International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 9, Issue 5, May 2018, pp. 1066–1074, Article ID: IJCIET_09_05_119

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=9&IType=5
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

BEHAVIOR OF POLYPROPYLENE FIBERS

REINFORCED CONCRETE MODIFIED WITH
HIGH PERFORMANCE CEMENT
Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-Tameemi
Faculty of Engineering, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq

ABSTRACT
Fiber reinforced concrete is an improved type of concrete that containing fibers
randomly distributed inside it. Usually, the mechanical properties of concrete have been
developed namely, compressive, flexural, and tensile strength by adding the fibers. In
addition, the fiber makes the concrete very durable, tougher and lower permeability. This
paper aims to enhance the concrete mechanical properties by adding polypropylene fibers
in combination with high performance cement as a partial cement replacement. The
combination of both polypropylene fibers and high performance cement in concrete gave
excellent values of flexural, tensile and compressive strength. Seven percentages of
polypropylene fibers were used while two percentages of high performance cement were
used, in addition to normal specimens of concrete without any admixtures. Test results
give a well improvement by using both polypropylene fibers and high performance
cement. The flexural strength and the tensile strength are increased significantly from 2.7
to 14.5 MPa, and from 1.9 to 7 MPa, respectively. While concrete strength of compression
increased from 30.1 MPa to 42.9 MPa due to inclusion of polypropylene fibers and high
performance cement. The concrete specimens with including both high performance
cement and polypropylene fibers had adequate strength to counteract further cycles of
loading after releasing 1st failure load.
Keywords: Polypropylene fiber, Concrete Flexural strength, High performance cement,
Compressive strength, and Tensile strength.
Cite this Article: Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-
Tameemi, Behavior of polypropylene Fibers Reinforced Concrete Modified with High
Performance Cement, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 9(5),
2018, pp. 1066–1074.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=9&IType=5

1. INTRODUCTION
Adding fibers to concrete is not a new concept. Fibers used during the 1950s of last century
and used as a concrete building material in 1960 [1]. The main reason to use fibers such as
steel or polypropylene fibers is to control cracking of concrete members both cracks due to
plastic and drying shrinkage of concrete and also to delay propagation of cracks due to

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 Behavior of polypropylene Fibers Reinforced Concrete Modified with High Performance Cement

applying loads on concrete members [2, 3]. Using polypropylene fibers in concrete leads to
increase in tension and compressive strength of concrete [4]. In addition, using fibers such as
steel fibers improves the flexural strength and ductility of concrete [5]. Different types of
fibers can be used to improve properties of concrete; the main types are steel, glass and
polypropylene fibers.
In this paper, the main objective is to investigate the effects of adding polypropylene
fibers with using high performance cement (HP Cement) on concrete quality and mechanical
properties. Different percentages of polypropylene fibers and HP Cement were used. The
compressive, tensile and flexural tests were carried out for each concrete mix. The test results
of including both of polypropylene fibers and HP Cement compared against the test results of:
a-concrete including HP Cement, b- concrete including polypropylene fibers and, c-concrete
without any additional ingredients.

2. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
2.1. Materials Properties
In all mixes the sulfate resistance cement was used. Natural sand confirming American
standards ASTM-C33 -03M [6] was used as fine aggregate, and sand grading is shown in
Table (1). Also, as coarse aggregate the crushed gravel confirming ASTM C33 was used, and
Table (2) shows the sieve analysis of coarse aggregate with maximum size of aggregate was
equal to 9.5 mm. High performance cementitious adhesive (latex modified) is the type of
cement was used as a partial cement replacement, and its properties are shown in Table (3). It
used generally for fixing tiles, marble, ceramics, sandstones and fixing polystyrene boards to
concrete [7]. Figure (1) shows a sample of HP Cement. The physical and mechanical
properties of polypropylene fibers gave been used in this study, are shown in Table (4), and a
sample of the polypropylene fibers shown in Fig. (2).

