An Experimental Investigation on Mechanical Properties of High Performance Slurry Infiltrated Fibrous Concrete (HPSIFCON)

Abstract The technology is giving impetus to research driven towards new materials for more efficient and reliable construction. Slurry Infiltrated Fibrous Concrete has proven to be useful for specialized applications encountering high stresses and reversal of stresses. Applications such as post tensioning can benefit from High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement based Composites that can also offer early strength gain. The present study focuses on an extensive experimental program to develop and evaluate structural properties of High Performance Slurry Infiltrated Fibrous Concrete (HPSIFCON) that incorporates this high performance characteristic and also high strength into SIFCON. High cementitious content of the typical SIFCON has also been reduced by the use of alternate binders incorporating industrial wastes. Both end hooked steel fibers of aspect ratio 80 varying in 4, 5, 5.5, 6 and 7% content and slurry incorporating micro particles of ultrafine microsilica, fly ash and alccofine were used. The high performance concrete has the desirable properties of early strength gain and high strength above 100MPa. Under compressive, tensile and flexural loading, fibers were observed to provide crack bridging effect in HPSIFCON. No brittle failure is observed. Considerable enhancement has been observed in the flexural and tensile strength. The optimum steel fiber volume fraction of 5.5% led to improvement in the mechanical properties. Fine binder materials with their properties such as high surface area, small size, and pozzolanic activity develop a denser microstructure and improved pore structure in comparison to conventional concrete mixes which results in a ductile material with improved load bearing capacity. HPSIFCON provides a sustainable, low carbon and efficient concrete for the specialized application Keywords: High Performance Slurry Infiltrated Fibrous Concrete, Mechanical properties, Steel fiber, Alccofine, Ultrafine Microsilica, Fly ash