 to 1.0 mm, and length in the range of 12–65 mm have been shown to improve the post-cracking ductility of concrete, in the case of steel macro-fibres. Investigations on the influence of steel macro-fibres on the abrasion resistance of concrete [1,2,3,4] have yielded inconsistent results. Horszczaruk [3] found improvements of up to 19% when using steel fibres with aspect ratios of over 50.
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