ABSTRACT

Pellucid concrete with light transmitting properties, is a concrete which is obtained by using
plastic optical fibre in it. Depending on the fibre diameter and percentage used, the light is
transmitted through the fibre from one end to another end which results into a lighting pattern
on the other surface . The light which is transmitted by plastic optical fibres is, so effectively
that there is nearly zero percent loss of light. The structures visibility appearance increases by
using of pellucid concrete but there is a little increase in the cost of structure.
In this study the optical fibre having diameter 0.2 mm and 0.5mm is used. The amount of
optical fibre used is 1%, 2%,3%, and 4% by weight of cement. Experiments which shows the
behaviour of pellucid concrete to check its properties i.e. compressive strength, flexural
strength, light transmission workability & compression test, flexure test, slump and light
transmission test. While performing experiments fibre were placed parallel as well as
perpendicular to the load applied, so as to check the compressive strength in both forms.
Compressive strength increased continuously in parallel loading with major strength change
on addition of 1% plastic optical fibre, while in perpendicular loading after 1% of use the
optical fibre is decreased. The flexural strength also increased continuously but major
changes was seen on addition of 1% plastic optical fibre
To check light transmission through pellucid blocks, light transmission test was
carried with the help of Lux meter. Cost analysis has also been done in this study, to check
whether cost of pellucid concrete increases or decreases.

INTRODUCTION

Civil engineering has achieved advancement in the field of construction, few people were
having misconception about civil engineering as a branch of science which deals with
civilization. But, when the time passes the construction of engineering structures, like
underground roads, bridge, elevated road, landmark buildings, skyscrapers and many other
building structure have taken place. While considering economic growth, in this time there is
an extensive growth that is why high consumption and high pollution. So the time has come
when this modern world should have energy saving technologies practically in developing

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countries. Dealing with the external structure that are prone to external environmental effects
like rain, snow, wind, storms and chemical action on structures cause economic losses and
some serious casualties once damaged.

Keeping all these things into one's mind engineers are trying to build structures that should
include, self diagnose smart concrete, self compacting concrete, self lining smart concrete,
soundproof concrete, self repairing and so on. All these are economic characters but cannot
posses energy saving. For energy saving a different material known as Pellucid concrete is
developed, which can impart a different feature in concrete and has energy saving as well as
economical.

The pellucid concrete has the ability to transmit light, so it can be said that it is a light
emitting concrete. Pellucid concrete is the only revolutionary material that was marketed as
Litron. The pellucid concrete was first developed in 2001 by Hungarian architect Aron
Losonezi at the technical university of Budapest. Pellucid concrete can be precast blocks of
different size. In pellucid concrete, which is commonly known as transparent concrete,
optical fibre are casted into concrete to transmit light, either naturally or artificially through
pellucid panel. The fibre concrete runs parallel to each other so light between the two
surfaces of concrete embedded together.

Concrete is commonly used material in civil engineering which is an advantage of rich raw
materials, low cost and simple production process and optical fibre has good light guiding
which can transmit sunlight according to pre design road without light-heat, light-electrical or
photo chemical process. While combining the advantages of both concrete and optical fibre,
that has a functional material, with important value of application for construction and
sensing.

II. PRINCIPLE OF OPTICAL FIBRE

In optical fibre which is a cylindrical dielectric waveguide by which light travels along its
axis by the process of total internal reflection. the fibre consists of core and is surrounded by
a cladding layer, which are made up of dielectric materials. the refractive index of the core
must be always greater than the cladding and the boundary must be always between the core
and cladding in order to receive the optical signal.

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 III. LITERATURE STUDY

A.Losonczi (2001) Hungarian architect Aron was the first who developed the pellucid
concrete in 2001 at Technical University of Budapest. The pellucid concrete comes in precast
blocks of different size. In pellucid concrete which is also known as light transmitting
concrete, Optical Fibre strands are passed into the concrete to transmit light by either
naturally or artificially through pellucid panels. This material can be used in the wide range
of architectural and interior design applications, which includes cladding and dividers. the
fibre in the concrete runs parallel to one another transmitting light between the two surfaces
of the concrete component in which they are embedded Optical Fibre transmit light so
efficiently that there is almost no loss of light conducted through the fibres. the concrete
mixture is made up of fine materials only i.e it contains no coarse aggregates. plastic Optical
Fibre (POF) and ROCALITE micro concrete are needed for making pellucid concrete.

L.F.Boswell et al. (2006) in this paper, they developed optical fiber sensors has been
developed and validated using reinforced concrete beam & concrete cylinder tests. The
sensors are subjected to static, fatigue, thermal loading and reinforcement test. The sensors
are directly attached to structure that measures the correct strain and temperature. They also
measured the moisture of the concrete. The sensors have been subjected to thermal, fatigue
and static loading within reinforced concrete structures and have shown good results. The
sensors attached directly to structures have measured temperature and strain with a accuracy
up to ±2° centigrade and ±1 micro strain respectively and while monitoring fatigue loading
of reinforced concrete beam the dynamic strains of approximately 3000 micro strain is
measured. The results achieved indicate that the optical fibre can withstand large and sudden
changes in the applied load to the test structure, which proves it to be robust.

