DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING – PG

A Seminar Report
on

FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for

M-Tech (1ST SEM)

Submitted by

RITHU SHREE C
VANDANA H V

Under the guidance of

Dr. Bharathi Ganesh
Professor and HOD,
Mr. Gautam S Nair
Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering,
NMIT, Bengaluru

MARCH- 2022-2023

Yelahanka, Bengaluru-560064 www.nitte.edu.in

 PART – A

FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE

1. HISTORY:
The use of fibers goes back at least 3500 years, when straw was used to reinforce sun-
baked bricks in Mesopotamia.Horsehair was used in mortar and straw in mud bricks.Asbestos
fibers were used in concrete in the early 1900.In the 1950s, the concept of composite materials
came into picture. Steel, glass and synthetic fibers have been used to improve the properties of
concrete for the past 30 or 40 years.Research into new fiber-reinforced concrete continues even
today.

2. INTRODUCTION:

Concrete containing cement, water, aggregate, and discontinuous, uniformly dispersed or

discharge fibers is called fiber reinforced concrete.It is a composite obtained by adding a
single type or a blend of fibers to the conventional concrete mix.Fibers can be in form of steel
fibers, glass fibers, natural fibers, synthetic fibers etc..

3. WHY FIBERS ARE USED:

Main role of fiber is to bridge the cracks that develop in concrete and increase the ductility
of concrete elements.There is considerable improvement in the post-cracking behaviour of
concrete containing fibers due to both plastic shrinkage and drying shrinkage.They also reduce
the permeability of concrete and thus reduce bleeding of water.Same types of fibers produce
greater abrasion and shatter resistance in concrete.Imparts more resistance to impact load.

TYPES OF FIBERS
• Steel fibers
• Carbon fibers
• Glass fibers
• Cellulose fibers
• Synthetic fibers
- nylon fibers
- Polypropylene fibers
• Natural fibers
- coir fibers
- hay fibers
STEEL FIBERS

• Aspect ratios of 30 to250.

• Diameters vary from 0.25mm to 0.75mm.
• High structural strength.
• Reduced crack widths and control the crack widths tightly, thus improving durability.
• Improve impact and abrasion resistance.
• Used in precast and structural applications, highway and airport pavements, refractory
and canal linings, industrial flooring, bridge decks etc.

GLASS FIBERS

• High tensile strength, 1020 to 4080 N/mm^2

• Generally, fibers of length 25mm are used.
• Improvement in impact strength.
• Increased flexural strength, ductility and resistance to thermal shock.
• Used in formwork, swimming pools, ducts and roofs, sewer lining etc.
SYNTHETIC FIBERS

• Man-made fibers from petrochemical and textile industries.

• Cheap, abundantly available.
• High chemical resistance.
• High melting point.
• Low modulus of elasticity.
• It’s types are acrylic, aramid, carbon, nylon, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene etc.
• Applications in cladding panels.

NATURAL FIBERS

• Obtained at low cost and low level of energy using local manpower and technology.
• Jute, coir and bamboo are examples.
• They may undergo organic decay.
• Low modulus of elasticity, high impact strength.
 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF FRC

• COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
The presence of fibers may alter the failure mode of cylinders, but the fiber effect
will be minor on the improvement of compressive strength values (0 to 15 percent).

• MODULUS OF ELASTICITY
Modulus of elasticity of FRC increases slightly with an increase in the fibers
content. It was found that for each 1 percent increase in fiber content by volume, there
is an increase of 3 percent in the modulus of elasticity.

• FLEXURE
The flexural strength was reported to be increased by 2.5 times using 4 percent fibers.

• SPLITTING TENSILE STRENGTH

The presence of 3 percent fiber by volume was reported to increase the splitting
tensile strength of mortar about 2.5 times that of the unreinforced one.
• TOUGHNESS
For FRC, toughness is about 10 to 40 times that of plain concrete.

• FATIGUE STRENGTH
The addition of fibers is increases fatigue strength of about 90 percent.

• IMPACT RESISTANCE
The impact strength for fibrous concrete is generally 5 to 10 times that of plain
concrete depending on the volume.
ADVANTAGES OF FRC

• High modulus of elasticity for effective long term reinforcement, even in the hardened
concrete.
• Does not rust nor corrode and requires no minimum cover.
• Ideal aspect ratio (i.e. relationship between fiber diameter and length) which makes
them excellent for early age performance.
• Easily placed, cast, sprayed and less labour intensive than placing rebar.
• Greater retained toughness in conventional concrete mixes.
• Higher flexural strength, depending on additional rate.
• Can be made into thin sheets or irregular shapes.
• FRC possesses enough plasticity to go under large deformation once the peak load has
been reached.

DISADVANTAGES OF FRC

• Greater reduction of workability.

