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CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 HISTORY OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

A French gardener by name Joseph Monier first invented the

reinforced concrete in the year 1849. If not for this reinforced concrete

most of the modern buildings would not have been standing today.

Reinforced concrete can be used to produce frames, columns,

foundation, beams etc. Reinforcement material used should have

excellent bonding characteristic, high tensile strength and good

thermal compatibility. Reinforcement requires that there shall be

smooth transmission of load from the concrete to the interface

between concrete and reinforcement material and then on to

reinforcement material. Thus the concrete and the material reinforced

shall have the same strain.

1.1.1 Steel Reinforced Concrete

The steel bars are reinforced into the concrete. The bars have a

rough, corrugated surface thus allowing better bonding with steel

rebars the concrete gets extra tensile strength. The compression

strength, bending also show marked improvement thermal expansion

characteristic of steel rebars and concrete shall match. The rebar shall

have cross sectional are equal to 1% for slabs and beams, this can be

6% in case of columns (www.wikipedia.com). The concrete has

alkaline nature, this forms a passivating film around the bars thereby

protecting it from corrosion. This passivating film will not form in


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neutral or acidic condition. Carbonation of concrete takes place along

with chloride absorption resulting in failure of steel rebar.

By comparing the tension capacity of steel bars and concrete +

steel reinforcements the reinforced concrete can be called as under

reinforced (tensile capacity of bars in less than concrete + bar) it is

over reinforced (tensile capacity of steel is greater than concrete + steel

tensile strength. The over reinforced fails without giving prior warning

and under reinforced fails but gives a deformation warning before it

fails. Therefore it is better to consider an under reinforced concrete.

1.2 FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE

The construction material is continuously evolving. The demand

for high strength, crack, resistant and lighter concrete resulted in

development of fiber reinforced concrete (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). Fibers that

are used are steel, nylon, asbestos, glass, carbon, sisal, jute, coir,

polypropylene, kenaf.

1.2.1 History of FRC

The practice of adding certain fibers to construction material dates

back to the ancient times. When horse hair, straws were used to

strengthen the bricks. In 1911 Porter found that fiber could be used

in concrete. Early 1900 saw the use of asbestos fiber. In 1950 fiber

reinforced concrete was becoming a field of interest as asbestos being

a health risk was discovered. In 1963 Romualdi and Batson published

their classic paper on FRC. Since then there was no looking back,

glass, steel, polypropylene fiber were used in concrete.


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1.2.2 Necessity of FRC

The use of concrete as a structural material is limited to certain

extent by deficiencies like brittleness, poor tensile strength and poor

resistance to impact strength, fatigue, low ductility and low durability.

It is also very much limited to receive dynamic stresses caused due to

explosions.

The brittleness is compensated in structural member by the

introduction of reinforcement (or) pre-stressing steel in the tensile

zone. However it does not improve the basic property of concrete. It is

merely a method of using two materials for the required performance.

The main problem of low tensile strength and the requirements of high

strength still remain and it is to be improved by different types of

reinforcing materials. Further concrete is also deficient in ductility,

resistance to fatigue and impact. The importance of rendering

requisite quantities in concrete is increasing with its varied and

challenging applications in pre-cast and pre-fabricated building

elements. The development in the requisite characteristics of concrete

will solve the testing problems of structural engineers by the addition

of fibers and admixtures.

The role of fibers are essentially to arrest any advancing cracks by

applying punching forces at the rack tips, thus delaying their

propagation across the matrix. The ultimate cracking strain of the

composite is thus increased to many times greater than that of un-

reinforced matrix. Admixtures like fly ash, silica fume, granulated

blast furnace slag and metakaolin can be used for such purposes.
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However addition of fibers and mineral admixtures posses certain

problems regarding mixing, as fibers tends to form balls and

workability tends to decrease during mixing.

