1M. Tech. Final Semester Student, Structure Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Indoglobal college of Engineering & technology, Abhipur(Mohali), Punjab, India
2Astt. Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indoglobal college of Engineering & technology, Abhipur (Mohali), Punjab, India
Online published on 21 March, 2018.
Concrete is a versatile construction material that is capable of being moulded into virtually any shape. This property is valuable as it allows engineering design to suit the aesthetics of modern and ever evolving architecture in addition to optimization of material and geometries. However, the downfall of concrete is its brittle characteristic. The brittle behavior of concrete is due to the fast growing of a single crack that leads to the uncontrollable failure of the specimen.
In order to improve the behavior of concrete, fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is made by adding discrete short fibres into the concrete matrix. PVA fibre that has in the recent years attracted much interest in the research and development sector of fibre reinforced concrete. This is due to its high tensile strength, similar Young's modulus with concrete, small diameters and relatively cost effective price. When the cementitious matrix is placed under stress, cracking of the cementitious matrix begins to occur at which point the randomly dispersed short fibre within the matrix begin to bridge the matrix cracks and take up the tensile load.
This study will undertake the effect of hollow microsphere addition to the PVA-ECC. With the addition of PVA fibre, this research aims at further developing an ultra-high performance reinforced ductile concrete by replacing a fraction volume of cement with a lightweight hollow glass microsphere additive. The research shall also investigate the behavior and characteristics of the ultra-high performance PVA-ECC when exposed to different loading conditions. FRCs with 6 mm fibres and volume fractions ranging 1.5% with hollow microspheres ranging from 015% are investigated to find out mechanical properties i.e. compressive strength of small and large cubes and flexural strength.
The study will also do a cost analysis to check if the ultra-high performance Poly Vinyl Alcohol-Engineered Cementitious Composite is a cost effective and viable option to be used in the construction.
