International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056

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Experimental Investigation on Bendable Concrete Using Natural and

Artificial Fibres (Jute and Nylon)
Brinila Bright B N(1),Beer Mohamed Sareef S H(2), Basith P A(3),Harish Priyadharshan T(4)

(1)Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sethu Institute of Technology, Viruthunagar-626115,

Tamil Nadu, India.
(2), (3), (4) Final Year Students, Department of Civil Engineering, Sethu Institute of Technology, Viruthunagar-626115,

Tamil Nadu, India.

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ABSTRACT-Engineering cementitious composite (ECC), admixtures along with the basic constituents (i.e,) cement,
also called strain hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) fine aggregate and water. No coarse aggregate is used in ECC,
or more popularly as bendable concrete. It is special type of to avoid brittle failure. PVA fibers are known for their low
concrete that can take the bending stresses. It consists of modulus of elasticity, ductility, tensile strength and bonding
special type of materials that makes it flexible. Normal strength, whereas, Steel fiber increases the flexural, impact
concrete is brittle in nature while ECC is ductile in nature due and fatigue strength of composite. Hence a combination of
to this property. It has wide applications and wide future scope these two fibers is used in this work. Fly ash is a material
in various fields. Fly ash is also known as pulverized fuel ash. It that was proved to be a good replacement for cement, from
is a fine powder which is a byproduct from burning pulverized the previous studies. It occupies the void space in the matrix
coal in electric generation power plants. Ductile property of which would otherwise be occupied by water. GGBS consists
normal concrete can be improved by using natural and of silicates and aluminates of calcium and it can be used as a
artificial fibers like jute fiber and nylon fiber in place of coarse good substitute material for cement. These two mineral
aggregate and cement partially replaced by fly ash. Two fiber admixtures (Fly ash, GGBS) are used for the experimental
volume fractions 0%,0.5%,1% and 1.5% were considered. For studies. In this research, series of investigations were carried
these purpose concrete cubes, cylinders, and prisms are out to employ hybrid ductile fibers (PVA and steel fibers) in
experimentally investigated. ECC with high volume of mineral admixture (fly ash) which
replaces cement. The amount of mineral admixtures is again
Key words: Nylon and jute fibers, Fly ash, Super plasticizer, replaced by 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of GGBS and the
ECC concrete. performance of the resulting composite is studied (2). And
another research study is to investigate the hardened
1. INTRODUCTION property (i.e. Flexural Test) of ECC by addition of AR Glass
fibers in different proportion. The result is a moderately low
The flexible concrete is three times more expensive than the fiber volume fraction (<2%) composite which shows
ordinary concrete. unlike regular concrete, ECC has a strain extensive strain-hardening (3). Traditional concrete is
capacity in the range of 3-7% compared to 0.01% for considered as brittle and rigid, also conventional concrete is
ordinary Portland cement (opc) paste, mortar or concrete. not highly durable. The lack of durability of concrete is on
Therefore the ECC acts more like a ductile material. Now we account of the presence of calcium hydroxide and the
are improving the ductile property of normal concrete by transition zone, which represents the interfacial region
using natural and artificial fibres like jute fibre and nylon between the particles of coarse aggregate and the hardened
fibre in place of coarse aggregate and cement partially cement paste. Coir bars are used in concrete members to
replaced by fly ash. Experimental Study on Bendable keep cracks as small as possible. But they are not small
Concrete by Using Admixture and Fibre, this paper suggests enough to heal, so water and deicing salts can penetrate to
the need for developing a new class of FRCs which has the the coir, causing corrosion that further weakens the
strain-hardening property but which can be processed with structure by affecting the durability. This result is
conventional equipment. It is demonstrated that such a development of engineered cementitious composites. The
material, termed engineered cementitious composites or purpose of this project is to study the Durability properties
ECCs, can be designed based on micromechanical with strain of Engineered Cementitious Composites. To verify that, in
capacity of about 3 to 5% compared to 0.01% of normal this project Coir fiber and polyvinyl alcohol fiber with
concrete. The result is a moderately low fiber volume various proportions of mineral admixtures such as rice husk
fraction (<2%) composite which shows extensive strain- ash and silica fume has been used in ECC to study its
hardening. Ductile property of normal concrete can be structural performance and durable properties (4). In ECC
improved by using PVA fibers in place of coarse aggregate coarse aggregates are not used as they tend to adversely
and cement partially replaced by fly ash. For these purpose affect the unique ductile behavior of the composite.
concrete cubes, cylinders, beams and slabs are Polypropylene fibers have advantageous characteristics, the
experimentally investigated. This paper also focuses on weak bond with the cement matrix as a result of their
significant pattern of cracks developed during testing of smooth surface and chemical inertness remains a large
specimens (1). ECC has fiber, mineral admixture and chemical limitation. It has been demonstrated that the fiber-matrix

