Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (May 2016)
BEHAVIOUR OF POLYPROPYLENE FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE UNDER DYNAMIC IMPACT LOAD
Abstract
A study was conducted to examine the effect of mixing additives with concrete to increase the strength and durability of the concrete. The study looked at the how the use of additives affect several properties of the concrete. In this study a polypropylene (PP) fibre was mixed with concrete to study the mixture’s dynamic response under impact load. References related to dynamic impact test for polypropylene fibre reinforced concrete (PPFRC) is very scarce and there is no specific research and information relating to this research. Therefore, this study looked at the dynamic impact of PPFRC through the use of Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB). The samples used in this study comprised of concrete mixed with 1.0 kg/m³ PP fibre and 2.0 kg/m³ PP fibre, as well as plain concrete as a control sample. The PP fibre contains twisted bundle nonfibrillating monofilament and fibrillating network fibres. Samples were prepared using a cylindrical mould and three samples of each mixture were prepared with a 28-day curing period and a concrete grade of 35 MPa. These samples were then tested for dynamic impact using the SHPB at 2 MPa pressure under the strain rate of 10 s-1. The results for dynamic compressive strength showed that the values for samples SC1 and SC2, 13.22 % and 76.9 % respectively, increased compared to value of the control sample, and the dynamic compressive strength for sample SC1 and SC2 are74.5 MPa and 116.4 MPa respectively compared to 65.8 MPa for the control sample. The dynamic increase factor (DIF) showed that sample SC2 yielded the highest value (4.15) whereas the values for samples SC1 and SC3 are 2.14 and 1.97 respectively.
