Assessment of High-Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (HPFRC) Durability Due to Exposing to Different Environmental Media (original) (raw)

The durability and mechanical properties of HPFRC are experimentally investigated in this study after being exposed to four different media. Those media were air, water, sodium chloride, and magnesium sulfate with 7% concentration for both chloride and sulfate. Hooked-end galvanized steel fiber 50 mm length with three different fiber volume fractions, Vf, as follows 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% and polypropylene fiber with, Vf, 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5% were invoked in concrete containing macro silica fume, SF. Compressive, indirect tensile, and flexural tests were conducted on HPFRC specimens after exposing them to previous media after 28 and 180 days of exposure. The test results in the present work indicated that the HPFRC containing steel fiber is more durable than the other one containing polypropylene fiber, especially when exposed to sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate media. Moreover, the optimum values for compressive strength of HPFRC are obtained when Vf equals 1.0% for steel fiber and 0.3% for polypropylene fiber. On the other hand, the optimum values for indirect tensile and flexural strengths of HPFRC are obtained when Vf equals 1.5% for steel fiber and 0.5% for polypropylene fiber.