Table 1 Fine aggregate Grading

Sieve sizePercent passing (%)Passing (%), ASTM- C33
9.5 mm 100 100
4.75 mm 96.5 95–100
2.36 mm 82.2 80-100
1.18 mm 57.8 50-85
600 μm 41.4 25-60
300 μm 6.6 5-30
150 μm 4.3 0-10

Table 2 Coarse aggregate (crushed gravel) Grading

Sieve sizePercent passingASTM- C33 ,% Passing
12.5 100 100
9. 5 98.6 85 - 100
4.75 26.3 10-30
2.36 9.4 0-10
1.18 1.7 0-5

Table 3 High performance cement properties

Tensile
Composition Color Shear strength Shear strength
adhesion
Cement, siliceous
grey 12 MPa 14 MPa (7days) 19 MPa(28days)
sand, and additives

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 Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-Tameemi

Table 4 Polypropylene fibers properties

Specific gravityTensile strength Elongation at failureColor length diameter
0.91 550 MPa 21 % white 6.2 mm 0.04 mm

Figure 1 High performance cement used in study Figure 2 Polypropylene fibers used in study

2.2. Mixes proportions

In this work, there are four types of concrete mixes. Table (4) shows the proportions of
concrete reference mix, which was without any additional ingredients. The second types of
mixes were including HP Cement as partial cement replacement. Two percentages of HP
Cement were used. The percentages were 10 and 20% by weight of the cement. The third
types of mixes were with adding polypropylene fibers only. Seven different percentages of
polypropylene fibers were added. The percentages were 0.5 %, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0 %, 2.50%,
3%, and 3.5 % by weight of the cement. The fourth types of mixes were including both
polypropylene fibers and HP Cement. The fourth groups of mixes consisted of fourteen
combinations of polypropylene fibers and HP Cement; the seven different percentages of the
polypropylene fibers with each percentage of HP Cement.

3. SAMPLING AND TESTING

Cubic concrete samples were cast using steel molds with 10×10×10 cm dimensions for
compressive strength test as shown in Figure (3). Tensile strength of concrete was determined
by splitting tensile test for 10×20 cm concrete cylinders as shown in Figure (4). Flexural
strength tests were conducted on concrete beams of dimensions of 10×10×40 cm, with two
points loading as shown in Figure (5). The value of flexural strength (fr) was found by
Equation (1).
1

Where, fr= flexural strength of tested beam; P=maximum applied load; b= beam width;
L=beam length; d=beam depth. All specimens were subjected to wet curing technique in
which specimens were put in water after 48h of casting until testing date at age of 28 days.
Three samples were tested for every strength type (compressive, tensile and flexural strength
test). Each testing result was determined as the mean of three samples.

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 Behavior of polypropylene Fibers Reinforced Concrete Modified with High Performance Cement

Table 5 Reference mix ingredients used in the study

Cement Sand Gravel Water Proportions
400 kg 620 kg1200 kg180 kg1:1.55:3.0: 0.45

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1. Effects of Partial Replacement of Cement by High Performance Cement
The effects of HP Cement on concrete compressive, tensile and flexural strength were
investigated using two different percentages of partial replacement, and the results shown in
Table (6) and Figures (6,7, and 8). Test results refer to, that the flexural and tensile strength of
concrete increased considerably due to using HP Cement, while the effect of was slightly on
the concrete compression strength. This can be attributed to the contribution of polymer
network in bonding cement hydration products together in a polymer-cement co-matrix [8, 9,
and 10]. By comparing with the concrete mix without any additional ingredients (reference
mix), the flexural, tensile and compressive strength increased by 99, 56 and 4%, respectively,
due to 10% of HP Cement. Likewise, the relative increases were 149, 83 and 7% for the
flexural, tensile and compressive strength, respectively, due to 20% replacement of HP
Cement.

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 Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-Tameemi

Table 6 Effects of partial replacement of cement by HP cement on concrete properties

Partial replacement of HP Cement Concrete strength (MPa)
(%) Compressive SplittingFlexural
0.0 (reference) 30.12 1.95 2.73
10.0 31.17 3.05 5.45
20.0 32.35 3.56 6.80

4.2. Effects of polypropylene fibers

Test results of concrete mixes with different polypropylene fibers percentages are stated in
Table (7) and presented in Figures (6, 7, and 8). The addition of polypropylene fibers could
considerably increase the flexural, tensile and compressive concrete strength. The flexural and
tensile strength increased as the polypropylene fibers percentage increased, while the
compressive strength stopped increasing when the polypropylene fibers percentage reached
3.5%. The increases relative to reference concrete mix ranged (72 to 277) %, (37 to 175) %,
and (4 to 24) % for flexural, tensile, and compressive strength, respectively. This can be
attributed to action of fibers that resist propagations of micro cracks in concrete during
loading and prevent cracks from spreading wider or growing longer [11].

Table 7 Effects of polypropylene fibers addition on concrete properties

polypropylene fibers Concrete strength (MPa)
(%) CompressiveSplittingFlexural
0.0 (reference) 30.12 1.95 2.73
0.5 31.26 2.68 4.7
1.0 32.91 3.72 6.61
1.5 34.18 4.25 7.74
2.0 35.28 4.66 8.41
2.5 36.86 5.21 9.46
3.0 37.45 5.46 10.25
3.5 37.27 5.37 10.29

Figure 6 Comparison of Relationship between flexural strength versus polypropylene fibers and HP
Cement percentages in concrete

Figure 7 Comparison of Relationship between tensile strength versus polypropylene fibers and HP
Cement percentages in concrete

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 Behavior of polypropylene Fibers Reinforced Concrete Modified with High Performance Cement

Figure 8 Comparison of Relationship between compressive strength versus polypropylene fibers and
HP Cement percentages in concrete

4.3. Effects of Inclusion HP Cement and Polypropylene Fibers

Test results of concrete mixes with different combinations of both HP Cement and
polypropylene fibers are summarized in Table (8) and showed in Figures (9, 10, and 11).
Testing results indicate that the improvements in flexural, tensile and compression strengths
were more noticeable and significant. Each of the flexural, tensile and compressive strength
increased as the percentages of both admixtures components increased. In comparison with
the reference concrete mix, the increases ranged (158 to 432) %, (88 to 261)%, and (7 to 43)%
for flexural, tensile, and compressive strength, respectively.

Table 8 Effects of HP Cement and polypropylene fibers on concrete properties

polypropylene fibers Concrete strength (MPa)
HP Cement (%)
(%) CompressiveSplittingFlexural
0.0 (reference) 0.0 (reference) 30.12 1.95 2.73
0.5 32.25 3.70 7.03
1 34.12 4.56 8.29
1.5 35.87 5.04 9.24
10.0
2 37.65 5.56 9.98
2.5 38.87 5.85 11.06
3 40.1 6.20 11.89
0.5 33.97 4.30 8.28
1 36.32 5.12 9.30
1.5 38.56 5.63 10.36
20.0 2 39.95 6.14 11.87
2.5 41.40 6.51 13.07
3 42.75 6.91 14.24
3.5 42.96 7.04 14.52

Figure 9 Relationship between flexural strength and polypropylene fibers percentage

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 Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-Tameemi

Figure 10 Relationship between tensile strength and polypropylene fibers percentage

Figure 11 Relationship between compressive strength and polypropylene fibers percentage

4.4. Reloading Strength of Concrete Specimens

It was clearly noticed that the concrete specimens with inclusion both HP Cement and
polypropylene fibers had adequate strength to counteract further cycles of loading after
releasing the failure load. For compressive test, Table (9) shows values of compressive
strength test after failure for concrete specimens including combination of 20% HP Cement
and 2% polypropylene fibers. It shows how much the concrete cube resist stresses after
failure, this concrete type resisted 8 cycles of loading after failure until complete damaging.
On the other hand, concrete of reference mix resisted only 2 loading after failure as shown in
Table (10). That shows how much the post-cracking behavior of this type of concrete was
improved that did not damage after failure easily.

