Research Article Drying Shrinkage Behaviour of Fibre...
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Research Article Drying Shrinkage Behaviour of Fibre Reinforced Concrete Incorporating Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibres and Fly Ash Amin Noushini, Kirk Vessalas, Garo Arabian, and Bijan Samali Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia Correspondence should be addressed to Amin Noushini; [email protected] Received 24 December 2013; Revised 13 April 2014; Accepted 1 May 2014; Published 20 May 2014 Academic Editor: Serji N. Amirkhanian Copyright © 2014 Amin Noushini et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. e current study assesses the drying shrinkage behaviour of polyvinyl alcohol fibre reinforced concrete (PVA-FRC) containing short-length (6 mm) and long-length (12 mm) uncoated monofilament PVA fibres at 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.375%, and 0.5% volumetric fractions. Fly ash is also used as a partial replacement of Portland cement in all mixes. PVA-FRC mixes have been compared to length change of control concrete (devoid of fibres) at 3 storage intervals: early-age (0–7 days), short-term (0–28 days), and long- term (28–112 days) intervals. e shrinkage results of FRC and control concrete up to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher drying shrinkage than control. e shrinkage exhibited by PVA-FRC mixes ranged from 449 to 480 microstrain, where this value was only 427 microstrain in the case of control. In addition, the longer fibres exhibited higher mass loss, thus potentially contributing to higher shrinkage. 1. Introduction Concrete is recognised as the most prevalent used construc- tion material in the world [1]. It is reputable that concrete provides notable mechanical performance, great versatility, and economic efficiency in comparison to other construction materials [2]. However, it must be noted that concrete is discredited for its brittleness and strength-to-weight ratio. Moreover, in service, structural concrete undergoes volume change due to moisture loss by hydration and evaporation. is volume change and movement experienced in this manner is termed shrinkage [2]. Shrinkage of concrete commonly occurs as a decrease in volume via four primary mechanisms: capillary tension, surface tension, disjoining pressure, and change in water within the matrix of cement [3]. Concrete tends to reach equilibrium with its service environment. If the environment is a dry atmosphere the exposed surface of the concrete loses water by evaporation. e rate of evaporation will depend on the relative humidity, temperature, water-cement ratio, and the area of the exposed surface of the concrete [4, 5]. e first water to be lost from concrete is that held in the large capillary pores of the hardened concrete. e loss of this water does not cause significant volume change [6]. However, as explained by Tam et al. [7], as water continues to evaporate from the capillary and gel pores, a meniscus is formed along the network of capillary pores and sur- face tension is created. With the reduction in the vapour pressure in the capillary pores, tensile stress in the residual water increases. ese tensile stresses are in equilibrium with compressive stresses acting in the surface layers of the concrete, and hence shrinkage of the concrete occurs (i.e., deformation). Evaporation of water from the gel pores of the surface of concrete causes additional shrinkage on the surface. Drying shrinkage is a part of this deformation. e hardened cement paste contains a gel known as calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel. When this gel contracts the moisture content decreases, which in turn causes a drying shrinkage effect within the concrete [8]. e concrete will try to reach equilibrium with its environment aſter the cement has hydrated. ere exist a number of dependent factors influencing the degree of shrinkage such as raw material properties (e.g., cement, aggregate, and admixtures), temperature, relative humidity (RH), age, and volumetric size of the concrete member [9]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Civil Engineering Volume 2014, Article ID 836173, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/836173
Transcript of Research Article Drying Shrinkage Behaviour of Fibre...
Research ArticleDrying Shrinkage Behaviour of Fibre Reinforced ConcreteIncorporating Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibres and Fly Ash
Amin Noushini Kirk Vessalas Garo Arabian and Bijan Samali
Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) School of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Technology SydneyPO Box 123 Broadway Sydney NSW 2007 Australia
Correspondence should be addressed to Amin Noushini anoushinigmailcom
Received 24 December 2013 Revised 13 April 2014 Accepted 1 May 2014 Published 20 May 2014
Academic Editor Serji N Amirkhanian
Copyright copy 2014 Amin Noushini et alThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited
The current study assesses the drying shrinkage behaviour of polyvinyl alcohol fibre reinforced concrete (PVA-FRC) containingshort-length (6mm) and long-length (12mm) uncoated monofilament PVA fibres at 0125 025 0375 and 05 volumetricfractions Fly ash is also used as a partial replacement of Portland cement in all mixes PVA-FRC mixes have been compared tolength change of control concrete (devoid of fibres) at 3 storage intervals early-age (0ndash7 days) short-term (0ndash28 days) and long-term (28ndash112 days) intervals The shrinkage results of FRC and control concrete up to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than control The shrinkage exhibited by PVA-FRC mixes ranged from 449 to 480 microstrainwhere this value was only 427 microstrain in the case of control In addition the longer fibres exhibited higher mass loss thuspotentially contributing to higher shrinkage
1 Introduction
Concrete is recognised as the most prevalent used construc-tion material in the world [1] It is reputable that concreteprovides notable mechanical performance great versatilityand economic efficiency in comparison to other constructionmaterials [2] However it must be noted that concrete isdiscredited for its brittleness and strength-to-weight ratioMoreover in service structural concrete undergoes volumechange due to moisture loss by hydration and evaporationThis volume change and movement experienced in thismanner is termed shrinkage [2]
Shrinkage of concrete commonly occurs as a decreasein volume via four primary mechanisms capillary tensionsurface tension disjoining pressure and change in waterwithin the matrix of cement [3] Concrete tends to reachequilibrium with its service environment If the environmentis a dry atmosphere the exposed surface of the concrete loseswater by evaporationThe rate of evaporation will depend onthe relative humidity temperature water-cement ratio andthe area of the exposed surface of the concrete [4 5]The firstwater to be lost from concrete is that held in the large capillary
pores of the hardened concreteThe loss of this water does notcause significant volume change [6]
However as explained byTamet al [7] aswater continuesto evaporate from the capillary and gel pores a meniscusis formed along the network of capillary pores and sur-face tension is created With the reduction in the vapourpressure in the capillary pores tensile stress in the residualwater increases These tensile stresses are in equilibriumwith compressive stresses acting in the surface layers of theconcrete and hence shrinkage of the concrete occurs (iedeformation) Evaporation of water from the gel pores ofthe surface of concrete causes additional shrinkage on thesurface Drying shrinkage is a part of this deformation
The hardened cement paste contains a gel known ascalcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel When this gel contractsthemoisture content decreases which in turn causes a dryingshrinkage effect within the concrete [8] The concrete willtry to reach equilibrium with its environment after thecement has hydrated There exist a number of dependentfactors influencing the degree of shrinkage such as rawmaterial properties (eg cement aggregate and admixtures)temperature relative humidity (RH) age and volumetric sizeof the concrete member [9]
Hindawi Publishing CorporationAdvances in Civil EngineeringVolume 2014 Article ID 836173 10 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552014836173
2 Advances in Civil Engineering
It has been of particular focus by researchers [2 10ndash13]in recent times to minimise the aforementioned problems ofshrinkage by utilising intrinsic fibres as a form of reinforce-ment in the concrete matrixThe use of novel synthetic fibressuch as monofilament polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibres in fibrereinforced concrete (FRC) can affect the overall propertiesof hardened concrete [14ndash16] with drying shrinkage beingof particular interest However the exact influence of fibrelength and volumetric content remains unknown
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is adopted from polyvinylacetate which is readily hydrolysed by treating an alcoholicsolution with aqueous acid or alkali [17] PVA containshydroxyl groups (OH) which have the potential to formhydrogen bonds between molecules resulting in a significantchange in surface bond strength between PVA fibres and thecement matrix [18]
The use of fibres in concrete mixes (FRC) is generallyseen as a prevention method for cracks formed in the surfacelayers of the hardened concrete [19 20] Fibres allow thebridging of cracks which aids in increasing the ductility ofthe concrete composite after the postcracking stage [21 22]The fibre in concrete aims to produce stronger and tougherconcrete particularly improving the ductility and durabilityand mitigating cracking due to shrinkage [23] Fibres havealso been reported [24] to increase the fatigue life cycleof cementitious composite structures Fibres incorporatedin concrete are known to control cracking arising fromdrying andor plastic shrinkage behaviour occurring in thecementitious matrix [25 26]
The mitigation of drying shrinkage aids the concrete aes-thetically and also by controlling and preventing shrinkagecracks the durability of concrete can be enhanced [2] Thespalling of concrete caused by cracking from shrinkage willexpose the steel reinforcement to aggressive chemicals suchas chloride ions dissociated in water to penetrate the surfaceof the concrete reach the steel and cause corrosion [27]Cracking from shrinkage is a rather complex mechanism ofdeformation that is influenced by factors such as size of thecrack level of restraint rate of shrinkage development ofstrength and softening of the stress [2]
Although the shrinkage characteristics of conventionalconcrete have beenwidely studied [4 28] and the relationshipbetween shrinkage and mass loss due to drying is wellestablished for conventional concrete limited research hasbeen conducted on the drying shrinkage behaviour of PVAfibre reinforced concrete
Accordingly the objective of this study is to quantify theamount of shrinkage experienced and impart the variationsof fibre length aspect ratio and content to drying shrinkageof PVA-FRC
2 Experimental Details
21 Materials Seven sets of concrete mixes were preparedusing the raw materials shown in Table 4 Shrinkage limited(SL) Portland cement (PC) and fly ash (FA) were used as thebinder for the fibre reinforced concrete mixesThe fineness ofFA by 45 120583m sieve was determined to be 94 passing (tested
0
20
40
60
80
100
001 01 1 10 100
Pass
ing
()
Sieve size (mm) in log scale
Fine aggregate (sand)Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 27581
Figure 1 Fine aggregate grading curve
in accordance with AS 35811-1998) The oxide compositionsof the binders are listed in Table 1
A maximum nominal size of 20mm aggregate wasused in all mixes All aggregates used in mix design weresourced from Dunmore Australia which include 5050blended finecoarse manufactured sand and 10mm and20mm crushed latite gravel The grading of all aggregatesused in this study complied with the Australian Standard AS27581 specifications and limits (Figures 1 and 2)
The aggregate was prepared to saturated surface drycondition prior to mixing Drinkable grade tap water wasused for the mixes after conditioning the water to roomtemperature (23 plusmn 2∘C) Furthermore in order to improvethe workability a polycarboxylic ether based high rangewater reducing admixture (HWR) was used Monofilamentuncoated polyvinyl alcohol fibre of 2 different geometries6 and 12mm with properties mentioned in Table 2 and thegraphical illustration shown in Figure 3 was used in all FRCmixes
22 Mixing Mix designs were adopted to obtain a charac-teristic compressive strength (1198911015840
119888
) of 55MPa to conform toAS 3600 requirements as structural concrete (ranging from20MPa to 100MPa) with a water to cementitious materialratio (wc) of 035 In order to obtain a desired slump of80 plusmn 20mm HWR dosage was varied Mix designations areshown in Table 3 and details of the mix proportions for allmixes are listed in Table 4
Mix proportioning of the raw material ingredients wascarried out by mass The fibre volume fractions employed inthis study were up to a threshold limit of 05 this limit wasderived from the results of several preliminary trial mixesindicating that the incorporation of higher volume fractionof fibres results in loss of cohesiveness of the concrete
For control concrete (nonfibre reinforced concrete) mix-ing was performed in accordance with Australian StandardAS 10122 however for FRC mixes due to the presence ofthe hydrophilic fibres the standard mixing regime suggestedin AS 10122 for conventional concrete was modified Fineaggregates were firstly mixed with PVA fibres in a vertical
Advances in Civil Engineering 3
Table 1 Chemical properties of PC and FA by X-ray fluorescence method
SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO Na2O K2O TiO2 MnO P2O5 SO3 LOIPC [wt] 2016 462 456 6535 106 mdash 044 028 060 007 255 116FA [wt] 6513 2375 338 192 049 048 146 092 007 025 007 165
Table 2 Properties of PVA fibres
Type Density Length (119871119891
) Diameter (119889119891
) Tensile strength Youngrsquos modulus (119864119891
) Elongation[gcm3] [mm] [mm] [MPa] [GPa] []
W2-6 129 6 0014 1500 417 7W2-12 129 12 0014 1500 417 7
Table 3 Mix designations
Mix designation Binder 119881119891
1 [] Fibre length [mm]Control 70PC + 30FA 0 mdash6-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 66-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 66-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 66-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 612-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 1212-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 1212-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 1212-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 121Fibre volume fraction
pan mixer until the fibres were observed to be disperseduniformly Coarse aggregates were then added and furthermixed for 3 minutes Thereafter SL PC FA and water wereintroduced and mixed for a further 3 minutes In order toadjust the slump HWR was added within the first minute ofadding cementitiousmaterial Following 3minutes ofmixinga rest period of 2 minutes was applied followed by a further3 minutes of mixing to achieve a uniform mix The slumpand compacting factor were measured to deduce separatemeasures of workability
After carrying out all fresh property tests the mix wasplaced intomoulds In addition an external vibratorwas usedto achieve proper consolidation and also to minimise theamount of the entrapped air arising within the mix Mouldswere covered with plastic sheets and wet towels to retainmoisture after finishing the surface of all specimens with atrowel At 24 h specimens were demoulded and then placedin lime saturated water to cure at a temperature of 20 plusmn 2∘Cuntil the date of testing
23 Testing Slump and compacting factorwere carried out todetermine the consistency following Australian Standard AS101231 and AS 101232 test methods respectively In addi-tion air content and mass per unit volume were measured tostudy the effect of PVA fibres on the properties of concrete inits plastic state (AS 101242 and AS 10125)
The behaviour of the concrete under compressive loadhas also been assessed by conducting uniaxial compressivestrength testing Cylindrical specimens of 100 diameter times
0
20
40
60
80
100
005 05 5 50
Pass
ing
()
Sieve size (mm) in log scale
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 27581
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 2758120mm coarse aggregate10mm coarse aggregate
Figure 2 Coarse aggregate grading curve
200mm height were tested under a load rate control con-dition in a 1800 kN universal testing machine following AS10129 (load rate equivalent to 20 plusmn 2MPa compressive stressper minute) Compressive strength was determined at agesof 7 28 and 56 days The static chord modulus of elasticity(MOE) test was also carried out on 150 diameter times 300mmheight cylinders followingAustralian StandardAS 101217 testmethod
The measuring of drying shrinkage was undertaken inaccordance with Australian Standard AS 101213 test methodcriteria The standard sized mould which was used in thisstudy is shown in Figure 4 The gauge stud retaining screws(also known as shrinkage pins) were placed prior tomouldingthe concrete in shrinkage moulds
For the initial reading of mass and gauge length thesample was removed from the lime saturated water on the 7thday from moulding and excess water was wiped with a dampcloth A horizontal comparator was used to determine thehorizontal length (gauge length) Five readings were taken foreach specimen to minimise errors following the procedurementioned in Australian Standard AS 101213 The mass ofeach sample was also recorded in order to calculate the massloss as a function of time
4 Advances in Civil Engineering
(a) (b)
Figure 3 PVA fibres 6mm fibres and (a) 12mm fibres (b)
Gauge stud holderretaining screw
Top view
280
10125
Gauge length
Mould section
15 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
Drill and tap with
thread (to takebaseplate screw)
10
6
10
6
an M6 times 1ndash6 g
Figure 4 Details of a typical mould (AS 101212)
Equation (1) was used to determine the drying shrinkagestrain at a particular time Consider
120576119904119905=119871119905minus 1198710
119871119892
(1)
where 120576119904119905
is the drying shrinkage strain at time 119905 119871119905is
the specimen length measured at time 119905 in mm 1198710is the
specimen initial length in mm and 119871119892is the original gauge
length (see Figure 4) in mmSpecimens were stored on racks in a drying room with a
controlled temperature of 23 plusmn 1∘C and a relative humidity of50 plusmn 5 for a period of 112 days The shrinkage and mass lossreadings were taken after 3 days and thereafter every 7 daysuntil 112 days by which timemost of the drying shrinkage hadtaken place
3 Results and Discussion
31 Fresh Properties Slump compacting factor air contentand mass per unit volume of different mixes were measuredand results are summarised in Table 5 It can be seen that
as the volume of fibre increases more HWR is required toachieve an acceptable slump This observation has also beenpreviously found by Zollo in that with a volumetric content ofplastic fibres above or close to 05 the workability is knownto significantly decrease due to greater interfacial actionsduring mixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19]
By examining the recorded results displayed in Table 5 itcan be deduced that the PVA-FRC mixes tend to introduceair when compared to the control concrete The introductionof plastic fibres is known to create larger interstitial voidsbetween the fibres cement paste and aggregates [29 30]
Results from Table 5 also show that as the volume offibre increases in the mix the mass per unit volume of theconcrete decreasesThis is possibly due to the lower mass perunit volume of the fibres and higher entrapped air contentswhen the fibre volume increases Results presented in Table 5display that by increasing the amount of fibre in the mix thedensity decreases from 2450 kgm3 for control to 2300 kgm3for 12-PVA-0500 The decrease noted in the mass per unitvolume is highly dependent on the volume and amount offibres in the matrix as well as the length and number offibres It is also understandable that in the same fibre volumefraction 12mm fibres affect theMPVmore than 6mm fibreswhich may be attributed to the higher aspect ratio of longerfibres
32 Hardened Properties The compressive strength of con-trol and FRC with different fibre volume fractions rangingfrom 00 to 05 at 7 28 and 56 days of age are presentedin Table 6 and Figure 5 Standard deviation calculated forcompressive strengths of each concrete set show the level ofvariation from average strength reported out of 3 specimenstested for each age A low standard deviation indicates thatthe individual compressive strength of test specimens tendsto be very close to the average strength of that set whichmakes a higher level of confidence in statistical averagestrength reported Strength effectiveness which is definedas the percent increase or decrease in the strength of FRCcompared to the control at the same age has also beencalculated
Advances in Civil Engineering 5
Table 4 Mix proportions
Mixdesignation PC [kgm3] FA [kgm3] Sand
[kgm3]
10mmaggregates[kgm3]
20mmaggregates[kgm3]
Water1[kgm3]
HWR[Litm3]
6-PVA[kgm3]
12-PVA[kgm3]
Control 301 129 635 390 700 151 1215 0 06-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 1867 1613 06-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 1774 3225 06-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 4838 06-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 6450 012-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 2338 0 161312-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 2468 0 322512-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2597 0 483812-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 3506 0 64501WC (watercementitious materials) ratio maintained at a constant rate of 035 (by weight) for all mixes
Table 5 Fresh properties of FRC and control
Mix reference 119881119891
Fibre length HWRC Slump1 Air content1 Mass per unit volume1 Compacting factor[] [mm] [] [mm] [] [kgm3]
Control 0 0 033 75 10 2450 0856-PVA-0125 0125 6 047 75 12 2430 0846-PVA-0250 0250 6 054 65 14 2410 0826-PVA-0375 0375 6 059 65 12 2370 0856-PVA-0500 0500 6 065 70 14 2340 08912-PVA-0125 0125 12 045 70 14 2420 08212-PVA-0250 0250 12 054 60 12 2390 08412-PVA-0375 0375 12 062 60 11 2370 08112-PVA-0500 0500 12 088 60 14 2300 0841Slump air content and mass per unit volume calculated to the nearest 5mm 02 and 10 kgm3 respectively in accordance with AS 101231 AS 101242and AS 10125
By viewing the results in Table 6 and Figure 5 it canbe noted that with the same fibre volume fraction shorterfibres evidently have improved the compressive strengthmore than longer fibres (eg 25 to 117 at 28 days)Similar observations for other types of synthetic fibres (iepolypropylene fibres) have previously been reported by otherresearchers [31 32] that increasing the length of plastic fibresleads to a lower compressive strength Furthermore theoptimum fibre volume fraction was found to be 025 acrossall ages with a 138 increase in 56-day compressive strengthnoted compared to the control
Static chord modulus of elasticity of FRC and controlafter 7 28 and 56 days of curing is compared in Table 7From the results it can be noted that modulus of elasticityof concrete PVA-FRC mixes increases with age of curing Itwas also found that PVA fibres in low volume fractions usedin this study (lt050) do not significantly affect the modulusof elasticity although some fluctuations in the results havebeen observed These variations are more noticeable afterearly ages (7 and 28 days) while after 56 days most FRCmixes have very close values to that of control These obser-vations were also previously reported by other researchers[33 34] that fibres of different types with various modulus of
elasticity do not significantly affect the static elastic moduliof concrete due to the low fibre content However it isanticipated that within the FRC adding more fibres leadsto a decrease in concrete modulus of elasticity and for thesame fibre content longer fibres lead to lower MOE of theconcrete
33 Shrinkage and Mass Loss The loss of water with respectto time for the FRC versus control concrete is shown inFigure 6 Large increases in mass loss were noted in all the12mm PVA-FRC The 12-PVA-0125 exhibited a mass loss of16 after 7 days of air storage compared to the control mixrsquosmass loss value of 095 This observation suggests that themass loss in 12-PVA-0125 is 70 more than the mass loss ofthe control at 7 days From Figure 6 it is evident that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher mass loss at 7 days This may bepossibly due to the presence of more voids as a consequenceof adding fibreswhich increases the amounts of entrapped air
From the plotted data in Figure 6 the 12-PVA-0125 showsthe highest mass loss with a maximum value attained after112 days It can be concluded that the shorter fibres generallyperformed better than the longer fibres It can be seen in
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
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Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
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Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
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DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
2 Advances in Civil Engineering
It has been of particular focus by researchers [2 10ndash13]in recent times to minimise the aforementioned problems ofshrinkage by utilising intrinsic fibres as a form of reinforce-ment in the concrete matrixThe use of novel synthetic fibressuch as monofilament polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibres in fibrereinforced concrete (FRC) can affect the overall propertiesof hardened concrete [14ndash16] with drying shrinkage beingof particular interest However the exact influence of fibrelength and volumetric content remains unknown
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is adopted from polyvinylacetate which is readily hydrolysed by treating an alcoholicsolution with aqueous acid or alkali [17] PVA containshydroxyl groups (OH) which have the potential to formhydrogen bonds between molecules resulting in a significantchange in surface bond strength between PVA fibres and thecement matrix [18]
The use of fibres in concrete mixes (FRC) is generallyseen as a prevention method for cracks formed in the surfacelayers of the hardened concrete [19 20] Fibres allow thebridging of cracks which aids in increasing the ductility ofthe concrete composite after the postcracking stage [21 22]The fibre in concrete aims to produce stronger and tougherconcrete particularly improving the ductility and durabilityand mitigating cracking due to shrinkage [23] Fibres havealso been reported [24] to increase the fatigue life cycleof cementitious composite structures Fibres incorporatedin concrete are known to control cracking arising fromdrying andor plastic shrinkage behaviour occurring in thecementitious matrix [25 26]
The mitigation of drying shrinkage aids the concrete aes-thetically and also by controlling and preventing shrinkagecracks the durability of concrete can be enhanced [2] Thespalling of concrete caused by cracking from shrinkage willexpose the steel reinforcement to aggressive chemicals suchas chloride ions dissociated in water to penetrate the surfaceof the concrete reach the steel and cause corrosion [27]Cracking from shrinkage is a rather complex mechanism ofdeformation that is influenced by factors such as size of thecrack level of restraint rate of shrinkage development ofstrength and softening of the stress [2]
Although the shrinkage characteristics of conventionalconcrete have beenwidely studied [4 28] and the relationshipbetween shrinkage and mass loss due to drying is wellestablished for conventional concrete limited research hasbeen conducted on the drying shrinkage behaviour of PVAfibre reinforced concrete
Accordingly the objective of this study is to quantify theamount of shrinkage experienced and impart the variationsof fibre length aspect ratio and content to drying shrinkageof PVA-FRC
2 Experimental Details
21 Materials Seven sets of concrete mixes were preparedusing the raw materials shown in Table 4 Shrinkage limited(SL) Portland cement (PC) and fly ash (FA) were used as thebinder for the fibre reinforced concrete mixesThe fineness ofFA by 45 120583m sieve was determined to be 94 passing (tested
0
20
40
60
80
100
001 01 1 10 100
Pass
ing
()
Sieve size (mm) in log scale
Fine aggregate (sand)Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 27581
Figure 1 Fine aggregate grading curve
in accordance with AS 35811-1998) The oxide compositionsof the binders are listed in Table 1
A maximum nominal size of 20mm aggregate wasused in all mixes All aggregates used in mix design weresourced from Dunmore Australia which include 5050blended finecoarse manufactured sand and 10mm and20mm crushed latite gravel The grading of all aggregatesused in this study complied with the Australian Standard AS27581 specifications and limits (Figures 1 and 2)
The aggregate was prepared to saturated surface drycondition prior to mixing Drinkable grade tap water wasused for the mixes after conditioning the water to roomtemperature (23 plusmn 2∘C) Furthermore in order to improvethe workability a polycarboxylic ether based high rangewater reducing admixture (HWR) was used Monofilamentuncoated polyvinyl alcohol fibre of 2 different geometries6 and 12mm with properties mentioned in Table 2 and thegraphical illustration shown in Figure 3 was used in all FRCmixes
22 Mixing Mix designs were adopted to obtain a charac-teristic compressive strength (1198911015840
119888
) of 55MPa to conform toAS 3600 requirements as structural concrete (ranging from20MPa to 100MPa) with a water to cementitious materialratio (wc) of 035 In order to obtain a desired slump of80 plusmn 20mm HWR dosage was varied Mix designations areshown in Table 3 and details of the mix proportions for allmixes are listed in Table 4
Mix proportioning of the raw material ingredients wascarried out by mass The fibre volume fractions employed inthis study were up to a threshold limit of 05 this limit wasderived from the results of several preliminary trial mixesindicating that the incorporation of higher volume fractionof fibres results in loss of cohesiveness of the concrete
For control concrete (nonfibre reinforced concrete) mix-ing was performed in accordance with Australian StandardAS 10122 however for FRC mixes due to the presence ofthe hydrophilic fibres the standard mixing regime suggestedin AS 10122 for conventional concrete was modified Fineaggregates were firstly mixed with PVA fibres in a vertical
Advances in Civil Engineering 3
Table 1 Chemical properties of PC and FA by X-ray fluorescence method
SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO Na2O K2O TiO2 MnO P2O5 SO3 LOIPC [wt] 2016 462 456 6535 106 mdash 044 028 060 007 255 116FA [wt] 6513 2375 338 192 049 048 146 092 007 025 007 165
Table 2 Properties of PVA fibres
Type Density Length (119871119891
) Diameter (119889119891
) Tensile strength Youngrsquos modulus (119864119891
) Elongation[gcm3] [mm] [mm] [MPa] [GPa] []
W2-6 129 6 0014 1500 417 7W2-12 129 12 0014 1500 417 7
Table 3 Mix designations
Mix designation Binder 119881119891
1 [] Fibre length [mm]Control 70PC + 30FA 0 mdash6-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 66-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 66-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 66-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 612-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 1212-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 1212-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 1212-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 121Fibre volume fraction
pan mixer until the fibres were observed to be disperseduniformly Coarse aggregates were then added and furthermixed for 3 minutes Thereafter SL PC FA and water wereintroduced and mixed for a further 3 minutes In order toadjust the slump HWR was added within the first minute ofadding cementitiousmaterial Following 3minutes ofmixinga rest period of 2 minutes was applied followed by a further3 minutes of mixing to achieve a uniform mix The slumpand compacting factor were measured to deduce separatemeasures of workability
After carrying out all fresh property tests the mix wasplaced intomoulds In addition an external vibratorwas usedto achieve proper consolidation and also to minimise theamount of the entrapped air arising within the mix Mouldswere covered with plastic sheets and wet towels to retainmoisture after finishing the surface of all specimens with atrowel At 24 h specimens were demoulded and then placedin lime saturated water to cure at a temperature of 20 plusmn 2∘Cuntil the date of testing
23 Testing Slump and compacting factorwere carried out todetermine the consistency following Australian Standard AS101231 and AS 101232 test methods respectively In addi-tion air content and mass per unit volume were measured tostudy the effect of PVA fibres on the properties of concrete inits plastic state (AS 101242 and AS 10125)
The behaviour of the concrete under compressive loadhas also been assessed by conducting uniaxial compressivestrength testing Cylindrical specimens of 100 diameter times
0
20
40
60
80
100
005 05 5 50
Pass
ing
()
Sieve size (mm) in log scale
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 27581
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 2758120mm coarse aggregate10mm coarse aggregate
Figure 2 Coarse aggregate grading curve
200mm height were tested under a load rate control con-dition in a 1800 kN universal testing machine following AS10129 (load rate equivalent to 20 plusmn 2MPa compressive stressper minute) Compressive strength was determined at agesof 7 28 and 56 days The static chord modulus of elasticity(MOE) test was also carried out on 150 diameter times 300mmheight cylinders followingAustralian StandardAS 101217 testmethod
The measuring of drying shrinkage was undertaken inaccordance with Australian Standard AS 101213 test methodcriteria The standard sized mould which was used in thisstudy is shown in Figure 4 The gauge stud retaining screws(also known as shrinkage pins) were placed prior tomouldingthe concrete in shrinkage moulds
For the initial reading of mass and gauge length thesample was removed from the lime saturated water on the 7thday from moulding and excess water was wiped with a dampcloth A horizontal comparator was used to determine thehorizontal length (gauge length) Five readings were taken foreach specimen to minimise errors following the procedurementioned in Australian Standard AS 101213 The mass ofeach sample was also recorded in order to calculate the massloss as a function of time
4 Advances in Civil Engineering
(a) (b)
Figure 3 PVA fibres 6mm fibres and (a) 12mm fibres (b)
Gauge stud holderretaining screw
Top view
280
10125
Gauge length
Mould section
15 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
Drill and tap with
thread (to takebaseplate screw)
10
6
10
6
an M6 times 1ndash6 g
Figure 4 Details of a typical mould (AS 101212)
Equation (1) was used to determine the drying shrinkagestrain at a particular time Consider
120576119904119905=119871119905minus 1198710
119871119892
(1)
where 120576119904119905
is the drying shrinkage strain at time 119905 119871119905is
the specimen length measured at time 119905 in mm 1198710is the
specimen initial length in mm and 119871119892is the original gauge
length (see Figure 4) in mmSpecimens were stored on racks in a drying room with a
controlled temperature of 23 plusmn 1∘C and a relative humidity of50 plusmn 5 for a period of 112 days The shrinkage and mass lossreadings were taken after 3 days and thereafter every 7 daysuntil 112 days by which timemost of the drying shrinkage hadtaken place
3 Results and Discussion
31 Fresh Properties Slump compacting factor air contentand mass per unit volume of different mixes were measuredand results are summarised in Table 5 It can be seen that
as the volume of fibre increases more HWR is required toachieve an acceptable slump This observation has also beenpreviously found by Zollo in that with a volumetric content ofplastic fibres above or close to 05 the workability is knownto significantly decrease due to greater interfacial actionsduring mixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19]
By examining the recorded results displayed in Table 5 itcan be deduced that the PVA-FRC mixes tend to introduceair when compared to the control concrete The introductionof plastic fibres is known to create larger interstitial voidsbetween the fibres cement paste and aggregates [29 30]
Results from Table 5 also show that as the volume offibre increases in the mix the mass per unit volume of theconcrete decreasesThis is possibly due to the lower mass perunit volume of the fibres and higher entrapped air contentswhen the fibre volume increases Results presented in Table 5display that by increasing the amount of fibre in the mix thedensity decreases from 2450 kgm3 for control to 2300 kgm3for 12-PVA-0500 The decrease noted in the mass per unitvolume is highly dependent on the volume and amount offibres in the matrix as well as the length and number offibres It is also understandable that in the same fibre volumefraction 12mm fibres affect theMPVmore than 6mm fibreswhich may be attributed to the higher aspect ratio of longerfibres
32 Hardened Properties The compressive strength of con-trol and FRC with different fibre volume fractions rangingfrom 00 to 05 at 7 28 and 56 days of age are presentedin Table 6 and Figure 5 Standard deviation calculated forcompressive strengths of each concrete set show the level ofvariation from average strength reported out of 3 specimenstested for each age A low standard deviation indicates thatthe individual compressive strength of test specimens tendsto be very close to the average strength of that set whichmakes a higher level of confidence in statistical averagestrength reported Strength effectiveness which is definedas the percent increase or decrease in the strength of FRCcompared to the control at the same age has also beencalculated
Advances in Civil Engineering 5
Table 4 Mix proportions
Mixdesignation PC [kgm3] FA [kgm3] Sand
[kgm3]
10mmaggregates[kgm3]
20mmaggregates[kgm3]
Water1[kgm3]
HWR[Litm3]
6-PVA[kgm3]
12-PVA[kgm3]
Control 301 129 635 390 700 151 1215 0 06-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 1867 1613 06-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 1774 3225 06-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 4838 06-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 6450 012-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 2338 0 161312-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 2468 0 322512-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2597 0 483812-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 3506 0 64501WC (watercementitious materials) ratio maintained at a constant rate of 035 (by weight) for all mixes
Table 5 Fresh properties of FRC and control
Mix reference 119881119891
Fibre length HWRC Slump1 Air content1 Mass per unit volume1 Compacting factor[] [mm] [] [mm] [] [kgm3]
Control 0 0 033 75 10 2450 0856-PVA-0125 0125 6 047 75 12 2430 0846-PVA-0250 0250 6 054 65 14 2410 0826-PVA-0375 0375 6 059 65 12 2370 0856-PVA-0500 0500 6 065 70 14 2340 08912-PVA-0125 0125 12 045 70 14 2420 08212-PVA-0250 0250 12 054 60 12 2390 08412-PVA-0375 0375 12 062 60 11 2370 08112-PVA-0500 0500 12 088 60 14 2300 0841Slump air content and mass per unit volume calculated to the nearest 5mm 02 and 10 kgm3 respectively in accordance with AS 101231 AS 101242and AS 10125
By viewing the results in Table 6 and Figure 5 it canbe noted that with the same fibre volume fraction shorterfibres evidently have improved the compressive strengthmore than longer fibres (eg 25 to 117 at 28 days)Similar observations for other types of synthetic fibres (iepolypropylene fibres) have previously been reported by otherresearchers [31 32] that increasing the length of plastic fibresleads to a lower compressive strength Furthermore theoptimum fibre volume fraction was found to be 025 acrossall ages with a 138 increase in 56-day compressive strengthnoted compared to the control
Static chord modulus of elasticity of FRC and controlafter 7 28 and 56 days of curing is compared in Table 7From the results it can be noted that modulus of elasticityof concrete PVA-FRC mixes increases with age of curing Itwas also found that PVA fibres in low volume fractions usedin this study (lt050) do not significantly affect the modulusof elasticity although some fluctuations in the results havebeen observed These variations are more noticeable afterearly ages (7 and 28 days) while after 56 days most FRCmixes have very close values to that of control These obser-vations were also previously reported by other researchers[33 34] that fibres of different types with various modulus of
elasticity do not significantly affect the static elastic moduliof concrete due to the low fibre content However it isanticipated that within the FRC adding more fibres leadsto a decrease in concrete modulus of elasticity and for thesame fibre content longer fibres lead to lower MOE of theconcrete
33 Shrinkage and Mass Loss The loss of water with respectto time for the FRC versus control concrete is shown inFigure 6 Large increases in mass loss were noted in all the12mm PVA-FRC The 12-PVA-0125 exhibited a mass loss of16 after 7 days of air storage compared to the control mixrsquosmass loss value of 095 This observation suggests that themass loss in 12-PVA-0125 is 70 more than the mass loss ofthe control at 7 days From Figure 6 it is evident that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher mass loss at 7 days This may bepossibly due to the presence of more voids as a consequenceof adding fibreswhich increases the amounts of entrapped air
From the plotted data in Figure 6 the 12-PVA-0125 showsthe highest mass loss with a maximum value attained after112 days It can be concluded that the shorter fibres generallyperformed better than the longer fibres It can be seen in
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
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Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
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Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
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Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
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Volume 2014
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SensorsJournal of
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Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
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Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
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DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
Advances in Civil Engineering 3
Table 1 Chemical properties of PC and FA by X-ray fluorescence method
SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO Na2O K2O TiO2 MnO P2O5 SO3 LOIPC [wt] 2016 462 456 6535 106 mdash 044 028 060 007 255 116FA [wt] 6513 2375 338 192 049 048 146 092 007 025 007 165
Table 2 Properties of PVA fibres
Type Density Length (119871119891
) Diameter (119889119891
) Tensile strength Youngrsquos modulus (119864119891
) Elongation[gcm3] [mm] [mm] [MPa] [GPa] []
W2-6 129 6 0014 1500 417 7W2-12 129 12 0014 1500 417 7
Table 3 Mix designations
Mix designation Binder 119881119891
1 [] Fibre length [mm]Control 70PC + 30FA 0 mdash6-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 66-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 66-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 66-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 612-PVA-0125 70PC + 30FA 0125 1212-PVA-0250 70PC + 30FA 0250 1212-PVA-0375 70PC + 30FA 0375 1212-PVA-0500 70PC + 30FA 0500 121Fibre volume fraction
pan mixer until the fibres were observed to be disperseduniformly Coarse aggregates were then added and furthermixed for 3 minutes Thereafter SL PC FA and water wereintroduced and mixed for a further 3 minutes In order toadjust the slump HWR was added within the first minute ofadding cementitiousmaterial Following 3minutes ofmixinga rest period of 2 minutes was applied followed by a further3 minutes of mixing to achieve a uniform mix The slumpand compacting factor were measured to deduce separatemeasures of workability
After carrying out all fresh property tests the mix wasplaced intomoulds In addition an external vibratorwas usedto achieve proper consolidation and also to minimise theamount of the entrapped air arising within the mix Mouldswere covered with plastic sheets and wet towels to retainmoisture after finishing the surface of all specimens with atrowel At 24 h specimens were demoulded and then placedin lime saturated water to cure at a temperature of 20 plusmn 2∘Cuntil the date of testing
23 Testing Slump and compacting factorwere carried out todetermine the consistency following Australian Standard AS101231 and AS 101232 test methods respectively In addi-tion air content and mass per unit volume were measured tostudy the effect of PVA fibres on the properties of concrete inits plastic state (AS 101242 and AS 10125)
The behaviour of the concrete under compressive loadhas also been assessed by conducting uniaxial compressivestrength testing Cylindrical specimens of 100 diameter times
0
20
40
60
80
100
005 05 5 50
Pass
ing
()
Sieve size (mm) in log scale
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 27581
Lower limit AS 27581Upper limit AS 2758120mm coarse aggregate10mm coarse aggregate
Figure 2 Coarse aggregate grading curve
200mm height were tested under a load rate control con-dition in a 1800 kN universal testing machine following AS10129 (load rate equivalent to 20 plusmn 2MPa compressive stressper minute) Compressive strength was determined at agesof 7 28 and 56 days The static chord modulus of elasticity(MOE) test was also carried out on 150 diameter times 300mmheight cylinders followingAustralian StandardAS 101217 testmethod
The measuring of drying shrinkage was undertaken inaccordance with Australian Standard AS 101213 test methodcriteria The standard sized mould which was used in thisstudy is shown in Figure 4 The gauge stud retaining screws(also known as shrinkage pins) were placed prior tomouldingthe concrete in shrinkage moulds
For the initial reading of mass and gauge length thesample was removed from the lime saturated water on the 7thday from moulding and excess water was wiped with a dampcloth A horizontal comparator was used to determine thehorizontal length (gauge length) Five readings were taken foreach specimen to minimise errors following the procedurementioned in Australian Standard AS 101213 The mass ofeach sample was also recorded in order to calculate the massloss as a function of time
4 Advances in Civil Engineering
(a) (b)
Figure 3 PVA fibres 6mm fibres and (a) 12mm fibres (b)
Gauge stud holderretaining screw
Top view
280
10125
Gauge length
Mould section
15 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
Drill and tap with
thread (to takebaseplate screw)
10
6
10
6
an M6 times 1ndash6 g
Figure 4 Details of a typical mould (AS 101212)
Equation (1) was used to determine the drying shrinkagestrain at a particular time Consider
120576119904119905=119871119905minus 1198710
119871119892
(1)
where 120576119904119905
is the drying shrinkage strain at time 119905 119871119905is
the specimen length measured at time 119905 in mm 1198710is the
specimen initial length in mm and 119871119892is the original gauge
length (see Figure 4) in mmSpecimens were stored on racks in a drying room with a
controlled temperature of 23 plusmn 1∘C and a relative humidity of50 plusmn 5 for a period of 112 days The shrinkage and mass lossreadings were taken after 3 days and thereafter every 7 daysuntil 112 days by which timemost of the drying shrinkage hadtaken place
3 Results and Discussion
31 Fresh Properties Slump compacting factor air contentand mass per unit volume of different mixes were measuredand results are summarised in Table 5 It can be seen that
as the volume of fibre increases more HWR is required toachieve an acceptable slump This observation has also beenpreviously found by Zollo in that with a volumetric content ofplastic fibres above or close to 05 the workability is knownto significantly decrease due to greater interfacial actionsduring mixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19]
By examining the recorded results displayed in Table 5 itcan be deduced that the PVA-FRC mixes tend to introduceair when compared to the control concrete The introductionof plastic fibres is known to create larger interstitial voidsbetween the fibres cement paste and aggregates [29 30]
Results from Table 5 also show that as the volume offibre increases in the mix the mass per unit volume of theconcrete decreasesThis is possibly due to the lower mass perunit volume of the fibres and higher entrapped air contentswhen the fibre volume increases Results presented in Table 5display that by increasing the amount of fibre in the mix thedensity decreases from 2450 kgm3 for control to 2300 kgm3for 12-PVA-0500 The decrease noted in the mass per unitvolume is highly dependent on the volume and amount offibres in the matrix as well as the length and number offibres It is also understandable that in the same fibre volumefraction 12mm fibres affect theMPVmore than 6mm fibreswhich may be attributed to the higher aspect ratio of longerfibres
32 Hardened Properties The compressive strength of con-trol and FRC with different fibre volume fractions rangingfrom 00 to 05 at 7 28 and 56 days of age are presentedin Table 6 and Figure 5 Standard deviation calculated forcompressive strengths of each concrete set show the level ofvariation from average strength reported out of 3 specimenstested for each age A low standard deviation indicates thatthe individual compressive strength of test specimens tendsto be very close to the average strength of that set whichmakes a higher level of confidence in statistical averagestrength reported Strength effectiveness which is definedas the percent increase or decrease in the strength of FRCcompared to the control at the same age has also beencalculated
Advances in Civil Engineering 5
Table 4 Mix proportions
Mixdesignation PC [kgm3] FA [kgm3] Sand
[kgm3]
10mmaggregates[kgm3]
20mmaggregates[kgm3]
Water1[kgm3]
HWR[Litm3]
6-PVA[kgm3]
12-PVA[kgm3]
Control 301 129 635 390 700 151 1215 0 06-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 1867 1613 06-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 1774 3225 06-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 4838 06-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 6450 012-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 2338 0 161312-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 2468 0 322512-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2597 0 483812-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 3506 0 64501WC (watercementitious materials) ratio maintained at a constant rate of 035 (by weight) for all mixes
Table 5 Fresh properties of FRC and control
Mix reference 119881119891
Fibre length HWRC Slump1 Air content1 Mass per unit volume1 Compacting factor[] [mm] [] [mm] [] [kgm3]
Control 0 0 033 75 10 2450 0856-PVA-0125 0125 6 047 75 12 2430 0846-PVA-0250 0250 6 054 65 14 2410 0826-PVA-0375 0375 6 059 65 12 2370 0856-PVA-0500 0500 6 065 70 14 2340 08912-PVA-0125 0125 12 045 70 14 2420 08212-PVA-0250 0250 12 054 60 12 2390 08412-PVA-0375 0375 12 062 60 11 2370 08112-PVA-0500 0500 12 088 60 14 2300 0841Slump air content and mass per unit volume calculated to the nearest 5mm 02 and 10 kgm3 respectively in accordance with AS 101231 AS 101242and AS 10125
By viewing the results in Table 6 and Figure 5 it canbe noted that with the same fibre volume fraction shorterfibres evidently have improved the compressive strengthmore than longer fibres (eg 25 to 117 at 28 days)Similar observations for other types of synthetic fibres (iepolypropylene fibres) have previously been reported by otherresearchers [31 32] that increasing the length of plastic fibresleads to a lower compressive strength Furthermore theoptimum fibre volume fraction was found to be 025 acrossall ages with a 138 increase in 56-day compressive strengthnoted compared to the control
Static chord modulus of elasticity of FRC and controlafter 7 28 and 56 days of curing is compared in Table 7From the results it can be noted that modulus of elasticityof concrete PVA-FRC mixes increases with age of curing Itwas also found that PVA fibres in low volume fractions usedin this study (lt050) do not significantly affect the modulusof elasticity although some fluctuations in the results havebeen observed These variations are more noticeable afterearly ages (7 and 28 days) while after 56 days most FRCmixes have very close values to that of control These obser-vations were also previously reported by other researchers[33 34] that fibres of different types with various modulus of
elasticity do not significantly affect the static elastic moduliof concrete due to the low fibre content However it isanticipated that within the FRC adding more fibres leadsto a decrease in concrete modulus of elasticity and for thesame fibre content longer fibres lead to lower MOE of theconcrete
33 Shrinkage and Mass Loss The loss of water with respectto time for the FRC versus control concrete is shown inFigure 6 Large increases in mass loss were noted in all the12mm PVA-FRC The 12-PVA-0125 exhibited a mass loss of16 after 7 days of air storage compared to the control mixrsquosmass loss value of 095 This observation suggests that themass loss in 12-PVA-0125 is 70 more than the mass loss ofthe control at 7 days From Figure 6 it is evident that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher mass loss at 7 days This may bepossibly due to the presence of more voids as a consequenceof adding fibreswhich increases the amounts of entrapped air
From the plotted data in Figure 6 the 12-PVA-0125 showsthe highest mass loss with a maximum value attained after112 days It can be concluded that the shorter fibres generallyperformed better than the longer fibres It can be seen in
