Mechanical and Fresh State Properties of Medium Strength Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) Containing Polypropylene Fibres

Department of Structure and Material Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, 86400 Batu Pahat, Johor

^* Corresponding author: noridah@uthm.edu.my

Abstract

Due to the rising demand of infrastructure development, concrete has been one of the vital ingredients in this field considering its flexibility to mould any structural shape and design. This paper investigates the effect of adding polypropylene fibres on the mechanical and fresh properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC). The mechanical property tests were conducted on various SCC specimen which include cubes, cylinders and beams to determine its compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete. The workability of self-compacting concrete in terms of viscosity is determined from slump flow test (Diameter and T500), and V-funnel. The results indicated that the addition of polypropylene fibres improved the mechanical properties of SCC at almost every volume fraction considered in this study. It was also observed that the addition of 0.1% fibre significantly enhanced the splitting tensile strength and flexural strength of concrete. Finally, the overall results indicated that introducing fibres to concrete would result in a noticeable decrease in workability and fresh state properties.