Author : Suchita Hirde and Sagar Shelar

Cement concrete is weak in tension limited ductility and little resistance to cracking, as the cement holding the aggregate can crack, causing concrete to break. An effective way to improve the tensile strength of concrete and reduce the number of defects is by adding different fractions of small, closely spaced and randomly oriented fibers, dispersed uniformly in the matrix. The present work focuses on investigation of characteristic of M40 grade concrete with various proportions of basalt fiber. M40 grade of concrete is prepared with water cement ratio 0.38 to study the effect of basalt fiber on compressive strength, flexural strength and split tensile strength. The concrete specimens were casted using basalt fiber of 18 mm length and varying fiber dosage from 0% to 5 % by weight of cement at interval of 1%. All specimens were cured in water tank for 28 days. It provided the significant improvement in flexural and split tensile strength with the inclusion of basalt fibers in plain concrete. However maximum gain in different characteristic of concrete is found to be dependent upon the amount of fiber content.

Keywords: Basalt fiber, FRC, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.2 (April-2017)