The Influence of Polypropylene Fiber on the Performance of Concrete Pavement

Abstract

This paper presents the influence of the appropriate polypropylene fibers on the performance of cement concrete pavement. The experimental results show that the fibers can obviously reduce cracks and improve the mechanical performance and durability of concrete. When the content of polypropylene fiber is 0.8 kg/m3, the time of the first crack appearance is 45min and 2h 17min later than that of the concrete samples with 0.4 kg/m3 polypropylene fiber and plain concrete. Comparing with the concrete samples with 0.4 kg/m3 polypropylene fiber and plain concrete, the indexes of average crack area, numbers of cracks per area, and total crack area per area of concrete with 0.8 kg/m3 polypropylene fiber reduce 16.2%, 33.0%, 44.3% and 26.9%, 48.1%, 62.2% respectively. Comparing with plain concrete, the 7d and 28d compressive strength of concrete with 0.4 kg/m3 and 0.8 kg/m3 polypropylene fiber enhances 3%, 4% and 4%, 2%, the 90d tensile splitting strength enhances 7% and 10%, and the impact resistance performance of concrete enhances 130% and 250% respectively.