Strength and Durability Studies on Steel Fiber Reinforced Ternary Blended Concrete Containing Nano Silica and Zeolite

Abstract

An experimental study conducted to evaluate the hardened and durability characteristics of ternary blended concrete containing Nano-Silica and Zeolite along with steel fibers to act as micro- reinforcement has been presented in this paper. Nano-Silica and Zeolite were included in different dosages and the optimum combination of the above two materials (Nano-Silica -1% and Zeolite- 10%) has been obtained through trails from the viewpoint of workability and strength. Steel fibers have been added in varying volume fractions of 0.5%, 1.0% & 1.5%. Tests have been performed on cubes, cylinders, and prism specimens to evaluate the impact of steel fibers on various hardened and durability parameters of the ternary blended concrete. The test results clearly exhibit that inclusion of steel fibers significantly influences the material characteristics of the ternary blended concrete which includes compressive strength, indirect tensile strength, flexural strength, elasticity modulus, water absorption, Sorptivity and porosity. Nano silica and zeolite supplied the voids in the micron size of cement particle and formed a denser concrete which enhanced the improvement of the concrete. Based on the results obtained, the optimum compressive, splitting tensile, flexural strengths and modulus of elasticity of ternary blended concrete with micro reinforcement were obtained by 24.95%, 21.16%, 23.56% and 13.72%, respectively. The results suggested that cementitious materials, including ternary blended concrete with micro reinforcement, were the most influential factors on the mechanical properties.