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
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Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
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Shock and Vibration
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Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
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Navigation and Observation
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DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
4 Advances in Civil Engineering
(a) (b)
Figure 3 PVA fibres 6mm fibres and (a) 12mm fibres (b)
Gauge stud holderretaining screw
Top view
280
10125
Gauge length
Mould section
15 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
75 plusmn 1
Drill and tap with
thread (to takebaseplate screw)
10
6
10
6
an M6 times 1ndash6 g
Figure 4 Details of a typical mould (AS 101212)
Equation (1) was used to determine the drying shrinkagestrain at a particular time Consider
120576119904119905=119871119905minus 1198710
119871119892
(1)
where 120576119904119905
is the drying shrinkage strain at time 119905 119871119905is
the specimen length measured at time 119905 in mm 1198710is the
specimen initial length in mm and 119871119892is the original gauge
length (see Figure 4) in mmSpecimens were stored on racks in a drying room with a
controlled temperature of 23 plusmn 1∘C and a relative humidity of50 plusmn 5 for a period of 112 days The shrinkage and mass lossreadings were taken after 3 days and thereafter every 7 daysuntil 112 days by which timemost of the drying shrinkage hadtaken place
3 Results and Discussion
31 Fresh Properties Slump compacting factor air contentand mass per unit volume of different mixes were measuredand results are summarised in Table 5 It can be seen that
as the volume of fibre increases more HWR is required toachieve an acceptable slump This observation has also beenpreviously found by Zollo in that with a volumetric content ofplastic fibres above or close to 05 the workability is knownto significantly decrease due to greater interfacial actionsduring mixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19]
By examining the recorded results displayed in Table 5 itcan be deduced that the PVA-FRC mixes tend to introduceair when compared to the control concrete The introductionof plastic fibres is known to create larger interstitial voidsbetween the fibres cement paste and aggregates [29 30]
Results from Table 5 also show that as the volume offibre increases in the mix the mass per unit volume of theconcrete decreasesThis is possibly due to the lower mass perunit volume of the fibres and higher entrapped air contentswhen the fibre volume increases Results presented in Table 5display that by increasing the amount of fibre in the mix thedensity decreases from 2450 kgm3 for control to 2300 kgm3for 12-PVA-0500 The decrease noted in the mass per unitvolume is highly dependent on the volume and amount offibres in the matrix as well as the length and number offibres It is also understandable that in the same fibre volumefraction 12mm fibres affect theMPVmore than 6mm fibreswhich may be attributed to the higher aspect ratio of longerfibres
32 Hardened Properties The compressive strength of con-trol and FRC with different fibre volume fractions rangingfrom 00 to 05 at 7 28 and 56 days of age are presentedin Table 6 and Figure 5 Standard deviation calculated forcompressive strengths of each concrete set show the level ofvariation from average strength reported out of 3 specimenstested for each age A low standard deviation indicates thatthe individual compressive strength of test specimens tendsto be very close to the average strength of that set whichmakes a higher level of confidence in statistical averagestrength reported Strength effectiveness which is definedas the percent increase or decrease in the strength of FRCcompared to the control at the same age has also beencalculated
Advances in Civil Engineering 5
Table 4 Mix proportions
Mixdesignation PC [kgm3] FA [kgm3] Sand
[kgm3]
10mmaggregates[kgm3]
20mmaggregates[kgm3]
Water1[kgm3]
HWR[Litm3]
6-PVA[kgm3]
12-PVA[kgm3]
Control 301 129 635 390 700 151 1215 0 06-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 1867 1613 06-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 1774 3225 06-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 4838 06-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 6450 012-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 2338 0 161312-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 2468 0 322512-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2597 0 483812-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 3506 0 64501WC (watercementitious materials) ratio maintained at a constant rate of 035 (by weight) for all mixes
Table 5 Fresh properties of FRC and control
Mix reference 119881119891
Fibre length HWRC Slump1 Air content1 Mass per unit volume1 Compacting factor[] [mm] [] [mm] [] [kgm3]
Control 0 0 033 75 10 2450 0856-PVA-0125 0125 6 047 75 12 2430 0846-PVA-0250 0250 6 054 65 14 2410 0826-PVA-0375 0375 6 059 65 12 2370 0856-PVA-0500 0500 6 065 70 14 2340 08912-PVA-0125 0125 12 045 70 14 2420 08212-PVA-0250 0250 12 054 60 12 2390 08412-PVA-0375 0375 12 062 60 11 2370 08112-PVA-0500 0500 12 088 60 14 2300 0841Slump air content and mass per unit volume calculated to the nearest 5mm 02 and 10 kgm3 respectively in accordance with AS 101231 AS 101242and AS 10125
By viewing the results in Table 6 and Figure 5 it canbe noted that with the same fibre volume fraction shorterfibres evidently have improved the compressive strengthmore than longer fibres (eg 25 to 117 at 28 days)Similar observations for other types of synthetic fibres (iepolypropylene fibres) have previously been reported by otherresearchers [31 32] that increasing the length of plastic fibresleads to a lower compressive strength Furthermore theoptimum fibre volume fraction was found to be 025 acrossall ages with a 138 increase in 56-day compressive strengthnoted compared to the control
Static chord modulus of elasticity of FRC and controlafter 7 28 and 56 days of curing is compared in Table 7From the results it can be noted that modulus of elasticityof concrete PVA-FRC mixes increases with age of curing Itwas also found that PVA fibres in low volume fractions usedin this study (lt050) do not significantly affect the modulusof elasticity although some fluctuations in the results havebeen observed These variations are more noticeable afterearly ages (7 and 28 days) while after 56 days most FRCmixes have very close values to that of control These obser-vations were also previously reported by other researchers[33 34] that fibres of different types with various modulus of
elasticity do not significantly affect the static elastic moduliof concrete due to the low fibre content However it isanticipated that within the FRC adding more fibres leadsto a decrease in concrete modulus of elasticity and for thesame fibre content longer fibres lead to lower MOE of theconcrete
33 Shrinkage and Mass Loss The loss of water with respectto time for the FRC versus control concrete is shown inFigure 6 Large increases in mass loss were noted in all the12mm PVA-FRC The 12-PVA-0125 exhibited a mass loss of16 after 7 days of air storage compared to the control mixrsquosmass loss value of 095 This observation suggests that themass loss in 12-PVA-0125 is 70 more than the mass loss ofthe control at 7 days From Figure 6 it is evident that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher mass loss at 7 days This may bepossibly due to the presence of more voids as a consequenceof adding fibreswhich increases the amounts of entrapped air
From the plotted data in Figure 6 the 12-PVA-0125 showsthe highest mass loss with a maximum value attained after112 days It can be concluded that the shorter fibres generallyperformed better than the longer fibres It can be seen in
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
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VLSI Design
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Shock and Vibration
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Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
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Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
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DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
Advances in Civil Engineering 5
Table 4 Mix proportions
Mixdesignation PC [kgm3] FA [kgm3] Sand
[kgm3]
10mmaggregates[kgm3]
20mmaggregates[kgm3]
Water1[kgm3]
HWR[Litm3]
6-PVA[kgm3]
12-PVA[kgm3]
Control 301 129 635 390 700 151 1215 0 06-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 1867 1613 06-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 1774 3225 06-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 4838 06-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 2143 6450 012-PVA-0125 301 129 635 390 700 151 2338 0 161312-PVA-0250 301 129 635 390 700 151 2468 0 322512-PVA-0375 301 129 635 390 700 151 2597 0 483812-PVA-0500 301 129 635 390 700 151 3506 0 64501WC (watercementitious materials) ratio maintained at a constant rate of 035 (by weight) for all mixes
Table 5 Fresh properties of FRC and control
Mix reference 119881119891
Fibre length HWRC Slump1 Air content1 Mass per unit volume1 Compacting factor[] [mm] [] [mm] [] [kgm3]
Control 0 0 033 75 10 2450 0856-PVA-0125 0125 6 047 75 12 2430 0846-PVA-0250 0250 6 054 65 14 2410 0826-PVA-0375 0375 6 059 65 12 2370 0856-PVA-0500 0500 6 065 70 14 2340 08912-PVA-0125 0125 12 045 70 14 2420 08212-PVA-0250 0250 12 054 60 12 2390 08412-PVA-0375 0375 12 062 60 11 2370 08112-PVA-0500 0500 12 088 60 14 2300 0841Slump air content and mass per unit volume calculated to the nearest 5mm 02 and 10 kgm3 respectively in accordance with AS 101231 AS 101242and AS 10125
By viewing the results in Table 6 and Figure 5 it canbe noted that with the same fibre volume fraction shorterfibres evidently have improved the compressive strengthmore than longer fibres (eg 25 to 117 at 28 days)Similar observations for other types of synthetic fibres (iepolypropylene fibres) have previously been reported by otherresearchers [31 32] that increasing the length of plastic fibresleads to a lower compressive strength Furthermore theoptimum fibre volume fraction was found to be 025 acrossall ages with a 138 increase in 56-day compressive strengthnoted compared to the control
Static chord modulus of elasticity of FRC and controlafter 7 28 and 56 days of curing is compared in Table 7From the results it can be noted that modulus of elasticityof concrete PVA-FRC mixes increases with age of curing Itwas also found that PVA fibres in low volume fractions usedin this study (lt050) do not significantly affect the modulusof elasticity although some fluctuations in the results havebeen observed These variations are more noticeable afterearly ages (7 and 28 days) while after 56 days most FRCmixes have very close values to that of control These obser-vations were also previously reported by other researchers[33 34] that fibres of different types with various modulus of
