08-16-2017, 10:42 PM
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ABSTRACT
Road transportation is undoubtedly the lifeline of the nation and its development is a crucial concern. The traditional bituminous pavements and their needs for continuous maintenance and rehabilitation operations points towards the scope for cement concrete pavements. There are several advantages of cement concrete pavements over bituminous pavements. This paper explains on POLYMER FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENTS, which is a recent advancement in the field of reinforced concrete pavement design. PFRC pavements prove to be more efficient than conventional RC pavements, in several aspects, which are explained in this paper. The design procedure and paving operations of PFRC are also discussed in detail. A detailed case study of Polyester fiber waste as fiber reinforcement is included and the results of the study are interpreted. The paper also includes a brief comparison of PFRC pavements with conventional concrete pavement. The merits and demerits of PFRC pavements are also discussed. The applications of PFRC in the various construction projects in kerala are also discussed in brief.
1. INTRODUCTION
In a developing country such as India, road networks form the arteries of the nation. A pavement is the layered structure on which vehicles travel. It serves two purposes, namely, to provide a comfortable and durable surface for vehicles, and to reduce stresses on underlying soils. In India, the traditional system of bituminous pavements is widely used.
Locally available cement concrete is a better substitute to bitumen which is the by product in distillation of imported petroleum crude. It is a known fact that petroleum and its by-products are dooming day by day. Whenever we think of a road construction in India it is taken for granted that it would be a bituminous pavement and there are very rare chances for thinking of an alternative like concrete pavements. Within two to three decades bituminous pavement would be a history and thus the need for an alternative is very essential. The perfect solution would be POLYMER FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE PAVEMENTS, as it satisfies two of the much demanded requirements of pavement material in India, economy and reduced pollution. It also has several other advantages like longer life, low maintenance cost, fuel efficiency, good riding quality, increased load carrying capacity and impermeability to water over flexible pavements.
Fiber reinforced concrete pavements are more efficient than ordinary cement concrete pavement. FRC is defined as composite material consisting of concrete reinforced with discrete randomly but uniformly dispersed short length fibers. The fibers may be of steel, polymer or natural materials. FRC is considered to be a material of improved properties and not as reinforced cement concrete whereas reinforcement is provided for local strengthening of concrete in tension region. Fibers generally used in cement concrete pavements are steel fibers and organic polymer fibers such as polyester or polypropylene.
This is an environment friendly approach in the field of pavement construction as almost all sorts of polymer waste can be recycled and used as a reinforcing admixture in the concrete pavements. As waste polymers which are produced in large quantities are non bio degradable they can cause immense environmental issues. Instead of disposing it we can efficiently make use of its properties in the pavement construction.
2. FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE
Concrete is well known as a brittle material when subjected to normal stresses and impact loading, especially, with its tensile strength being just one tenth of its compressive strength. It is only common knowledge that, concrete members are reinforced with continuous reinforcing bars to withstand tensile stresses, to compensate for the lack of ductility and is also adopted to overcome high potential tensile stresses and shear stresses at critical location in a concrete member.
Even though the addition of steel reinforcement significantly increases the strength of the concrete, the development of micro-cracks must be controlled to produce concrete with homogenous tensile properties. The introduction of fibers was brought into consideration, as a solution to develop concrete with enhanced flexural and tensile strength, which is a new form of binder that could combine Portland cement in bonding with cement matrices.
Fibers are generally discontinuous, randomly distributed through out the cement matrices. Referring to the American Concrete Institute (ACI) committee 544 , in fiber reinforced concrete there are four categories namely
1. SFRC - Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete
2. GFRC - Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete
3. SNFRC - Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Concrete
4. NFRC - Natural Fiber Reinforced Concrete
Fiber Reinforced concrete can be defined as a composite material consisting of mixtures of cement, mortar or concrete with discontinuous, discrete, uniformly dispersed suitable fibers. Continuous meshes, woven fabrics and long wires or rods are not considered to be discrete fibers.
Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is concrete containing fibrous material which increases its structural integrity. It contains short discrete fibers that are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented. Fibers may generally be classified into two: organic and inorganic. Inorganic fibers include steel fibers and glass fibers, whereas organic fibers include natural fibers like coconut, sisal, wood, bamboo, jute, sugarcane, etc and synthetic fibers based on acrylic, carbon, polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon, Aramid, and polyester. Within these different fibers the character of fiber reinforced concrete changes with varying concretes, fiber materials, geometries, distribution, orientation and densities.
Fibers are usually used in concrete to control plastic shrinkage cracking and drying shrinkage cracking. They also lower the permeability of concrete and thus reduce bleeding of water. Some types of fibers produce greater impact, abrasion and shatter resistance in concrete.
The amount of fibers added to a concrete mix is measured as a percentage of the total volume of the composite (concrete and fibers) termed volume fraction (Vf). Vf typically ranges from 0.1 to 3%. Aspect ratio (l/d) is calculated by dividing fiber length (l) by its diameter (d). Fibers with a non-circular cross section use an equivalent diameter for the calculation of aspect ratio. If the modulus of elasticity of the fiber is higher than the matrix (concrete or mortar binder), they help to carry the load by increasing the tensile strength of the material. Fibers which are too long tend to ball in the mix and create workability problems