Study on Mechanical Properties of Nano-TiC- and Nano-SiO₂-Modified Basalt Fiber Concrete

Abstract

The load-bearing capacity of a building is influenced by the strength of the concrete. However, when faced with complex environments, ordinary concrete is not always adequate. The strength of concrete can be enhanced by incorporating additives into it. At this point, the study of adding basalt fiber (BF) and nano-SiO2 (NS) to concrete is pretty advanced. Still, research on the incorporation of nano-TiC (NT) into concrete is limited. In order to study the effect of NT, BF, and NS on the strength of concrete, in this paper, these materials were incorporated into concrete and NSF concrete was made by semi-dry mixing. And the concrete was analyzed for slump, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity. The optimization of the mechanical characteristics of concrete was conducted using response surface methodology (RSM), and the microstructure of concrete was used for analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). To develop a thirst function optimization model based on NSF concrete, parallel experiments were used to verify the accuracy of the optimization results. The research findings show that NS, NT, and BF reduced the slump of concrete. Adding NT, NS, and BF in moderate amounts can enhance the mechanical characteristics of the concrete. The material’s optimal proportions for mixing were 0.85% for NT, 0.11% for BF, and 1.94% for NS. The optimized concrete has a maximum error of 9.03% in compressive strength, 9.30% in split tensile strength, and 9.82% in flexural strength.

Keywords

• response surface methodology
• nanomaterials
• mechanical properties
• proportioning
• micro-morphology
• modified concrete