1.2.3 Behaviour of Fiber in Concrete

Fibers contribute towards reducing the bleeding in fresh concrete and renders

concrete more impermeable in the hardened stage. Contribution of certain percentage

of fibers in concrete towards flexural strength is smaller compared to the strength

given by the rebars. Most importantly fiber restricts the growth of crack

under load thereby arresting ultimate cracking. Non metallic fibers like

alkali resistant glass fiber and synthetic fibers provide resistance against chemicals.

Reinforcing capacity of fiber is based on length of fiber, diameter of

fiber, the percentage of fiber and condition of mixing, orientation of

fibers and aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is ratio of length of fiber to its

diameter which plays an important role in the process of

reinforcement.

1.3 TYPES OF FIBER

1.3.1 Asbestos Fiber

This comes under naturally occurring mineral fiber. Asbestos fiber

shows very good resistance to heat, electrical, chemical damage and

fire. It has average tensile strength. Hence it became very popular is

the late 19th century. Asbestos is a combination of six naturally

occurring silicates. They were originally used in building insulation

electrical insulation for hot plate curing. More water is required when

asbestos fiber is mixed with cement due to high absorption. But later
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it was discovered that asbestos was carcinogenic in nature, hence very

likely to human health that it was totally banned.

1.3.2 Carbon Fiber

Carbon fiber improves the elasticity and gives good tensile

strength. They are formed by oxidation of poly-acronitrile fibers. After

oxidation thermal pyrolysis is carried out thereby producing carbon

fibers. They exhibit high elasticity and give good tensile strength.

Rudder of aeroplanes is manufactured using this fiber.

1.3.3 Aramid Fiber

This is synthetic fiber. As name it is aromatic polyamide. Aramid

fiber is another reinforcing material that could be used. They are

formed by reaction of an amine group and a carboxylic acid halide

group. This fiber is commercially known as technora, kevlar, nomex.

Kevlar was originally used as composite material for manufacturing

the air frame of commercial aeroplane, as they are very light weight

and high strength material. In these fibers, chain molecules are all

oriented along fiber axis, so high strength chemical bond results in its

high strength. This was first discovered by DuPont. They were

excellent substitute for asbestos.

1.3.4 Metallic Fibers

They are manufactured by heating the metal until it evaporizes,

then depositing it at very high pressure on to polyster film. Metallic

fiber is usually aluminized nylon yarn. Metallic fiber is actually a

combination of plastic and metal. They can be drawn from steel wool

too. The metallic fibers are carbon steel fiber or stainless steel fiber.
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1.3.5 Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Nylon Fiber

These show high alkaline resistive and acid resistive property.

Polypropylene is a polymer of polyolefin. Polypropylene fiber in the

form of fibrillated film fibers show excellent bonding with matrix as

the matrix can easily blend into this fibrils thus giving good impact

resistance. The nylon and polypropylene have very high tensile

strength 561.0 – 867.0N/mm2. They could be used where high energy

absorption is required because their high elongation (15-25%) absorbs

more energy. The low modulus of this fiber reduces the reinforcing

property. They are extensively used in pile shell, non-load bearing

corrosion proof member, cladding panels floatation unit, guniting

crack inhibitor. It is a very good steel reinforcement substitute in the

aspect of transportation and handling purpose in case of precast

components because using plastic fiber reduces the size (thinner

section are formed) and increases the crack resistance thereby saving

material, transportation and erection cost.

1.3.6 Glass Fiber

Glass reinforced cement consists of 4 to 4.5 % by volume of glass

fiber mixed into cement or cement sand mortar. This glass reinforced

cement mortar is used for fabricating concrete products having

section of 3 to 12mm in thickness. Methods of manufacture vary and

include spraying, casting, spinning, extruding and pressing. Each

technique imparts different characteristics to the end product. Spray

deposition constitutes a very appropriate and by far the most

developed method of processing. In the simplest form of spray


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processing, simultaneous sprays of cement sane mortar slurry and

chopped glass fiber are deposited from a dual spray gun into, or onto

a suitable mould. Mortar slurry is fed to the spray gun from a

metering pump unit and it is atomized by compressed air. Glass fiber

is fed to a chopper and feeder unit that is mounted on the same gun

assembly. The fibers are manufactured from Glass quarry products.

