Performance of Fiber Light-Weight Aggregate Concrete Exposed to Elevated Temperatures

Abstract

Two major problems arise when concrete is exposed to elevatedtemperatures. One is the deterioration in mechanical properties of concrete and the other problem is spalling of concrete. In recent times, the inclusion of polypropylene fibers had been reported to be a feasible method to prevent spalling of concrete subjected to elevated temperature. Additional problems arise due to the fact that by adding polypropylene fibers, the residual properties of heated concretemay be adversely affected. The essential objective of this work is to investigate the effect of incorporation of polypropylene fibers or/and steel fibers on the residual properties of lightweight concrete made from porcelinite aggregate after subjected to elevated temperatures. The concrete specimens heated to target temperatures of 100, 200, 400, 600 and 800 oC, at a rate of 10 oC per minute. When the targettemperature was reached, the specimens were kept at that temperature for 2 hours and then allowed to cool to room temperature by natural cooling. For each type of concrete, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, static modulus of elasticity, and thermal expansion strains were determined before and after exposing the concrete to the target elevated temperatures. Experimental results indicated thatpolypropylene fiber-reinforced LWAC showed more reduction in its residual mechanical properties compared to plain LWAC. These different are more pronounced at exposure temperature of 200 and 400 oC. Average differences of 30,25 and 20 percent were observed in static modulus of elasticity, splitting tensile strength and compressive strength respectively, for specimens heated up to 400 oC. The addition of steel fibers inside the polypropylene fiber concrete would improvethe residual mechanical properties of heated concrete at temperature range 200 to 600 oC. On average, the improvement ranged from 9 to 20 percent.

Keywords

• lightweight aggregate concrete
• porcelinite aggregate
• elevated temperature
• steel fiber
• polypropylene fiber