elasticity do not significantly affect the static elastic moduliof concrete due to the low fibre content However it isanticipated that within the FRC adding more fibres leadsto a decrease in concrete modulus of elasticity and for thesame fibre content longer fibres lead to lower MOE of theconcrete
33 Shrinkage and Mass Loss The loss of water with respectto time for the FRC versus control concrete is shown inFigure 6 Large increases in mass loss were noted in all the12mm PVA-FRC The 12-PVA-0125 exhibited a mass loss of16 after 7 days of air storage compared to the control mixrsquosmass loss value of 095 This observation suggests that themass loss in 12-PVA-0125 is 70 more than the mass loss ofthe control at 7 days From Figure 6 it is evident that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher mass loss at 7 days This may bepossibly due to the presence of more voids as a consequenceof adding fibreswhich increases the amounts of entrapped air
From the plotted data in Figure 6 the 12-PVA-0125 showsthe highest mass loss with a maximum value attained after112 days It can be concluded that the shorter fibres generallyperformed better than the longer fibres It can be seen in
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
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Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
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RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
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Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
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Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
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Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
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Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
6 Advances in Civil Engineering
Table 6 Compressive strength of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mixdesignation
7-day strengthmdash1198911198887
28-day strengthmdash11989111988828
56-day strengthmdash11989111988856
Average strengtha Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness Average strength Strength effectiveness[MPa plusmn SDb] [] [MPa plusmn SD] [] [MPa plusmn SD] []
Control 460 plusmn 17 NA 600 plusmn 32 NA 725 plusmn 30 NA6-PVA-0125 450 plusmn 05 minus21 650 plusmn 46 +83 790 plusmn 21 +906-PVA-0250 480 plusmn 41 +43 670 plusmn 32 +117 825 plusmn 42 +1386-PVA-0375 430 plusmn 18 minus65 620 plusmn 23 +33 735 plusmn 26 +146-PVA-0500 405 plusmn 35 minus120 615 plusmn 25 +25 700 plusmn 38 minus3412-PVA-0125 415 plusmn 10 minus97 630 plusmn 18 +50 705 plusmn 28 minus2812-PVA-0250 435 plusmn 36 minus54 645 plusmn 32 +75 730 plusmn 29 +0712-PVA-0375 410 plusmn 26 minus109 600 plusmn 17 000 675 plusmn 15 minus6912-PVA-0500 395 plusmn 24 minus141 585 plusmn 28 minus25 640 plusmn 42 minus117aAverage compressive strength of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 05MPa in accordance with AS 10129bSD standard deviation (reported out of 3 specimens tested for each age)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(a)
Com
pres
sive s
treng
th (M
Pa)
7 days28 days56 days
0
20
40
60
80
100
0000 0125 0250 0375 0500Fibre volume fraction Vf ()
(b)
Figure 5 Compressive strength versus fibre content at 7 28 and 56 days FRC with 6mm fibres (a) and FRC with 12mm fibres (b)
Figure 6 that themost desirable mix in terms of mass loss wascalculated to be 6-PVA-0250 with the least amount of massloss in comparison to all other mixes
The shrinkage-time relationship developed over a periodof 112 days of air storage is shown in Figures 7 and 8 AllPVA-FRC mixes were found to exhibit a higher total dryingshrinkage than the control between 0 to 112 days In additionthe longer fibres exhibited higher shrinkage than the shorterfibres The highest shrinkage of 390 120583-strain was exhibitedby the 6mm fibres up to 28 while this value was 420120583-strain for the 12mmfibremixesNonetheless the control onlyexhibited shrinkage of 320 120583-strain which was significantlylower than the PVA-FRC mixes
The normalized early age (up to 7 days) shrinkage resultsof FRC with respect to the control concrete are presentedin Figure 9 The control exhibited less shrinkage (ie 46lower shrinkage) than all PVA-FRC mixes except for 6-PVA-0500 incorporating 05 of 6mm fibres The 6-PVA-0250 displayed 110 more shrinkage than the control after 7days Furthermore the 12-PVA-0250 mix also exhibited thehighest amount of shrinkage than the other 12mm FRC with75 more shrinkage than the control
The 6mm PVA-FRC exhibited less shrinkage than all12mm PVA-FRC except for the 6-PVA-0250 mix The 6-PVA-0500 mix also displayed the most desirable results forearly age shrinkage
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
Advances in Civil Engineering 7
Table 7 Elastic modulus of control and FRC at 7 28 and 56 days
Mix reference 1198641198887
a [GPa] 11986411988828
[GPa] 11986411988856
[GPa]Control 377 393 4146-PVA-0125 376 395 4146-PVA-0250 390 401 4196-PVA-0375 359 390 4106-PVA-0500 333 388 40012-PVA-0125 337 390 39912-PVA-0250 350 392 40312-PVA-0375 336 385 39712-PVA-0500 321 332 387aElastic modulus of the test specimens calculated to the nearest 01 GPa inaccordance with AS 101217
00
05
10
15
20
25
30
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105112
Mas
s los
s (
)
Age (days)
Control 12-PVA-01256-PVA-0125 12-PVA-02506-PVA-0250 12-PVA-03756-PVA-0375 12-PVA-05006-PVA-0500
Figure 6 Water loss proportion to specimen initial total mass
Short-term (up to 28 days) shrinkage results of FRCnormalized to the control concrete are shown in Figure 10From the plotted shrinkage data the control shows the lowestshrinkage at 28 days than all PVA-FRC mixes At early age (7days) the 6-PVA-0500 displayed the most desirable resultThis mix continued to show signs of less shrinkage whencompared to all other mixes apart from the control whichexhibited only 95 higher shrinkage after 28 days than thecontrol The most undesirable result was found to be the 12-PVA-0125 mix which exhibited 30 higher shrinkage thanthe control
Figure 11 shows the normalized long-term (up to 112 days)shrinkage of FRC with respect to the control concrete AllFRC mixes show very similar values for drying shrinkagecompared to the control
A conclusion which could be drawn from the resultspresented in Figures 7 and 8 is that the effect of shrinkage ismore significant during the early stages of drying
The relation between themass of water lost and shrinkageis shown in Figure 12 It should be noted that themass ofwaterlost is not correlatedwith the change in the total volume of thehardened concrete sample Initial water loss may cause littleor no shrinkage [6] However the evaporation of adsorbed
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-0250
6-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 7 Shrinkage of 6mm PVA-FRC and control
0 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105 112Age (days)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Control12-PVA-012512-PVA-0250
12-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 8 Shrinkage of 12mm PVA-FRC and control
000
040
080
120
160
200
240
280
Nor
mal
ized
7-d
ay sh
rinka
ge
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 9 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 7 days with respect to thecontrol concrete
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
8 Advances in Civil Engineering
100
105
110
115
120
125
130
135
Nor
mal
ized
28-
day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500Vf ()
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Figure 10 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 28 days with respect tothe control concrete
water along the surface layers of the concrete will cause achange in volume This change in volume is more or lessequal to the loss of a water layer one molecule thick fromthe surface of all gel particles [6] Emptying of the capillarypores causes a loss of water without a significant amount ofshrinkage This can be seen from the first segment of thegraph in Figure 12 (up to mass loss equal to 30 grams) Theresults show thatmixes incorporating PVA fibres should havelower amounts of capillary pores and free water comparedto the control concrete since lower mass loss is recorded forFRC However once the water from the capillary pores hasbeen lost the removal of absorbed water causes shrinkagein almost the same manner as the control concrete for mostPVA-FRC mixes This interaction justifies similar behaviourtowards the last segment of the graph
From the shrinkage results plotted against the corre-sponding mass loss for different mixes in Figure 12 it isobserved that an almost linear relationship is displayedbetween shrinkage and mass loss which complies withprevious investigations [35ndash37]
4 Summary and Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn based on the resultsobtained in this study
(a) The introduction of PVA fibres decreased the worka-bility of the mix More HWR was required to achievea desirable slump With a fibre volumetric contentabove or close to 05 the workability is knownto decrease due to greater interfacial actions duringmixing between the fibres and cementitious materialsin concrete [19] Furthermore mixes with longer fibre
100
102
104
106
108
110
112
114
Nor
mal
ized
112
-day
shrin
kage
0125 0250 0375 0500
6mm PVA fibres12mm PVA fibres
Vf ()
Figure 11 Normalized shrinkage of FRC at 112 days with respect tothe control concrete
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120Loss of water per specimen (gr)
Control6-PVA-01256-PVA-02506-PVA-03756-PVA-0500
12-PVA-012512-PVA-025012-PVA-037512-PVA-0500
Shrin
kage
(times10
minus6)
Figure 12 Relation between shrinkage and loss of water fromspecimens
length demonstrate lower slump compared to shorterfibre length for the same fibre volume addition
(b) The compressive strength results show that almost allPVA incorporatedmixes exhibited lower compressivestrength than the control after 7 days of curingOn a positive note this trend was found to reverseafter 28 days of curing Almost all PVA incorporatedmixes exhibited higher compressive strength than thecontrol at 28 days It is worth noting that with thesame fibre volume fraction shorter fibres enhancecompressive strength more than longer fibres Fur-thermore the optimum fibre volume fraction wasfound to be 025 for all curing ages with a 138
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
Advances in Civil Engineering 9
increase noted in 56-day compressive strength com-pared to the control
(c) Test results show that PVA fibres in low volume frac-tions used in this study (lt050) do not significantlyaffect the modulus of elasticity
