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PREFACE
Concrete is the most widely used construction material. It is difficult to point out another
material of construction which is as versatile as concrete. It is the material of choice
where strength, performance, durability, impermeability, fire resistance and abrasion
resistance are required. It is so closely associated with every construction activity that it
touches every human being in his day to day living.
The useful physical properties and relatively low cost make cement based materials most
widely used of civil engineering materials. However these materials have a number of
drawbacks. To overcome these draw backs, a large number of mineral admixtures which
are available in market are being beneficially used in making quality concrete.
The durability of concrete which is reinforced with conventional rebar is a major concern
in aggressive environments. Many efforts are being made in recent investigations to
develop alternatives to conventional rebar. Fibre reinforced concrete by using various
types of fibreshave shown better results because of their inherent ability to stop or delay
crack propagation.
The continuous research in the field of concrete technology to improve the properties of
concrete has resulted in many new types of concrete and one among them is “Self
Compacting Concrete”. Self compacting concrete or SCC is an engineered concrete with
a high performance in flow-abilityand passing ability. This special fresh property enables
SCC can be placed using its self weight withminimum compaction or even without
compaction. Since its first application in Japan’s constructionindustry in the end of
eighties, SCC has been applied worldwide because of its advancement to overcomethe
problem in heavily reinforcement, to reduce workmanship cost and to shorten the period
ofconstruction. In the beginning of 2000’s some researchers and companies develop the
SCC technology with fibreaddition into concrete to get benefit on hardened concrete
property.
In the present work, the effect of volume percentage of waste plastic fibres on
workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of SCC are
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evaluated. The various percentage of fibre used are ranging from 0.0% to 1.4%. The
effect of waste plastic fibres on durability characteristics is also determined.
From the laboratory test results, the optimum dosage of waste plastic fibres of aspect
ratio 50 of SCC is found to be 1% for compressive, split tensile and flexure strength. It
is 1.2% for impact strength. Detailed and useful conclusions have been drawn on usage of
SCC with waste plastic fibres.