Development and Property Assessment of High Performance Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

High Performance Concrete (HPC) is the lifeline of the modern construction industry. The excellent mechanical and durability characteristics of HPC attained the attention of researchers to use this material for the construction of high rise structures, water retaining structures and long span bridges. However, the brittle failure behavior of HPC was the limitation of this material for the construction of important structures. Further, the usage of fibers in mono/hybrid state in HPC impart the ductility, bridge the cracks, and retain the strength for a longer period because of excellent fiber matrix interface. Still, the study on the development of HPC with hybrid fiber (short and long steel fibers) is conducted very less. Therefore, in the present experimental study, the HP-HFRC (High Performance Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete) is prepared by using the Modified Andreasen and Andersen particle packing model. The Modified A & A mix design model is based on the attainment of optimum particle packing density. The workability and compressive strength were the main criteria to finalize the design mix of HPHFRC. The effect of usage of Natural sand and the expensive Indian standard sand are also evaluated. It has been found that the Modified A & A model is reliable to design the mix for HPHFRC with excellent mechanical, durability and microstructure properties. In addition to that, a marginal difference in the mechanical and durability properties of Natural sand contained HPHFRC (NS) and Standard sand contained HPHFRC (SS) is found. A little higher presence of calcium hydroxide compound found in XRD analysis could be one of the reasons for the slightly lower strength of HPHFRC (NS) than HPHFRC (SS). In the present study, the designed mix prepared by Modified A & A model fulfills the criteria’s of High Performance Concrete. The strength properties of prepared HPHFRC can be improved further, with the application of heat or steam curing and achieve the strength criteria of Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC).