Basalt Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Journal Name: Experimental study on the mechanical properties and

microstructure of chopped basalt fibre reinforced concrete

Journal Author: Chaohua Jiang, Ke Fan, Fei Wu, Da Chen

College of Harbour, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing
210098, China

Article history:
Received 21 October 2013
Accepted 27 January 2014

A b s t r a c t:
With high ductility and sufficient durability, fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is
widely used. In this study, the effects of the volume fraction and length of basalt
fibre (BF) on the mechanical properties of FRC were analyzed. Coupling with the
scanning electron microscope (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP),
the microstructure of BF concrete was studied also. The results show that adding
BF significantly improves the tensile strength, flexural strength and
toughness index, whereas the compressive strength shows no obvious
increase. Furthermore, the length of BF presents an influence on the mechanical
properties. Compared with the plain concrete, the compressive, splitting tensile
and flexural strength of concrete reinforced with 12 mm BF increase by _0.18
4.68%, 14.0824.34% and 6.309.58% respectively. As the BF length increasing to
22 mm, corresponding strengths increase by 0.555.72%, 14.9625.51% and 7.35
10.37%, separately. A good bond between the BF and the matrix interface is
observed in the early age. However, this bond shows degradation to a certain
extent at 28 days. Moreover, the MIP results indicate that the concrete
containing BF presents higher porosity.
Tests conducted:
The compressive strength was tested at 7, 28 and 90 days.
The splitting tension test was carried out at 28 days.
Flexural strength was carried.
The flexural toughness of FRC was estimated.
Flexural strength at 7, 28 and 90 days was respectively tested through the third-
point bending experiments conducted on the universal testing machine.
The span of flexural experiment was 225 mm. The load was applied by
displacement control with a rate of 0.2 mm/min until the specimens failed. The
loaddisplacement curve for each specimen was recorded automatically by data
acquirement system.
Microstructure test on the cement paste was carried out. The mixture proportion
of the cement paste used in the study was cement: water = 448.84 g: 269.68 g. The
fibre reinforced cement paste samples with PP fibre and BFII of 0.3% volume
fraction were cast. The sample was cured for 7 and 28 days under a standard
condition with a temperature of 20 _C and a relative humidity of 90(+-5%). The
microstructure of the cement paste was tested by JSM-5900 SEM made of the
JEOL of Japan. And the pore size distribution and the porosity of the cement
paste were tested by PoreMaster GT-60 MIP produced by the
QUANTACHROME of USA.

Results:
1. Slump:
For the plain concrete, the slump is 185 mm. When adding PP fibres with volume
fraction of 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.3%, the slump falls down to 142 mm, 124 mm and
59 mm, respectively. When adding BFII with volume fraction of 0.05%, 0.1%,
0.3% and 0.5%, the slump falls down to 172 mm, 157 mm, 87 mm and 65 mm,
respectively. It can be concluded that the addition of fibres into the concrete
may cause a decrease in the workability of the concrete.
Moreover, it can be seen that the addition of 22 mm BF in concrete shows a larger
slump than that of 12 mm BF with the same volume fraction.
 2. Compressive Strength:
The addition of basalt fibre at 0.5% volume fraction caused a 3.9% reduction on
the compressive strength at 28 days.
The compressive of the nylon, polyester and glass FRC improved by 6.3%, _1.8%
and 3.0%, respectively at a fibre content of 0.6 kg/m3 at 28 days.
Compared with the plain concrete, the compressive strength of the specimens
reinforced with PP fibre with the volume fraction of 0.05%, 0.1% and 3% increase
by 2.41%, 6.13% and 4.32%, respectively. Compared with PP FRC, the basalt FRC
has a higher compressive strength increase at the same volume fraction. When
adding BF with the volume fraction of 0.05%, 0.1%, 3% and 0.5%, the
compressive strength improvement of BFI reinforced concrete ranges from 3.74%
to 6.49%, and the compressive strength improvement of BFII reinforced concrete
ranges from 5.85% to 10.42%.

The compressive strength increase of FRC at the late age is lower than that at the
early age. Besides, there is even a decrease of the compressive strength of BF
concrete at 28 and 90 days.

The use of 22 mm BF in concrete shows a larger increase of compressive strength

than that of 12 mm BF. The reason may be that the longer fibre has a stronger
bridging effect and pulling-out resistance, which contributes to the strength
development. However, with the increase of fibre length, it is more difficult for
fibre to distribute uniformly in cementitious composites, which is harmful for the
development of strength.
 3. Tensile strength:
Compared with the plain concrete, with the increase in the fibre fraction, the
splitting tensile strength of FRC rises apparently. The basalt FRC presents a higher
splitting tensile strength than the PP FRC does. As the fibre content increases, the
splitting tensile strength of BFI reinforced concrete increases by about 14.08
24.34%. And the splitting tensile strength of BFII reinforced concrete increases by
about 14.9625.51%.

The addition of polypropylene fibre and carbon fibre at 0.5% volume fraction can
improve splitting tensile strength of concrete 19.5% and 31.6% respectively at 28
days.
FRC with 22 mm BF shows better splitting tensile strength than that with 12 mm
BF.

4. Flexural strength:

The flexural of the polypropylene, polyester and glass fibre reinforced concrete
improved by 7.6%, 21.3% and 14.4% respectively at a fibre content of 0.6 kg/m3.
Compared with the plain concrete, the augmented percentage of the flexural
strength of PP FRC is in the range from 3.38% to 16.10% with the increase of
volume fraction from 0.05% to 3% at 7 days. In contrast, for BFI reinforced
concrete with the volume fraction of 0.05%, 0.1%, 3% and 0.5%, the improved
percentage of flexural strength ranges from 9.18% to 21.10%.
When the fibre volume fraction increases to 0.5%, a slight drop in flexural strength
is shown compared to FRC with fibre volume fraction of 0.3%. It may be due to
the difficulty in dispersion of fibre with the high volume fraction of 0.5%.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the suitable admixture of BF in concrete is
about 0.3% of the total volume.

It can be seen that FRC with 22 mm BF shows better flexural strength than that
with 12 mm BF. Longer fibres show a stronger anchorage and bridging effect.

5. Toughness Index:
(for .3% of volume)
Compared with the plain concrete, the improved percentage of PL/150 and
TL/150 of PP3, BFI3 and BFII3 is 434.48% and 69.50%, 715.52% and 135.63%,
1108.62% and 190.50%, respectively. This means that FRC shows better toughness
behavior than that of the plain concrete. After the peak load, the load of the plain
concrete decrease rapidly with the increase of deflection, whereas the load of FRC
drops slowly that displays the excellent toughness performance.

BF with the length of 22 mm shows the finest toughness improvement capacity.

On the other hand, it is also observed that the cracks are more closely spaced in all
the fibre concrete beams and that the crack width is consequently less in these
beams compared to that in the plain beams.
 6. Bond performance:
A good bond between fibre and hydrated cement matrix exists in the early age. But
at 28 days, there is space between fibres and matrix and the interface layer of the
cement paste is quite loose.
Debonding between cement matrix and fibre may occur in the long term. This
aging phenomenon may result in a decrease in compressive strength at the late age.

7. Pore size distribution and porosity:

Compared with the plain sample, there is an increase in both the total volume of
pore and the total porosity of fibre reinforced cement paste at 7 and 28 days. But a
big difference of pore volume and porosity is shown between specimens at 7 and
28 days. At 7 days, the total pore volume of PP fibre and BF cement paste increase
by 9.88% and 5.83% separately and the corresponding total porosity rise by 7.21%
and 2.20% separately. However, at 28 days, the increasing percentage of the total
pore volume of PP fibre and BF cement paste is 29.49% and 11.80% separately
and that of total porosity is 27.4% and 7.93% separately. Furthermore, the pore
size distribution of fibre reinforced cement paste also changes. The sample
reinforced by fibre has more harmful pore and harmless pore whereas the minor
harmful pores decrease.

Conclusion:
A series of mechanical properties tests on basalt FRC have been in this study. The
results obtained show that addition of BF to the concrete leads to a decrease in the
workability of concrete. The mechanical performance of basalt FRC is better than
that of PP FRC.
Based on various results from experiments performed above, we conclude that the
suitable amount of the admixture of BF is about 0.3% in volume fraction.
Journal Name: Mechanical Properties of High-Performance Concrete Reinforced
with Basalt Fibers

Journal Author: Tehmina Ayuba,b,*, Nasir Shafiqa, M. Fadhil Nuruddina

A b s t r a c t:
Knowledge of the concrete properties such as strength, elastic modulus, thermal
expansion, heat generation, shrinkage and creep and durability, are important in the
pavement designing. High-performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC) is
currently being used in the construction of airport runway and highway pavements
but mostly it is used for rapid cure patching and where the early opening of the
pavement is required. The reason for less use of HPFRC is its high cost as it
employs higher cement content which results in thermal contraction problems due
to high heat release during setting.
In this study, material properties of an economical HPFRC containing Basalt
fibers are determined which include compressive strength, elastic modulus and
tensile strength. Basalt fibers are relatively cheaper and new fibres for concrete
which are recently investigated by a few researchers. In this study, influence of
addition of 1, 2 and 3% Basalt fiber volume fraction in three different mixes of
high-performance concrete (HPC) is investigated. The first mix was prepared by
using 100% cement and other two mixes were prepared by replacing 10% cement
content with silica fume and locally produced met kaolin. Experimental results
showed that the addition of Basalt fibers up to 2% fiber volume together with
mineral admixtures improved the compressive strength. The improvement
in the strains corresponding to maximum compressive strength and
splitting tensile strength results was observed at all fiber volumes, whereas
there is a negligible influence of the fiber addition on the elastic modulus.
Introduction:

During the last decade, Basalt fiber is investigated by few researchers due to its
characteristics which include good mechanical characteristics particularly high
strength, high elastic modulus, high thermal and chemical stability, good sound
insulation and electrical characteristics. The first use of Basalt fiber in normal
strength concrete was reported in 1998 in a report published for Highway
Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) Project 45 in which
performances of 3-D Basalt fiber reinforced concrete (using fiber volume as 0.1,
0.25, 0.4, and 0.5%) and Basalt rod reinforced concrete were investigated. The
prominent features endorsed to Basalt fiber reinforced concrete included higher
energy absorption capacity after attaining the optimum load and increased ductility.
Beside this, it is also mentioned in that Basalt fibers easily disperse in the concrete
mix without segregation and lose their shape due to flexibility unlike other fibers
which cause difficulty in handling and therefore form balls such as steel and
Polyvinyl Alcohol PVA fibers. Similar conclusions are also mentioned in other
studies which showed encouraging effect on the concrete strength and its cracking
resistance. The optimum Basalt fiber dosage used to produce best mechanical
properties is reported as 0.1% in a study, (after using 0.1 to 0.3% of Basalt fiber
volume) and 0.3% in a study (after using 0.1 to 0.5% of Basalt fiber volume) in the
concrete mix. However, the use of higher volume of Basalt fibers in either normal
or HPC is not reported in the literature yet.

Experimental results & Conclusions:

In this study, HPFRC incorporating mineral admixtures as partial

replacement of cement were found to be beneficial to improve the properties of
concrete. Further conclusions are as follows:

1. In each of the three series of HPFRC (i.e. plain concrete containing no mineral
admixture (Series P, concrete containing 10% silica fume (Series S) and 10%
locally produced met kaolin (Series M)), the
optimum compressive strength at 2% Basalt fibre volume was found to be
higher, whereas at 3% fibre volume compressive strength reduced probably due to
the presence of voids caused by the use of higher fibre volume of Basalt fibres.
Across the series, though combined use of mineral admixtures and Basalt fibres
(i.e. Series S and Series M) significantly increased the compressive strength in
comparison to the plain concrete (i.e. Series P) at each fibre volume, but the
compressive strength results in Series M (for each fibre volume) were found to
be higher than in Series S and in Series P, showing that the use of locally
produced met kaolin is better.

2. In each of the three series of HPFRC, strains corresponding to the maximum

compressive strength as well as splitting tensile strengths were found to be
increasing with the increasing fibre volume and this increment was
significantly higher than control mix samples (containing no fibre), showing the
ductile behavior of the concretes with the use of Basalt fibres. The results of
strains corresponding to the maximum compressive strength and splitting tensile
strength in Series S were higher than Series M at each fibre volume.

3. Additions of Basalt fibres did not significantly influence the results of

elastic modulus.
Journal Name: A comparative Study of Basalt and Polypropylene Fibers
Reinforced Concrete on Compressive and Tensile Behavior

Journal Author: Mustapha Abdulhadi#1

# 1(Civil Engineering & Architecture College, Liaoning University of Technology,
Jinzhou 121001China)

A b s t r a c t:
Concrete made with Portland cement has certain characteristics: it is relatively
strong in compression but weak in tension and tends to be brittle. These two
weaknesses have limited its use. Another fundamental weakness of concrete is that
cracks start to form as soon as concrete is placed and before it has properly
hardened. These cracks are major cause of weakness in concrete particularly in
large onsite applications leading to subsequent fracture and failure and general lack
of durability. The weakness in tension can be overcome by the use of conventional
rod reinforcement and to some extent by the inclusion of a sufficient volume of
certain fibres. This paper provides result data of the compressive strength, and split
tensile strength of basalt and polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete containing
fibres of 0%, 0.3%, 0.6%, 0.9%, and 1.2% volume fraction by weight of cement
(Vf) without admixture. For compression test, a result data obtained has been
analysed and compared with a control specimen (0% fiber). A relationship between
Compressive strength vs. fiber volume fraction and tensile strength vs. fiber
volume fraction of both basalt and polypropylene fiber are represented graphically.
CONCLUSION:
The study on the effect of Basalt and Polypropylene Fibers with different volume
can still be a promising work as there is always a need to overcome the problem of
brittleness of concrete.
The following conclusions could be drawn from the present investigation-

1 It is observed that the compressive strength for C30 grade of concrete from two
different type of fiber at different volume fraction shows different degree of
reduction.

2 Addition of 0.3%, 0.6%, 0.9% and 1.2% resulted in a decrease of compressive

strength relative to plain concrete by 9%, 19%, 1%, and 18% respectively.
Similarly, addition of 0.3%, 0.6%, 0.9%, and 1.2% volume of polypropylene
resulted in a decrease of strength relative to plain concrete by 8%, 7%, 17% and
24% respectively.

3 It was observed that the incorporation of fibers in the concrete matrix greatly
increases splitting tensile strength. Addition of 0.3% and 0.6% volume of basalt
fiber increase the splitting tensile strength of concrete by 2.6% and 22.9%
respectively; while for 9% and 1.2% volume, the splitting tensile strength of
concrete decreased by 11.3% and 19.8% respectively; therefore, the optimum
dosage for the splitting tensile strength of basalt fiber is in the vicinity of
0.6%. Also, addition of 0.3%, 0.6%, and 0.9%, volume of polypropylene fiber
increase the splitting tensile strength of concrete by 15.1%, 7.8%, and 5.6%
respectively; therefore, the optimum dosage for the splitting tensile strength
of polypropylene fiber is in the vicinity of 0.3%.
Journal Name: Abrasion resistance and fracture energy of concretes with basalt
fiber

Journal Author: Nihat Kabay

Article history:
Received 16 May 2013
Received in revised form 10 September
2013
Accepted 24 September 2013

A b s t r a c t:
In this paper, the effect of basalt fiber (BF) on physical and mechanical properties
of concretes is reported. High strength and normal strength concretes were cast by
adjusting water to cement ratios as 0.45 and 0.60 and a total of ten mixtures were
prepared by incorporating different amounts and sizes of BF into those concretes.
Test results showed that an improved flexural strength, fracture energy and
abrasion resistance can be obtained by using BF even at low contents. However
inclusion of BF in concrete resulted in a decrease in the compressive strength. A
quite strong relationship was established between abrasive wear and void content
and flexural strength of concretes.
Conclusions:

This study analyses the effects of BF addition in high strength and normal strength
concrete with different water to cement ratios in terms of physical and mechanical
properties. Experimental results have shown that the addition of BF could provide
significant contributions to concretes in terms of flexural strength, fracture energy
and abrasion resistance. An increase in flexural strength up to 9% (F12/45/4
mixture) and 13% (F24/60/4 mixture) could be obtained with the use of BF, even
at low contents, when compared to the reference concretes. The fracture energy
was more remarkably increased with the use of BF, where the maximum increase
was observed in F24/45/4 and F24/60/4 as 126% and 140% respectively, when
compared to the reference concretes. However compressive strength of concretes
with BF decreased. The reduction in compressive strength was more evident in
concretes with 0.45 w/c ratio and was between 8% and 18% when compared to
the reference. Therefore this should be considered and precautions should be
taken in order to compensate this possible decrease when compressive strength is
of importance. The effect of BF on durability of concrete was out of scope of this
study; therefore further studies should be performed to determine its effect on this
aspect.
The main conclusions of the study may be summarized as follows:
1. The addition of BF resulted in decrease in compressive strength. Although
doubling the fiber length contributed to compressive strength the achieved
strengths were below the references. Flexural strength on the other hand
improved with the addition of BF.
2. Fracture energy was significantly enhanced by using BF. As the BF
content increased, the concretes showed higher ultimate loads, larger deflections
before failure and higher fracture energy values.
3. The fibers provided reductions of between 2% and 18% in abrasive wear of
concretes. The increase in fiber content and fiber length also contributed to
resistance to abrasion.

Relationships between abrasion and other parameters such as void content,

compressive strength and flexural strength were established. Abrasion of concretes
with BF seems to be better related with flexural strength and void content rather
than compressive strength. A strong relationship between abrasion and flexural
strength and void content is established.
Final Conclusion:

On the basis of the results of a series of mechanical properties tests on basalt FRC
in the suitable journals on basalt fiber reinforced concrete, it can be concluded that
performance of basalt FRC (in terms of compressive strength, tensile strength,
flexural strength, toughness, abrasion resistance etc.) is better than that of plain
concrete. The results obtained also show that addition of BF to the concrete leads
to a decrease in the workability of concrete. Also, the mechanical performance of
basalt FRC is better than that of PP FRC.
On the basis of my readings, it can be concluded that for optimum dosage of
basalt fibers, it should be added in between volume fraction 0f 0.3% to 0.6%.