The glass quarry products are melted in furnace, and then from the

process of bushing, the fiber filaments will be obtained. These are best

suited for application as renovating construction material for

restoration of old heritage buildings and for architectural applications.

1.3.7 Natural Fiber

Natural fiber are wood fiber consisting of bamboo seed etc., fruit

fiber (coir), stem fiber i.e. jute, kenaf, san, flax etc., and leaf fiber like

henqueen, sisal, coconut. The cost efficient and energy efficient

production of this fiber is a natural advantage. But they have high

water absorption, low alkali resistant, are prone to insect and fungal

attack and have low elastic modulus making it a deterrent for usage in

concrete. Sisal fibers are extracted from agave sisalana leaves. It

comprises of pectin, lignin and hemicellulose. They are strong but are

prone to alkali attack. Wood fiber or cellulose fiber is the most

popularity used natural fiber in concrete. The high modulus of

elasticity, tensile strength, and abundance of availability are the major

advantage. Wood fiber is extracted from wood by the process called

pulping. Wood fiber contains cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.

Lignin reduces the strength of fiber, hence chemical pulping process


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called kraft or sulphate is used to remove the lignin. The very low

alkali resistant property of wood fiber can be improved by using

processes that would limit the disintegration of fiber in alkaline

environment.

1.3.8 The Properties of Common Fibers

Table 1 shows the typical properties of various Fibers

Table 1: Typical Properties of Fibers (ACI 544.1R)

Tensile Young’s Ultimate Specific


Type of Fiber
Strength (MPa) Modulus (Gpa) Elongation % Gravity
Acrylic 210-420 2.1 25-45 1.1
Asbestos 560-980 84-140 0.6 3.2
Carbon 1800-2600 230-380 0.5 1.9
Glass 1050-3850 70 1.5-3.5 2.5
Nylon 770-840 4.2 16-20 1.1
Polyester 735-875 8.4 11-13 1.4
Polyethylene 700 0.14-0.42 10 0.9
Polypropylene 560-770 3.5 25 0.9
Rayon 420-630 7 10-25 1.5
Rock Wool 490-770 70-119 0.6 2.7
Steel 280-2800 203 0.5-3.5 7.8

1.4 FORMS OF FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE

1.4.1 Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) is made with hydraulic

cements and containing fine or fine and coarse aggregates along with

discontinuous discrete steel fibers. (ACI 544.4R). Steel fibers are

obtained by cutting drawn wires. Fiber can be indented, crimped,

shaped up in irregular order to provide better mechanical bonding.


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The steel fiber geometry, mixing technique, content, size and shape of

aggregates decide the fiber distribution efficiency. Steel fibers are

short, length is discrete and has an aspect ratio in the range 20-100

with diameter ranging between 0.15 mm to 1 mm (17). When steel

fibers are added to concrete mix they are uniformly distributed and

randomly dispersed. This is then called steel fiber reinforced concrete.

SFRC shows a marked increase in impact, strength, toughness

ductility, tensile toughness and flexural strength properties compared

to plain concrete. But creep and shrinkage are unaffected by adding

steel fiber. SFRC is very effective in controlling the progress of crack

into becoming visible cracks, and also improves impact and abrasion

resistance. The SFRC is used in refractory linings, blast resistance

structure, tunnel linings, pavements and precast concrete unit.

Balling or clumping is a problem when these fibers are used in

concrete in higher percentages and for aspect ratios greater than

100 (5).

1.4.1.1 The Applications of Steel Fibers

1. Cast in place application involve slabs on grade in the form of

industrial floors and parameters.

2. Repairs and re-habitation of marine structures.

3. Slip formed cast in place tunnel lining.

4. Precast panels.

5. Highway construction and repair

6. Airport runways, taxiways, aprons

7. Dam construction and repair


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8. Structural building elements

9. Railroad ties, Machine bases and frames

1.4.2 Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Russians were the first to realize the potential of glass as a

construction material in the 1940’s. But since the glass has very low

alkali resistance it became very difficult to mix it with concrete which

is alkaline in nature. Thus a better glass which is alkali resistant was

made by adding Zirconium to the slurry in 1970 by the British.

