Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter - 4 Experiments For Deriving Basic Properties of Sifcon
Chapter - 4 Experiments For Deriving Basic Properties of Sifcon
Chapter - 4 Experiments For Deriving Basic Properties of Sifcon
CHAPTER - 4
4.1 General
This Chapter presents the details of experiments for evaluating the behaviour
concluded that there is need to asses properties of SIFCON with locally available
fibres and materials so that the actual values can be used to model non-linear response
of SIFCON slabs. The various materials used in this investigation are cement, fine
aggregate, fibres, super plasticizer and water and their properties are presented in the
following sections.
fibres and also to understand the stress-strain behaviour of a SIFCON a total number
of 3 SIFCON mixes have been tried. Three mixes were SIFCON with 8%, 10% and
12% volume fraction of fibre. In all the mixes the same type of fine aggregate i.e.
clean river sand has been used. The proportion of cement to sand has been maintained
constant as 1:1. Ordinary Portland Cement 43 grade from a single batch has been
used.
order to improve the flow ability of the slurry to ensure complete infiltration without
The materials used in SIFCON are steel fibers, fine aggregate, cement, water
and admixture. The material properties of cement, fine aggregate and water are as
follows:
4.3.1 Cement
Standards (IS 12269:1987) was used in the present investigation. The cement was
tested for various properties as per IS: 8112 -1989. The results of these tests are
5 Compressive Strength at
3 days 30.00 N/mm2 23.00N/mm2
7 days 39.30 N/mm2 33.00 N/mm2
28 days 58.30 N/mm2 43.00 N/mm2
383-1970 has been used as Fine Aggregate. Following tests have been carried out as
per the procedure given in IS 383(1970) [2] and the results are presented in Tables
4.2.
87
a) Specific Gravity
b) Bulk Density
c) Grading
4.3.3 Fibres
The type of fiber used in this study was made of steel and having unit weight
STEELS were used in the present study. They were cut into required length of 50mm
using shear cutter equipment with an aspect ratio of 50. The ultimate tensile strength
was 417MPa. Black steel fibers are commercially available and are generally used for
binding the steel reinforcement in RCC works. The properties of fibre are presented
Carbon 0.06
Manganese 0.39
Sulphur 0.23
Phosphorous 0.022
Silicon 0.19
Aluminum 0.022
Carbon Equivalent 0.13
Yield Strength N/mm2 331
UTS N/mm2 417
Grade SAE 1008
4.3.4 Water
Clean potable fresh water which is free from concentration of acid and organic
substances has been used for mixing the concrete. The results of various tests are
S. No Parameter Amount
1 pH 9.2
2 Taste Agreeable
3 Appearance Normal
4 Turbidity (NT Units) 3
5 Colour (Hazen Units) 2
6 Hardness (mg/l) 1
7 Sulphates (mg/l) 0.3
8 Chlorides (mg/l) 9
action of plasticizers or water reducers is to decrease the viscosity of the mix and
89
1.5% of cement quantity was mixed to the water thoroughly before the mix.
plasticizer is used only to improve the workability of the slurry. The properties are
In the present investigation after making a few trials with different volume
fraction of fibres and fibre lengths, it is observed that beyond 12% fibre volume and
beyond 50 mm fibre length, placing of fibres manually in the mould is very tedious
and uniform mixing of fibres can not be achieved. So based on the observations, the
SIFCON slab specimens have been modeled with three different volume fractions of
fibres i.e., 8, 10 and 12% in the present work. A constant fibre length of 50mm has
been adopted. The aspect ratio of fibre works out to 50. The cement-mortar slurry
was prepared with 1:1 proportion using w/c ratio 0.45. Super plasticizer was added to
per cent by weight of cement) was used. Steel fibers were procured from Vizag steels
Limited, Visakhapatnam.
90
The moulds were filled with 8, 10, and 12 per cents of fibers in layers and
slurry was poured into respective moulds. Hand tamping is done with a tamping rod.
Almost nine specimens were cast for each percent of fibers i.e. three cubes, three
beams and three cylinders. The mix proportion is briefly given below in Table 4.6
indicating the mix proportion of sand, water cement ratio, dosage of each plasticizer
The cubes are cast in steel moulds of inner dimensions of 150mm x 150mm x
150mm and the cylinders are cast in steel moulds of inner dimensions of 150 mm
diameter and 300 mm height Steel fibers are laid in layers and then the cement slurry
prepared as per the mix proportion is slowly poured in to the mould till the mould is
completely filled with slurry. Tamping should be done properly with tamping rod to
entrap the air between steel fibers. Six specimens were casted for every percentage of
SIFCON at the ages of 7 and 28 days to establish the average compressive strength.