Table 9 Data of compressive strength that fiber concrete resist after failure
Failure stress No. cycles of loading
Mix type
(MPa) after failure
39.07 1st loading
31.42 1st loading after failure
26.40 2nd loading after failure
23.13 3rd loading after failure
2%Polypropylene fiber
20.02 4th loading after failure
with 20% HP Cement
19.27 5th loading after failure
18.00 6th loading after failure
13.77 7th loading after failure
12.17 8th loading after failure

Table 10 Compressive failure for reference cubic mix

Failure No. cycles of loading after
Mix type
stress (MPa) failure
30.12 1st loading
reference mix 12.23 1st loading after failure
without fibers 2nd loading after failure
6.11
(complete crushing)

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 Behavior of polypropylene Fibers Reinforced Concrete Modified with High Performance Cement

For flexural strength, the test results of reloading tests for flexural specimens conformed
the fact of improved post-cracking behavior. The concrete beam specimens with combination
of both HP Cement and polypropylene could resist more loading cycles after first failure.
Table (11) shows loading cycles of concrete beam specimens with two different combinations
of both HP Cement and polypropylene fibers after failure in flexure test. That shows how
much this type of concrete could resist loading after failure comparing with reference mix that
broke in two pieces without any ductility. Figure (12) shows the beams under repeated loads
after failure. The beams with 2% polypropylene fiber and 20% HP Cement resisted more
loading cycles than beams with 1% polypropylene fiber and 10% HP Cement.

Table 11 Flexural strength of concrete including combinations of polypropylene fiber and HP Cement
at different loading cycles after failure.
Flexural strength No. cycles of loading after
Concrete type
(MPa) failure
7.98 Original flexural strength
1%Polypropylene fiber 1.93 1st loading stress after failure
with10% HP Cement 1.15 2nd
0.82 3rd, complete failure
11.94 Original flexural strength
3.66 1st loading stress after failure
2%Polypropylene fiber
2.69 2nd
with 20% HP Cement
1.54 3rd
0.96 4th, complete failure

5. CONCLUSINS
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the test results that obtained in this research
work:
1. The flexural and tensile strength of concrete increased considerably due to using
HP Cement as cement partial replacement, while the effect of was slightly on the
concrete compressive strength. In comparison with the concrete reference mix, the
flexural, tensile and compressive strength increased by 99, 56 and 4%,
respectively, due to 10% replacement of HP Cement. Likewise, the relative
increases were 149, 83 and 7% for the flexural, tensile and compressive strength,
respectively, due to 20% replacement of HP Cement.
2. The addition of polypropylene fibres could significantly increase the flexural,
tensile and compressive concrete strength. The increases relative to reference
concrete mix ranged from 72 to 277% for flexural strength, from 37 to 175% for
tensile strength, and from 4 to 24% for compressive strength when the percentages
of polypropylene fibres ranged between 0.5 to 3.5%.

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 Haider A. A. Al-Katib, Hayder H. Alkhudery, and Haider Ali Al-Tameemi

3. The improvements in flexural, tensile and compressive concrete strengths were

more pronounced and significant when the concrete mix including a combination
of both HP Cement and polypropylene fibres. In comparison with the reference
concrete mix, the increases ranged from 158 to 432% for flexural strength, from 88
to 261% for tensile strength, and from 7 to 43% for compressive strength when
different combinations of both HP Cement and polypropylene fibres were used.
4. The concrete specimens which including combination of both HP Cement and
polypropylene fibres had adequate strength to counteract further cycles of loading
after releasing the failure load.

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