Jianping (2011) in this paper the author reports that across the study of excellent properties
of light guiding and elasto-optic effect of Optical Fibre the POF volume ratio to concrete is
proportion to transmission and evaluate the effectiveness of smart pellucid concrete and they
concluded that pellucid concretes good light guiding property. The amount of the POF has
seriously influenced the compressive strength of the corresponding concrete. The anti-
permeability of the concrete has also been reduced by the POF.

J.Shen et al. (2013) In this paper the author concluded by saying that the pellucid concrete
has good light guiding property and the ratio of plastic optical fibre volume to concrete is

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proportion to transmission. The pellucid concrete does not lose its strength with the use of
POF and also it has very vital property for the aesthetical point of view. It can be used for the
good looking architectural appearance of the building. In this paper also the author concluded
with showing importance to the eco friendly buildings. Green buildings would get an easy
accreditation under daylight savings with the use of pellucid concrete.

R.Pradheepa et al. (2015) In this paper after the usage of 2% of optical fibre in concrete the
compressive strength of concrete after 28 days is 25.66 N/mm² and the compressive strength
of mortar is 22.15 N/mm². But on usage of 4% of optical fibre in concrete the compressive
strength of concrete is 27.14 N/mm² and the compressive strength of mortar is 24 N/mm². It
proved that the compressive strength of concrete with optical fibre will increase with increase
the usage of optical fibre. But didn’t provide the upper limit of POF to be used. Finally the
author concluded that after using of 4% of optical fibres the compressive strength increased.

S.Luhar et al. (2016) in this paper author carried test for compression & found that the
results were approximately same with slight variation. She also found compressive strength
of 38.77 N/mm2 for conventional concrete & 36.70N/mm2 for pellucid concrete.

IV . PROBLEM FORMULATION

It was revealed that the construction industry is seeing competition by many ways to attract
people towards new designs. Transmittance of light is one of the positive part in pellucid
concrete to attract masses for its use.

A critical review of literature reveals little work has been done in this field so far.
Experiments have been performed using mix design M25 and M30. Thus a problem is
adopted for mix design M20 to check strength in compression, flexural strength & to check
the best alignment of plastic optical fibre with respect to load applied i.e. parallel loading &
perpendicular loading.

OBJECTIVES

In this present work plastic optical fibre is used to form pellucid concrete and to
compare/analyze its different properties i.e. compressive strength, flexural strength, light
transmission with respect to conventional concrete by performing following test.

 Compression test on compression testing machine (CTM).

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  Flexure test on flexural testing machine (UTM).

 Workability test with slump cone.

 Light Transmission test with the help of Lux metre.

 Cost analysis with respect to conventional concrete.

METHODOLOGY

In this report M20 mix design was used during all the experimental work

Preparation of Cube:-

 Casting: First of all cement, sand is weighed according to mix design and is mixed dry
with trowels. After that coarse aggregates are added to the cement, sand mix and all the
ingredients are mixed thoroughly to give a homogeneous mixture. Water is now added to
it and mixed very keenly to produce good concrete.

 Preparation of Mould: The mould is prepared and the faces of plywood's are drilled at a
uniform spacing so that they can hold the optical fibre in place during casting concrete
into the beam mould. The drilled plywood's are faced and placed in opposite to each other
so that the orientation of optical fibre will maintain in a single direction.

The fibres are now cutted according to desired length (250-300mm) and passed
through these drilled holes in plywood. Cube moulds are oiled inside so that sticking of
concrete on mould walls will not occur. Now put the concrete into the mould very
carefully, so that fibres will not get displaced or disoriented. As the mould is very
sensitive for compaction table vibrator is used. Three specimen are test for a particular
sample (i.e. 0%, 1%, 2%,3%,4%. POF) & average value is taken as final.

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POF Oriented in Mould

Casted Pellucid Cube

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 MATERIAL USED
A. OPTICAL FIBER

An optical fibre is a cylindrical dielectric wave length that transmits light along its axis by the
process of total internal reflection. it is made of fibre that is surrounded by a cladding layer
and that are made up of dielectric material. in order to receive the optical signal, the refractive
index of the core must be always greater than the cladding and the boundary must be always
between the core and cladding may either be abrupt in graded- index fibre, in step index.

In this project the percentage of optical fibre are used as , 0%, 1%, 2%,3%,4%.

B. CEMENT

The commonly used cement is of grade 43. The material which has adhesive and cohesive
properties is known as cement. As these properties of cement help it to have bonding between
the other parts that is minerals which in turn acts as a single part. As far as cement is concern
it has large number of cementious material.

C. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION

Lime, silica, Alumina and iron oxide are the raw material of cement that are used for the its
manufacturing. When the oxides interact with one another within the kiln at high temperature
they form complex compounds. These oxide compositions are responsible for influencing the
various properties of cement.

APPROXIMATE OXIDES COMPOSITION IN CEMENT

Oxide Per cent content

CaO 60–67
SiO2 17–25

Al2O3 3.0–8.0

Fe2O3 0.5–6.0

MgO 0.1–4.0

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 Alkalies (K2O, Na2O) 0.4–1.3

SO3 1.3–3.0

D. AGGREGRATES

The most important constituent of concrete are aggregate. These helps the concrete to
reduce shrinkage and effect economy. Aggregates was first considered as inert but now it has
been recognized that some of the aggregate are chemically active and has a chemical bond.

The aggregates occupy 70-80 percent of the volume of concrete that in turn has various
characteristics and properties of concrete that are to be considered.

 Fine Aggregate

Both crushed and rounded sand is used in light transmitting concrete. The sand should be free
from impurities such as vegetation and gravels. Sand is naturally available in the form of
Rock and mineral particles. The zone of fine aggregate is determined by sieve analysis. As
per the Indian standards the zone obtained is zone-II.
Sand passing through IS 2.36mm Sieve is used for casting all the specimens.

 Coarse Aggregate
The aggregate having size always less than 12 mm are used. When gravel, slag, crushing of
parent rock, to include natural rock, expanded clay and shales are combined together they
forms coarse aggregates. It has the conforming characteristics of having hard, strong,
durable.

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 VI. RESULTS

Compressive Strength after 7-Days

Strength in N/mm2
Plastic Optical Load Applied Parallel to Optical Load Applied Perpendicular to
Fibre % Used Fiber Optical Fiber
Ordinary Concrete 19.2

Dia. Of POF in mm 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.5

0.5%POF

1.0% POF 21.2 21.60 20.32 20.92

1.5% POF 23.10 23.60 19.15 19.22

2.0% POF

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 Compressive Strength after 14-Days
Strength in N/mm2
Plastic Optical
Load Applied Parallel to optical Load Applied Perpendicular to
Fibre % Used
Fiber Optical Fiber
Ordinary Concrete 24.10

Dia. Of POF in mm 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.5

0.5%POF

1.0% POF 26.85 27.45 26.15 26.85

1.5%POF

2.0% POF 28.22 29.37 23.95 24.18

Compressive Strength after 28-Days

Plastic Strength in N/mm2

Optical Fibre
Load Applied Parallel to optical Load Applied Perpendicular to
% Used
Fiber optical fibre
Ordinary Concrete 26.70

Dia. Of POF in mm 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.5

1.0% POF 29.61 30.21 28.20 28.89

2.0% POF 30.75 32.13 25.91 26.35

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 CONCLUSION

 Compression Test

Compression test is done by applying load on cube in parallel as well as

perpendicular direction to the plastic optical fiber. It was noticed that in parallel
loading strength increases continuously while in perpendicular loading strength
increases up to 1% of plastic optical fibre then it decreases abruptly. In parallel
loading maximum strength change was noted when 1% plastic optical fibre is
added. It was also noted that strength obtained was more when load is applied
parallel as compared to perpendicular loading.

 Flexural Strength Test

In this test the strength is increasing continuously in both cases i.e. 0.2mm dia of
plastic optical fiber as well as 0.5mm of dia. of plastic optical fiber. In each (0.2mm
& 0.5mm) plastic optical fiber strength goes on increasing. Here also the max.
change in strength was noted on addition of 1% plastic optical fibre to the concrete.

 Light Transmission Test

In Light transmission test there will be an increase in the light passing through the
block as there is an in increase plastic optical fibre content (Ref. Table 6.8). The
transmission of light through light transmitting block is dependent on diameter of
optical fibre used i.e. more light passes through 0.5mm dia. than 0.2mm dia.

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 FUTURE SCOPE

• Tests for sensing can be carried out, which will be a revolutionary thing in
civil engineering.
• Test for signal transfer for telecommunication can be performed on pellucid
concrete.
• Test with different mix design (i.e.M15,M25,M30) can be performed.
• Tests with plastic optical fibre more than 2% can be done, for the purpose of
more transmission of light although it will add up to the cost but where more light is
needed, it can be used.
• Optical fibre sensor can be built-in to check temperature of building.

REFERENCES

1. A.A. Momin, R.B. Kadiranaikar (2014), “Study on Light Transmittance of

Concrete Using Optical Fibres and Glass Rods” (IOSR-JMCE) e-ISSN: 2278-1684,
PP 67-72.
2. A.B.Sawant, R.V.Jugdar (2014), “Light Transmitting Concrete by using Optical
Fibre” International Journal Inventive Engineering and Science Vol.3 Issue 1,
PP. 23-28.
3.

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