• High cost of materials.
• Generally fibers do not increase the flexural strength of concrete, and so cannot replace
moment resisting or structural steel reinforcement.
• The addition of fibers increases the specific gravity of concrete which may result in
heavier concrete in some fibres

APPLICATION OF FRC

RUNWAY, AIRCRAFT PARKING AND PAVEMENTS:

For the same wheel load FRC slabs could be about one half the thickness of plain concrete
slabs. FRC pavements offers good resistance even in severe and mild environments.

TUNNEL LINING AND SLOPE STABILIZATION:

Steel fiber reinforced concrete are being used to line underground openings and rock slope
stabilization. It eliminates the need for mesh reinforcement and scaffolding.

DAMS AND HYDRAULIC STRUCTURE:

FRC is being used for the construction and repair of dams and other hydraulic structure to
provide resistance to cavitation and severe erosion caused by the impact of large debris.

AGRICULTURE:
It is used in animal storage structures, walls, silos, paving etc.
PRECAST CONCRETE AND PRODUCTS:
It is used in architectural panels, tilt up construction, walls, fencing, septic tanks, grease trap
structures, vaults and sculptures.

COMMERCIAL:
It is used for exterior and Interior floors, slabs, and parking areas, roadways etc.

WAREHOUSE OR INDUSTRIAL:
It is used in light to heavy duty loaded floors.

RESIDENTIAL:
It includes application in driveways, sidewalks, pool construction, basements, coloured
concrete, foundations, drainage etc.

CONCLUSION

The efficient utilization of fibrous concrete involves improved static and dynamic properties
like tensile strength, energy absorbing characteristics, Impact strength and fatigue strength.
Fibrous concrete will provide universal solution to the problems associated with plain
concrete, hence it does not replace the conventional structural concrete in total.
FRC is costly therefore it is normally applied on bridge constructions.
It has the ability to sustain a load without excessive deformation.
It can also be used ad external reinforcement in rehabilitation of reinforced structures

REFERENCES

• ACI Committee 544. 1990. State-of-the-Art Report on Fiber Reinforced concrete. ACI
Manual of concrete practice , Part5, American Concrete Institute, Detroit,MI,22P
• P.K. Mehta and P.J.M. Monteiro, Concrete: Microstructure, Properties, and materials,
Third Edition ,Fourth Reprint 2011, pp502-522
• Hanna, A.N., PCA Report RD 049.01P, Portland cement Association, Skokie,IL,1997
• Gurunaathan, K., Seenivasan, G., and Thirugnanam, G.S, 2014, Experimental
study on strength and durability properties of fiber reinforced concrete, Proc. of
the Intl. Conf. on Advances in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering, ISBN:
978-1-63248-025-5, 1(5), pp. 38 – 42.
 PART- B

VEE BEE TEST

AIM:
To determine the workability of freshly mixed concrete by the use of Vee-Bee
consistometer (IS:1199-1959)

THEOARY AND SCOPE :

The workability of fresh concrete is a subjective term describing how easily freshly mixed
concrete can be mixed, placed, consolidated, and finished with minimal loss of homogeneity.
This test gives an indication of the mobility and compactability of freshly mixed concrete.
The test measures the relative effort required to change a mass of concrete from one definite
shape to other by vibration. The time required for complete re-moulding in seconds is
considered as a measure of workability and is expressed as the number of Vee-Bee seconds.
The Vee-Bee consistometer is applicable to concrete with slumps less than 5cm.

REFERENCE CODE:
• IS: 1199-1959 Method of sampling and analysis of concrete
• IS: 456-2000 code of practice for plain and reinforced concrete
• IS: 10510:1983 specification for vee-bee consistometer

APPARATUS :
• Vee-Bee apparatus consisting vibrating table on elastic supports,
• slump cone,
• standard iron rod weighing balance,
• trowels.
PROCEDURE:
1. Place the sheet metal slump cone in the cylindrical container of the
consistometer. Fill the cone in four layers, tamp each layer with 25 strokes of
the rounded end of the tamping rod in uniform layer.

2. the glass disc attached to the swivel arm is turned and placed on top of slump
cone in the cylindrical container .

3. Remove the cone from the concrete by raising it slowly in vertical direction

4. The electrical vibrator is then switched on and simultaneously a stop watch

started.

5. The vibration is continued till the conical shape of the concrete is disappeared
and concrete assumes the cylindrical shape.

6. Now record the time required for complete re-moulding in seconds which
measures the workability expressed as number of vee-bee seconds.

7. This method is suitable for dry concrete whose slump value cannot be measured
by slump test, but the vibrations is too vigorous for concrete with slump greater
than about 50mm.

RESULT:

The Vee Bee Degree of concrete ......... second(s) indicate Low/ Medium/ High
Degree of workability