Several manufacturing processes for producing glass fiber

reinforced concrete premix products have been developed, such as

casting, spray premix, press molding, extrusion, and pultrusion.

Glass fiber-reinforced concrete premix is a mixture of AR glass fiber,

sand, cement, water, chemical and mineral admixtures, and aggregate

(7, 62). These fibers reduce crack width and spacing between cracks.

They are very high temperature resistant as they absorb high energy

thereby providing the property of ductility. Their light weight property

makes them very popular for concrete mix. They have found varied

use in industry today. They are used as sound reducers when used in

thickness of 10 mm and surface mass of 20 kg/m2. They are used for

repair material for historical buildings and also for extension of old

buildings. Any shape product can be formed with good binding

strength due to their excellent design flexibility. They are used in

sewer relining, earth retaining walls, architectural product as building

facades, claddings, cable troughs and noise protection barrier.


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1.4.2.1 Advantage of GRC

The GRC is

1. Light weight

2. Improved shrinkage properties over plain concrete

3. Accurate properties of GRC, environmental friendly.

4. Used in precast manufacturing.

5. Anti corrosive, highly resistant to chemicals, High flexural

strength, Impact strength and tensile strength.

6. Excellent design flexibility. Any shape products can be formed

with good bending strength.

7. Considerable heat saving is achieved because of low thermal

conductivity.

8. Specific resistance of Glass is higher therefore can be used to

manufacture strands.

9. The thickness of glass filament varies between 10 micron to 20

micron.

The Alkali Resistant glass fibers are manufactured by Saint

Gobain, Cem-FIL (22) are used in the experimental investigations and

are purchased from Ecmas Resins Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad and designated

as ARC 14 306 HD chopped strands, where the notations ARC is

Alkali Resistant Continuous filament. 14 is the filament diameter in

micron, 306 is tex of strand and HD is high dispersion product code.

1.4.2.2 Comparison of GRC with other Fibers

Though polypropylene is cheaper and easily available the flexural

strength of polypropylene is very less compared to GRC. Aramid and


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carbon fibers have better strength than GRC but cost factor makes

them unpopular. The property of bending moment is almost same in

Steel and GRC but then GRC can be moulded in any shape which is

not the case with steel fiber. GRC are of three types, continuous

strands, mesh type and small cut strands type. Glass fiber types

readily available are E, R, D, C and AR. AR glass is most suitable for

GRC.

1.4.3 Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete

When two different fibers are mixed in a common matrix we call it

hybrid fiber reinforced concrete. The fibers are chosen such that their

properties complement each other. That is if one kind of fiber is stiff

and strong we can choose the second fiber as flexible and ductile.

With this combination we can achieve improved first crack stress,

ultimate strength and improved strain and toughness after cracking.

This Hybrid fiber reinforced concrete has achieved excellent results for

bridging the early micro cracks and macro cracks in the later stages

by choosing the appropriate fiber. The crack bridging capability will

make low modulus fiber to increase the strength of the matrix. But

excessive presence of fiber is also harmful as it may lead to defect

during production because fiber and particles will not achieve the

required packing thus reducing the strength. So the quality of fiber

shall be carefully chosen.

1.5 USE OF ADMIXTURES

Varied properties of cement can be obtained by changing the percentage of

ingredient in the cement and if this becomes economical an extra ingredient is added
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to get the disused property for cement. Thus any material that is

added to the cement aggregate and water is called admixture.

Admixture could alter the setting time of cement, improve workability,

provide pigmentation, air entrainment etc. They could be added before

or during mixing.

1.5.1 History of Admixture

The usage of admixtures or additives dates back to Roman and

Egyptian times, where volcano ash was used to allow to set under

water, horse hair was used to reduce cracks during hardening process

and addition of blood resulted in frost resistance structure.