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bond strongly affects the ability of fibers to stabilize crack huge amount of fly ash is produce in the thermal power
propagation in the matrix. As the bond between fiber and station. Class F fly ash is utilized so the acquisition cost is
matrix is mainly mechanical, it seems that incorporating reduced. Only transportation cost is estimated.
silica fume into fiber reinforced cement composites provides
a better bond with the matrix through pore refinement and 2.4 Cement: In manufacturing of paver blocks, OPC – 43
better distribution of the hydration products. Hence, in this was used .The word "cement" can be traced back to
project an effort was made to study the effect of PP fibers on the Roman term opus cementicium, used to
the mechanical properties of mortars incorporating silica describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was
fume. Six fiber volume fractions 0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4% made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder.
and 0.5% were considered. The experimental study is to
present the behaviour of prism with optimum percent of 2.5 Fine Aggregate: Fine aggregate is basically sand
fibers under two point loading (5). Therefore the nylon, jute obtained from the land or the marine environment. fine
fibers and fly ash is used for the purpose of ductility and aggregate generally consist of natural sand or crushed stone
property enhancement. as per IS383-1970 fine aggregate are aggregate which passes
through 4.75mm IS sieve. And coarse aggregate are
2. MATERIALS USED aggregates most of which are retained in 4.75mm IS sieve.
The fine aggregates confirm to zone II.
2.1 Jute (Natural fiber): Jute is a kind of fibre obtained
from plants known as white corchorus capsularis. The 2.6 Water: Water that is clean and free from injurious
manufacturing process of jute fiber involves hand harvesting amounts of oils, acids, alkalis, salt, sugar, organic material or
of the source plant, drying in the field for defoliation, retting other substance that may be deleterious to concrete is used.
for periods up to a month, stripping and sun drying in the
field for defoliation, retting for periods up to a month, 2.7 Super plasticizer: Super plasticizer used is modified
stripping and sun drying. The Length of jute fibre used in this sulphonated naphthalene formaldehyde. This is used to
project is 12mm. control rheological properties of fresh concrete. Typically
super plasticizers increase slump from say 5cm to about 18-
20cm without addition of water. When used to achieve
reduction in mixing water they can reduce water up to 15-
20% and hence decrease W/C ratio by same amount.

Table-1: Physical properties of jute fiber

S. No Property Jute
1 Specific gravity 1.50
Fig-1: jute Fiber
2 Water Absorption 13.5%
2.2 Nylon (Artificial fiber): Nylon is generic name that
Table-2: Physical properties of nylon fiber
identifies a family of polymers. Nylon fibres are impacted
by the base polymer type, addition of different levels of
additive, manufacturing condition and fibre dimensions. S. No Property Jute
Nylon is particularly effective imparting impact resistance 1 Specific gravity 1.14
and flexural toughness and sustaining and increasing the 2 water absorption 3.5%
load carrying capacity of concrete .The length of nylon fiber
used in this project is 12mm. Table-3: Physical properties of fine aggregates

