Effects of curing types, fly ash fineness and fibre lengths on mechanical and impact properties of steel fibre reinforced concretes

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the effects of fly ash fineness, steel fibre lengths and types of curing on the compressive strength and impact strength of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). To study these behaviour, the SFRC mixtures were prepared using class-F fly ashes with specific surface areas of 2320, 3320 and 5980 cm²/g and steel fibres with lengths of 8 , 13 and 16 mm. The SFRC samples were subjected to standard wet curing, steam curing and hot water curing. The compressive strength tests were carried out after 7-, 28-, 90- and 180-day curing periods and the impact strength test was carried out after 90 days of respective curing. Results show that the workability of SFRC decreases with increase in fly ash fineness and steel fibre lengths. Results also show that the compressive strength of SFRC increase with increase in fly ash fineness and increase in length of steel fibres at all ages and all curing conditions. However, steam curing shows significant improvement in compressive strength gains of all SFRC compared to hot water curing at all ages except at 180 days. Good correlations are also observed in compressive strength with increase in steel fibre lengths at 28 and 90 days. 

KEYWORDS:

• Fly ash fineness
• impact energy
• curing
• mechanical properties
• fibre
• aspect ratio

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Faiz Ahmed Shaikh

Dr. Faiz Uddin Ahmed Shaikh is an Associate Professor in School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering of Curtin University, Australia. His research focus on the development of sustainable binder by incorporating high volume fractions of industrial by-products as partial replacement of OPC and nano and ultrafine materials, use of recycled aggregates in sustainable concrete, mechanical characterisation of fibre reinforced cement and geopolymer concretes, behaviour of geopolymer composite in fire and natural fibre reinforced composites.  He is a Chartered profession engineer (CPEng.) of Australia, fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust) and member of Concrete institute of Australia.

Hasanahan Arel

Dr. Hasan Sahan Arel is an Associate Professor in department of Architecture of Izmir University, Turkey. His research interest is in building and construction materials and sustainability.