1.5.2 Types of Admixtures

The admixtures that could bring about air entrainment are gas

performing agent like aluminum, zinc powder hydrogen peroxide or

using surface tension reducers like vinsol, resin, animal and vegetable

fats. Air entrainment improves the workability and makes the mix

frost free. So it is used in places where resistance to weather is more

important than strength of concrete. It may be required to delay

setting time of cement specially in tropical countries, oil well

constructions and soil cement stabilization. Delayed setting time is

obtained reducing the rate of chemical reaction. The popular additive

used is gypsum or plaster of paris. This is added during manufacture

of cement. The other additives that could be used are Na2Co3, FeCl3,

tannic acid, gallic acid and sulphonic acid etc. Sometimes it may be

required to speed up the setting time to shorten curing time and

quickly bring the structure to service or to offset lower temperature


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retardation effect. The commonly used additive for this purpose is

CaCl2. This reduces the setting time from 3 hr. to 1 hr. But if 3 % of

CaCl2 is added, the setting time reduces drastically there by

disturbing volume stability. The other additives for this purpose are

Na2SO4, K2SO4, NaOH, and KOH. Water proof property is displayed by

concrete when it has proper mix design and low water cement ratio.

The water proof property could be increased by using pore filling

material or water repellant materials. Pore filling material like Al and

Zn sulphates, silicates of soda, Al2Cl3, CaCl3, talc, chalk and fuellers

earth (multani mitti) are some of the pore filling materials. The water

repellant materials are like soda, potash soaps, vegetable oils, waxes,

fats and coal tar residue. Another very important additive that has

revolutionized the concept of building materials are the pozzolonas.

These materials have no cementitious properties of their own, but

react with lime in presence of water to form compound which have low

solubility and cementation properties. Pozzolana derives its name from

Pozzuoli, a place in Italy near the volcanic mountain of Vesuvius. The

main attraction of this is it allows the cement to set under water and

is also corrosion resistive. Some industrial pozzolanas are fly ash,

silica fume, rice husk ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag and

metakaolin. Some naturally occurring pozzolanas are clay sand

shales, diatomaceous earth, pumices, volcanic tuffs etc. All these

admixtures are also called mineral admixtures (57).

1.5.3 Microsilica in concrete


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Microsilica otherwise referred to as condensed silica fume or just

silica fume (1) has evolved as a major building material almost

replacing the good old Portland cement binder. This is because of its

extreme finesse that can easily move into the particles of cement

thereby enhancing the packing of the mix. The micro silica consists of

glassy sphere of silicon dioxide. This silicon dioxide is obtained when

pure quarts and coal are reacted in an electric arc furnace emitting

silicon oxide. This silicon oxide combines with oxygen present in the

upper part of furnace to form silicon dioxide (SiO2) which is condensed

into spherical form of pure silicon dioxide. The particle size is so small

that it does not exceed 0.5 microns which makes it so fine that it

could more than compete for the finest binding material available. The

specific gravity of this micro silica is 2.20. When the micro silica is

mixed with cement, it enhances the properties like compressive

strength, durability, resistance to chemical attack and reduces the

undesirable properties like water permeability and chloride ion

permeability.

The high binding property of microsilica arises because it combines

with the calcium hydroxide generated during hydration process and

forms calcium silica hydrate (CSH) which enhances the strength and

durability of concrete. The large surface area of micro silica along with

its increased packaging property contributes to the prevention of

bleeding and segregation. Addition of micro silica brings about a

refinement of the concrete pore structure and reduces the amount of

capillary pores there by making the mix almost impenetrable for


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chloride ions. This makes silica fume or micro silica an Ideal mineral

