Performance Studies on Glass Fiber Reinforced Recycled Aggregate Concrete

The utilization of fibers in the concrete reduces cracks, increases the energy absorption and concrete strength. The use of fine recycled aggregate (FRA) in concrete overcomes the scarcity of natural aggregates, however its deprived quality affects the concrete properties through development of cracks. This study investigates the effect of glass fiber (GF) utilization in reducing crack propagation using fine recycled aggregate (FRA) in the concreteThe coarse natural aggregate (CNA) was replaced with 10, 30, 50, 70, 90 and 100% of FRA and GF was added 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 1.5% by weight. The concrete mixtures with the optimal percentage of FRA and different percentages of GF were prepared by two-stage mixing approach (TSMA) and normal mixing approach (NMA) and tested for their fresh and hardened properties. The optimized mix was observed with 30% of FRA and 1% of GF prepared by TSMA, with a strength improvement of 11.3% compared to the control mix at 28 days. The study further investigated the practical suitability as a paver block for non-traffic and medium volume traffic applications as per IS 15658: 2006 and observed that minimum strength requirement of 40 MPa was achieved under both conditions with the optimized mix with an improvement of 17.4% compared to conventional paver block.