(d) The shrinkage results of FRC and control concreteup to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixesexhibited higher drying shrinkage than the controlIn addition longer fibres exhibited higher mass lossthus potentially contributing to higher shrinkageThis may be due to the hydrophilic nature of PVAfibres absorbing water during the fresh state of con-crete and releasing this absorbed water as concretewas hardened
As it has been previously reported by many researchers[33 38 39] the incorporation of polymeric fibres in concretein low volume fraction (lt1) is mostly recognised to beeffective in controlling and mitigating the susceptibility toplastic shrinkage cracking However the results of this studyshowed the reverse Accordingly it can be stated that in caseswhere reducing concrete shrinkage is important the use ofvirgin (uncoated) PVA fibre should be avoided In such casesa surface agent in the form of an oil may be applied to thesurface of the PVA fibres to make them more hydrophobic[15] The introduction of an oil base surface treatment agentwould also suggest that the fibre-matrix bond characteristicsand PVA fibre performance are improved within the matrixand the composite mechanical properties and toughness arealso enhanced [40ndash43]
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interestsregarding the publication of this paper
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support fromthe Centre for Built Infrastructure Research (CBIR) at theUniversity of Technology Sydney (UTS)
References
[1] A M Alhozaimy andM J Shannag ldquoPerformance of concretesreinforced with recycled plastic fibresrdquo Magazine of ConcreteResearch vol 61 no 4 pp 293ndash298 2009
[2] J J Park D Yoo S Kim and Y Yoon ldquoDrying shrinkagecracking characteristics of ultra-high-performance fibre rein-forced concrete with expansive and shrinkage reducing agentsrdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 65 pp 248ndash256 2013
[3] K Sakata ldquoA study on moisture diffusion in drying and dryingshrinkage of concreterdquo Cement and Concrete Research vol 13no 2 pp 216ndash224 1983
[4] B I G Barr and A S A El-Baden ldquoShrinkage properties ofnormal andhigh strength fibre reinforced concreterdquoProceedingsof the Institution of Civil Engineers Structures and Buildings vol156 no 1 pp 15ndash25 2003
[5] Cement Concrete amp Aggregates Australia Drying Shrinkage ofCement and Concrete CCAA 2002
[6] A Neville Properties of Concrete 4th and Final Edition JohnWiley amp Sons 1991
[7] C M Tam V W Y Tam and K M Ng ldquoAssessing dryingshrinkage and water permeability of reactive powder concreteproduced in Hong Kongrdquo Construction and Building Materialsvol 26 no 1 pp 79ndash89 2012
[8] G W Wash ldquoVolume changes of hardened concrete Signifi-cance of tests and properties of concrete and concrete-makingmaterialsrdquo ASTM (STP 169-A) American Society for Testingand Materials Philadelphia Pa USA 1996
[9] M Grzybowski and S P Shah ldquoShrinkage cracking of fiberreinforced concreterdquo ACI Materials Journal vol 87 no 2 pp138ndash148 1990
[10] S W Kim J J Park S T Kang G S Ryo and K TKoh ldquoDevelopment of ultra high performance cementitiouscomposites (UHPCC) in Koreardquo in Proceedings of the 4thInternational Conference on Bridge Maintenance (IABMAS rsquo08)p 110 Seoul Republic of Korea July 2008
[11] B A Graybeal ldquoFlexural behavior of an ultrahigh-performanceconcrete I-girderrdquo Journal of Bridge Engineering vol 13 no 6pp 602ndash610 2008
[12] A Kamen E Denarie H Sadouki and E Bruhwiler ldquoThermo-mechanical response of UHPFRC at early agemdashexperimentalstudy and numerical simulationrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 38 no 6 pp 822ndash831 2008
[13] B Chen andC Fang ldquoContribution of fibres to the properties ofEPS lightweight concreterdquo Magazine of Concrete Research vol61 no 9 pp 671ndash678 2009
[14] A Noushini B Samali and K Vessalas ldquoEffect of polyvinylalcohol (PVA) fibre on dynamic andmaterial properties of fibrereinforced concreterdquo Construction and Building Materials vol49 pp 374ndash383 2013
[15] H Kong S G Bike and V C Li ldquoConstitutive rheologicalcontrol to develop a self-consolidating engineered cementi-tious composite reinforced with hydrophilic poly(vinyl alcohol)fibersrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 25 no 3 pp 333ndash341 2003
[16] V C Li and S Wang ldquoMicrostructure variability and macro-scopic composite properties of high performance fiber rein-forced cementitious compositesrdquo Probabilistic EngineeringMechanics vol 21 no 3 pp 201ndash206 2006
[17] D Feldman Polymeric Building Materials Elsevier AppliedScience London UK 1989
[18] B Xu H A Toutanji and J Gilbert ldquoImpact resistanceof poly(vinyl alcohol) fiber reinforced high-performanceorganic aggregate cementitious materialrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 40 no 2 pp 347ndash351 2010
[19] R F Zollo ldquoFiber-reinforced concrete an overview after 30years of developmentrdquoCement and Concrete Composites vol 19no 2 pp 107ndash122 1997
[20] S B Daneti TWee and TThangayah ldquoEffect of polypropylenefibres on the shrinkage cracking behaviour of lightweightconcreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 871ndash881 2011
[21] B Arisoy Development and Fracture Evaluation of High Per-formance Fiber Reinforced Lightweight Concrete Wayne StateUniversity 2002
[22] S B Daneti and T Wee ldquoBehaviour of hybrid fibre reinforcedhigh-strength lightweight aggregate concreterdquo Magazine ofConcrete Research vol 63 no 11 pp 785ndash796 2011
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
10 Advances in Civil Engineering
[23] ACI-Comittee 544 ldquoState-of-the-art report on fiber reinforcedconcreterdquo Tech Rep A 544 1R-96 American Concrete Insti-tute 2002
[24] D Nicolaides A Kanellopoulos and B L Karihaloo ldquoFatiguelife and self-induced volumetric changes of CARDIFRCrdquoMag-azine of Concrete Research vol 62 no 9 pp 679ndash683 2010
[25] J Zhang H Stang and V C Li ldquoCrack bridging model forfibre reinforced concrete under fatigue tensionrdquo InternationalJournal of Fatigue vol 23 no 8 pp 655ndash670 2001
[26] R Combrinck and W P Boshoff ldquoTypical plastic shrinkagecracking behaviour of concreterdquoMagazine of Concrete Researchvol 65 pp 486ndash493 2013
[27] HWu andV C Li ldquoTrade-off between strength and ductility ofrandom discontinuous fiber reinforced cementitious compos-itesrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 16 no 1 pp 23ndash291994
[28] BSI BS 8110 Part 2 Structural Use of Concrete Code of Practicefor Design and Construction BSI London UK 1985
[29] A Izaguirre J Lanas and J I Alvarez ldquoEffect of a polypropylenefibre on the behaviour of aerial lime-based mortarsrdquo Construc-tion and Building Materials vol 25 no 2 pp 992ndash1000 2011
[30] N Ghosni K Vessalas and B Samali ldquoEvaluation of freshproperties effect on the compressive strength of polypropylenefibre reinforced polymer modified concreterdquo in Proceedings ofthe 22nd Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structuresand Materials (ACMSM rsquo12) Sydney Australia 2012
[31] D V Soulioti N M Barkoula A Paipetis and T E MatikasldquoEffects of fibre geometry and volume fraction on the flexuralbehaviour of steel-fibre reinforced concreterdquo Strain vol 47 no1 pp e535ndashe541 2011
[32] M A O Mydin and S Soleimanzadeh ldquoEffect of polypropy-lene fiber content on flexural strength of lightweight foamedconcrete at ambient and elevated temperaturesrdquo Advances inApplied Science Research vol 3 no 5 pp 2837ndash2846 2012
[33] D J Hannant ldquoFibre-reinforced concreterdquo in Advanced Con-crete Technology Set J Newman and B S Choo Eds pp 61ndash617 Butterworth-Heinemann Oxford UK 2003
[34] V Corinaldesi and G Moriconi ldquoCharacterization of self-compacting concretes prepared with different fibers and min-eral additionsrdquo Cement and Concrete Composites vol 33 no 5pp 596ndash601 2011
[35] A Bentur and A Goldman ldquoCuring effects strength andphysical properties of high strength silica fume concretesrdquoJournal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol 1 no 1 pp 46ndash581989
[36] E El Hindy B Miao O Chaallal and P Aitcin ldquoDryingshrinkage of ready-mixed high-performance concreterdquo ACIMaterials Journal vol 91 no 3 pp 300ndash305 1994
[37] S Ghosh and K W Nasser ldquoCreep shrinkage frost andsulphate resistance of high strength concreterdquoCanadian Journalof Civil Engineering vol 22 no 3 pp 621ndash636 1995
[38] A Bentur and S Mindess Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Com-posites Elsevier Applied Science 1990
[39] P N Balaguru and S P Shah Fiber Reinforced Cement Compos-ites McGraw Hill 1992
[40] B Felekoglu K Tosun and B Baradan ldquoEffects of fibre typeand matrix structure on the mechanical performance of self-compacting micro-concrete compositesrdquo Cement and ConcreteResearch vol 39 no 11 pp 1023ndash1032 2009
[41] C Redon V C Li C Wu H Hoshiro T Saito and A OgawaldquoMeasuring and modifying interface properties of PVA fibers
in ECC matrixrdquo Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering vol13 no 6 pp 399ndash406 2001
[42] V C Li C Wu S Wang A Ogawa and T Saito ldquoInterfacetailoring for strain-hardening polyvinyl alcohol-engineeredcementitious composite (PVA-ECC)rdquo ACI Materials Journalvol 99 no 5 pp 463ndash472 2002
[43] V C Li T Kanda and Z Lin ldquoThe influence of fibrematrixinterface properties on complementary energy and compositedamage tolerancerdquo in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference onFracture and Strength of Solids Hong Kong 1997
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
International Journal of
AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
RoboticsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Active and Passive Electronic Components
Control Scienceand Engineering
Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
International Journal of
RotatingMachinery
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014
Submit your manuscripts athttpwwwhindawicom
VLSI Design
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Shock and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Civil EngineeringAdvances in
Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal of
Advances inOptoElectronics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom
Volume 2014
The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
SensorsJournal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Modelling amp Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation httpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and
Propagation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
Navigation and Observation
International Journal of
Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttpwwwhindawicom Volume 2014
DistributedSensor Networks
International Journal of