admixture which can be used along with cement in concrete mix to build

structures in marine environment, coastal areas, and sewerage

treatment plant and shotcrete projects. Sulphate attack on concrete is

another major factor for premature concrete failure. Sulphate reacts

with calcium hydroxide forming gypsum. This gypsum in turn reacts

with tricalcium aluminates (C3A) in concrete to form mono

sulfoaluminate and ettringite. This formation results in increase in

volume thereby resulting in cracking or peeling, the addition of

microsilica reduces the Ca(OH)2 content as it forms tricalcium

silicates. The reduction of Ca(OH)2 which is the main cause of the

other reaction makes sulphate ions impenetrable in concrete. Thus

micro silica makes the material very safe to be used in sulphate

environment like sea water and also ground water thereby protecting

the foundation of structure in such places as concrete pipelines and

marine structures. Water seepage is another major problem especially

in concrete structures, where water presses against the concrete

surfaces. The microsilica mixed in concrete reduces water

permeability thereby preventing dampness and seepage thus making

it useful during construction of swimming pools, tanks, sewerage

treatment plant and underground structures. Concrete with

microsilica exhibits high abrasion resistance property. This makes it

very suitable in environs of high wear and tear like highway toll

booths where braking zones and accelerating zones are present and

also on pavements. The microsilica used in these experimental


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investigations is densified microsilica 920 D supplied by M/S Elkem

India Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai. The typical bulk density is ranged between

500 Kg/m3 – 700 Kg/m3, conforming to standard ASTM C 1240 (20) is

shown in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Properties of Microsilica 920 D

1.5.4 Super Plasticizer

It is desirable to have lower water cement ratio during the making

of concrete because this will reduce capillary pores, this in turn

reduces permeability there by giving a high durable concrete, but the

problem is lower water cement ratio reduces workability. In order to

solve this problem the plasticizers and super plasticizers were

introduced. This water reducing admixtures when introduced into the


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manufacture of concrete lowers the water requirement by 20 % to 40

% without reducing the workability leading to high strength concrete.

Plasticizer and super plasticizers comes under the category of

chemical admixtures. Plasticizers are manufactured from a by product

of paper industry called lingo sulphonates. The super plasticizers

otherwise referred to as high range water reducers are organic

polymers manufactured from sulphonated naphthalene condensate.

This lignin and naphthalene sulphonate wrap their long molecular

chain around the cement particles giving them a negative charge. As

the like charges will repel, the concrete shows good workability with

less water. Nowadays poly carboxylate ether super plasticizers are

being used. They work on the principles of steric stabilization.

1.6 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE PRESENT RESEARCH

WORK

The objective of the present work is to investigate experimentally

various properties of Mixed Fiber Reinforced Concrete (MFRC) for

structural applications. To develop MFRC that can overcome the draw

backs like inherent brittleness, multiple cracking under crushing

loads and not so well defined flexural behaviour particularly when

used with random orientation. Another drawback with SFRC is the

balling effect particularly when the fiber percentage is more than 1.0

with aspect ratios of more than 40 that were observed in the literature

review, an approach is made by using mixed fibers of steel and glass

(MFRC) to various proportions are studied in various total fiber


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percentages along with certain percentage of microsilica, an optimum

Mixed Fiber Reinforced Concrete is proposed.

In the present research study it is planned to make use of glass

fiber for structural concrete. The study includes the introduction of

glass fiber into concrete at various percentages, combining glass fiber

with steel fiber to enhance certain properties like elastic properties,

durability properties, flexural properties etc.

It is hoped that mixed fibers with steel and glass would be

accepted for making of structural components.

1.7 METHODOLOGY

The present thesis work aims to make use of mixed fiber concept

in fiber reinforced concrete and covers the following aspects

1. Study of Basic strength properties of glass fiber reinforced concrete

(GFRC) at various percentages.

2. Study of Basic strength properties of mixed fibers of glass and steel

at various percentages (MFRC).

3. Study of Elastic properties of mixed fiber reinforced concrete

(MFRC)

4. Study of Impact strength of mixed fiber reinforced concrete (MFRC).

5. Study of Permeability properties of mixed fiber reinforced concrete

(MFRC)

6. Study of Chemical resistance properties of mixed fiber reinforced

concrete (MFRC).

7. Testing of Specimen RCC Beams of MFRC.

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