The test specimens are stored in moist air for 24hours and after this period the
91
specimens are marked and removed from the molds and kept submerged in clear fresh
water until taken out prior to test. The three types of matrices explained above have
been used for producing slurry with water -binder ratio of 0.45 along with a high
range water-reducing admixture. The details of casting are presented in Figs. 4.2 to
4.4.
The set up for cube compressive strength is depicted in Figs. 4.5 & 4.6.
Compression test on the cubes is conducted on the 2000 kN. AIMIL - make digital
compression testing machine. The pressure gauge of the machine indicating the load
has a least count of 1 kN. The cube was placed in the compression-testing machine
and the load on the cube is applied at a constant rate up to the failure of the specimen
and the ultimate load is noted. Compressive strength test was conducted as per IS
516:1959 using compressive testing machine as shown in Fig. 4.6. Three cubes were
tested for every percentage of replacement with steel fiber at the ages of 7 and 28 days
to establish the average compressive strength. The average compressive strength are
the loading surfaces of a compression testing machine and load is applied until failure
machine as shown in Fig. 4.7. The cylinders prepared for testing are 150 mm in
diameter and 300 mm long. After noting the weight of the cylinder, diametrical lines
are drawn on the two ends, such that they are in the same axial plane. Then the
cylinder is placed on the bottom compression plate of the testing machine and is
aligned such that the lines marked on the ends of the specimen are vertical. Then the
top compression plate is brought into contact at the top of the cylinder. The load is
applied at uniform rate, until the cylinder failed and the load is recorded. From this
load, the splitting tensile strength is calculated for each specimen. The results of split
28 days average
Percentage of fiber
S.No. split tensile
used
strength(N/mm2)
1 SIFCON-8 5.80
2 SIFCON-10 6.12
3 SIFCON-12 6.56
machine. The Dog bone specimens prepared for testing are of 300 x 100 x 25mm
size. The specimens were de-moulded after 28 days of water curing. The dog bone
specimen is placed between top and bottom clutches such that the specimen is
vertical. The load is applied at uniform rate, until the specimen failed and the load is
recorded. From this load, the direct tensile strength is calculated for each specimen.
The results of direct tensile test are presented in Table 4.9. In the present work, yield
strength of 1.5MPa is used to model SIFCON slab. The stress strain data needed to
model SIFCON slabs with different volume fraction of fibre obtained from tension
Table 4.10 Stress – Strain data of SIFCON specimens with different volume
fraction of fibers
volume
fraction of Data
S.No
fiber
Stress
1.80 2.20 3.50 5.50 5.80
(N/mm2)
1 SIFCON -8
Strain
0.0085 0.01 0.03 0.40 0.70
Stress
1.80 2.60 3.80 5.70 6.00
(N/mm2)
2 SIFCON -10
Strain
0.0085 0.01 0.025 0.35 0.60
Stress
1.80 2.80 4.20 6.00 6.50
(N/mm2)
3 SIFCON-12
Strain
0.0085 0.01 0.023 0.33 0.55
modelled slabs. Considering the strength of the used SIFCON and the amount of
locally available steel fibre, the specimens will never reach the yield stress in
compression damage parameters are omitted in the analysis. The tensile behaviour is
from the data. For the purpose of discussion, the curve is divided into two parts: as
ascending branch up to the peak load, and a descending branch from the elongation at
the peak load to complete separation i.e. complete failure of component with wide
crack opening. But we are interested in simulating the non-linear portion in ascending
branch. The elongation up to the ultimate load can transmitted into tensile strain i.e.,
strain-elongation divided by gage length directly; the elongation beyond the peak load
represents primarily the opening of a critical crack and cannot be directly used as a
97
strain. Two observations that can be made for ascending branch are the ascending
branch of the stress-strain curve is nonlinear, and the strains to the ultimate load and
As testing begins, the stress-strain curve is linear over a small portion because
it is following hooks law, then gradually becomes nonlinear as the maximum load is
cracking in the testing zone. These cracks are usually small but clearly visible during
testing and tend to be evenly distributed across the testing zone; however, they are not
the peak stress represents the true stress strain response of the composite. In the final
stages of this region, failure mode and location are determined as one of the many
small tensile cracks in the testing zone begins opening to become the failure zone. A
peak point could be determined from each curve, but often a flat plateau can better
describe the behaviour near the peak. So nonlinearity of the stress-strain curves is due
to the immediate opening of cracks and possible debonding of fibres during testing.
Since the matrix involved is very strong, it is unlikely that load-induced cracking is
responsible for the initial nonlinearity of the curve. The observed nonlinearity must
exist due to the presence of cracks already in the matrix before testing. Cracks are
separation can be defined by post-cracking tension softening. Stress strain data has
been obtained based on fracture energy and stress displacement relations with known
crack band to define the tensile behaviour. (i.e. the post failure behaviour in tension
can be defined by strain, crack opening (displacement), and fracture energy (energy
From the values given in table 4.7, it can be observed that the 7 day
of fibres. It can further be observed that the 7 day compressive strength of SIFCON-
concluded that addition of locally available low tensile steel fibers also contribute to
compressive strength of the mix. Similar observation was made by earlier researchers
using high tensile steel fibers. It can be observed that the 28 days cube compressive
conformity with results of previous investigations. This result is expected because the
addition of fibres enhances the load carrying capacity of the mix and the increase is
also justified as per simple rule of mixtures. Thus it can be observed that addition of
It can also be observed that the split tensile strength increases with increasing volume
This result is justified because addition of steel fibres with higher tensile strength can
definitely contribute to the tensile strength of the composite. Thus, it can be observed
that addition of fibres has significantly increased the split tensile strength. The major
lacuna of low tensile strength of concrete can be thus be alleviated by using SIFCON.
components and for evaluation of stiffness criteria. For safe and efficient use, the
99
stress - strain response of the composite should be known, with the peak strength and
the modulus of elasticity being two of the most important parameters of this response.
Thus, there is need to generate experimental data related to the elastic modulus of
meter attached to the specimen as shown in Fig. 4.8. The poisons ratio is determined
using the lateral compression meter along with the longitudinal compression meter
attached to the specimen as shown in Figs. 4.8 and 4.9. The modulus of elasticity is
constant rate up to the failure of the specimen cylinder. Dial gauge reading divided by
gauge length will give the strain and load applied divided by area of cross section will
give the stress. A series of readings are taken and the stress-strain relationship is
modulus. Fig.4.10 shows a typical stress –strain curve to show how the modulus of
elasticity is obtained. A tangent is drawn to the stress strain curve at the origin and the
slope of the tangent is taken as initial tangent modulus of elasticity. Similarly the
fixed to the lateral compression meter along with longitudinal compression meter at
regular intervals. The poison’s ratio is calculated by using expression lateral strain to
volumes of fibre and poison’s ratio obtained from the present investigation are
Fig. 4.8 Test set up for determining Modulus of Elasticity and Poisson’s ratio
SIFCON
S.No Property Plain
8% 10% 12% Concrete
It can be observed from the Table 11 that the modulus of elasticity of SIFCON
that it is difficult to define an elastic range for SIFCON. In the present investigation
elastic modulus of SIFCON has been calculated from stress-strain curves as initial
tangent modulus. The minimum value of elastic modulus for SIFCON was observed
for SIFCON-8 is 0.5 x 104 MPa and the maximum value is observed for mix
composites. Specimens made with locally available black wires yielded an average
elastic modulus in the range 0.5 x 104 MPa to 0.75 x 104 MPa. Two things may be
responsible for this behaviour. First, the smooth surface of the fibres may not restrain
internal shrinkage cracking as well as the deformed surface of the fibres. This leads
to greater internal cracking and a material with lower stiffness. Second, because of
their better matrix-to-fibre and fibre-to-fibre bond result in a stiffer composite at small
strains.
The finite element method combined with nonlinear fracture mechanics was
used by Gerstle, Ingraffea, and Gergelyto study the tension stiffening effect in tension
members. In the present work, the SIFCON slab is modeled by using decreased
cracks was studied using discrete crack modelling. In the smeared crack approach,
elasticity and leaving the steel modulus unchanged, or by first increasing and then
gradually decreasing the steel modulus of elasticity and setting the concrete modulus
to zero as cracking progresses. Scanlon and Murray (1974) introduced the concept of
of this approach have been used in finite element models by a number of researchers.
4.10 Summary
The details of tests conducted on basic raw materials like cement, fine
aggregate, water and steel fibres used in the present investigation are presented in this
chapter. The experiments have been conducted to obtain the material properties of
increase in the compressive strength, tensile strength and elastic modulus with an
increase in the volume fraction of fibers. The test set up for obtaining stress – strain
curve and hence E (modulus of elasticity) and poisons ratio are also presented in this
chapter.