S. No Property Fine Aggregate

1 Specific gravity 2.78
2 fineness modulus 3.50
3 bulk density 1686kg/m3
4 water absorption 2.83%

3. ECC-MIX DESIGN

3.1 Concrete mix design

Fig-2:Nylon Fiber The mix design of grade M30 was used. The mix design for
ECC Concrete is basically based on Micromechanics design
2.3 Fly ash: In RCC construction use of fly ash has been basis. Micromechanics are a branch of mechanics applied at
successful in reducing heat generation without loss of the material constituent level that captures the mechanical
strength; increasing ultimate strength beyond 180days.The interactions among the fiber, mortar matrix, and fiber–

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Volume: 05 Issue: 04 | Apr-2018 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

matrix interface. Typically, fibers are of the order of gaining its required strength. Lack of curing will lead to
millimeters in length and tens of microns in diameter, and improper gain in the strength. After 28 days of curing, the
they may have a surface coating on the nanometer scale. concrete specimens were removed from the curing tank to
Matrix heterogeneities in ECC, including defects, sand conduct hardened properties test of ECC Concrete.
particles, cement grains, and mineral admixture particles,
have size ranges from nano to millimetre scale. Hence the 4. TESTING OF CONCRETE
ideal mix proportion given in the literature of ECC-ECC
Concrete was used as the guidelines to determine the 4.1 Testing on hardened concrete
proportion of various constituents in the concrete. The
volume fraction of using jute and nylon fiber was varied as This deals with Tests and testing procedure for hardened
0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, added in total volume of concrete concrete specimen. Investigations are carried out by testing
mix. The ideal Mix proportion which was taken as cubes, beams and cylinders for 7, 28 days. Cubes and
reference is given below: cylinders were tested on Compression Testing Machine
(CTM) and beams were tested on Universal Testing
Table- 4: Mix- proportions Machine (UTM).

Mix Fine 4.1.1 Compressive strength test (test on cubes)

Cement Fly Ash W/C
Designa Aggregate
(Kg/m3) (Kg/m3) Ratio
-tion (Kg/m3) The cubes of size 150 x 150 x 150 mm are placed in the
M30 320 96 2226 0.45 machine such that load is applied on the opposite side of
the cubes as casted. Align carefully and load is applied, till
3.2 Placing, compaction and casting of concrete the specimen breaks. The formula used for calculation:
Specimens Compressive Strength = Total Failure Load/Area of the
Cube
Once the mix design was finalized, the mixing was carried
out. The mixing of bendable concrete was carried out by
using hand mixing. Add sand, cement, 50% of fly ash & 50%
water and super plasticizer. Add slowly remaining quantity
of fly Ash, water and super plasticizer. Once the
homogenous mixture is formed, add the fibers (jute and
nylon) slowly. Mix all the constituents till the fibers are
homogenously mixed in the matrix. During the placing of
fresh concrete into the moulds, tamping was done using
Tamping rod. After placing the concrete into the moulds, Fig- 4: compressive strength test
vibrations were done using a table vibrator. After vibration
operation, the leveling of concrete was done on the surface 4.1.2Split tensile strength test (test on cylinders)
of the concrete. Leveling is the initial operation carried out
after the concrete has been placed and compacted.About Split tensile strength test is an indirect test to determine the
samples were prepared as shown in Fig.1 in order to tensile strength of cylindrical specimens. Splitting tensile
determine various properties such as , compressive strength tests were carried out on cylindrical specimens of
strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength. size 150 mm diameter and 300 mm length at the age of 7,
28 days curing. The load was applied gradually till the
specimens split and readings were noted. The procedure
for test, apparatus required and loading condition was
followed as per IS 516: 1959. The formula used for
calculation:

Split tensile Strength =2P/π*D*L

Fig - 3. Concrete specimens

3.3 Curing of concrete specimens

After leaving the fresh concrete in the moulds to set

overnight, the concrete specimens in the moulds were
stripping. The identification of concrete specimens was
done. After 24 hours, all the concrete specimens were
placed into the curing tank with a controlled temperature of
25 0C in further for 28 days for the hardened properties
test of concrete. Curing is an important process to prevent Fig- 5: Split tensile strength test
the concrete specimens from losing of moisture while it is
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4.1.3 Flexural strength test (test on beams)

The test is carried out to find the flexural strength of the

prism of dimension 100 x 100 x 500 mm. The prism is then
placed in the machine in such manner that the load is
applied to the uppermost surface as cast in the mould.
Point loading adopted on an effective span of 400 mm while
testing the prism. The load is applied until the failure of the
prism. By using the failure load of prism Flexural Strength =
Pl/bd2.Where P – Failure load of the prism, l – Length of the
prism, b – Breadth of the prism, d – Depth of the prism.

X axis- Addition of materials

Y axis-Split tensile strength (N/mm2)

Chart-2: Comparison of Split tensile strength (7 and 28

days)
Fig- 6: Flexural strength test
5.3 Flexural strength
5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The flexural strength test was conducted on the prism
specimens after 7 and 28 days curing. Figure 9 shows the
5.1 Compressive strength comparison of average flexural strength of various % fiber
mixes and Figure 10 shows the graph between load and
The tests were conducted on the cube specimens after 7 deflection 7 and 28 days.
and 28 days curing. Figure 7 shows the comparison of
average compressive strength of various % fiber mixes.

X axis- Addition of materials

Y axis-Flexural strength (N/mm2)
X axis- Addition of materials
Y axis-Compressive strength (N/mm2) Chart-3:Comparison of flexural strength (7 and 28 days)

Chart-1: Comparison of compressive strength (7 and 28 6. CONCLUSIONS

days)
Based on the experimental investigations carried out the
5.2 Split tensile strength following conclusions are arrived at:

The tests were conducted for the cylinder specimens after  The significant properties of ECC concrete are
7 and 28 days curing. Figure 8 shows the comparison of ductility, durability, compressive strength and self-
average split tensile strength of various % fiber mixes. Both consolidation. Although the cost procured for the
7 days and 28 days test results explains that the variation designing of ECC is normally higher than that of
increased in steady state manner. the normal concrete but it have numerous
potential applications.
 In this paper the compression and flexural strength
of bendable concrete is done the values are
compared with conventional cubes and prism.

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Therefore it is proved that the bendable concrete is

more strength than the conventional concrete and
it is more flexible so that is resist cracks and acts
as more efficiency in seismic regions.

 It was found that addition of nylon (1.5%) and jute

fibers (1.5%) has improved the flexural behavior
of ECC specimens.

 The cost of ECC is currently about three times that

of normal concrete per cubic yard compared to
plain concrete, fiber reinforced concrete is much
tougher and more resistant to impact.

 On comparing the 7 days and 28 days test, better

results was obtained in the 28 days strength.

REFERENCES

[1].Ganesh S. Ghodke, Nilesh S Daphal, Yogesh S.Bandgar,

Dattatray S.Gadekar. “Bendable Concrete by Using
Admixture and Fiber” International Journal for Technological
Research in engineering (May-2017).

[2].Sharmila.s “Behavior of Hybrid Fiber Engineered

Cementitious Composites”. International Journal of science,
Environment and technology (Vol. 5, No 5, 2016, 3539 –
3545).

[3].Satheesh V S, Yuvaraja N,Vinoth V, Balaji P, Abhinav

Gurung.“Flexural behavior of bendable
concrete”.International journal of scientific engineering and
applied science (may-2017).

[4].R.Sathishkumar , S.Ranjith “Effect Of Coir Fiber And

Polyvinyl Alcohol Fiber On Durability Properties of
Engineered Cementitious Composites ”. International
Research Journal of Engineering And Technology (IRJET)
Volume: 04 Issue: 04 Apr -2017.

[5].Ms.E.Ramya,Ms.S.Nalini,Mrs.S.Sivaranjini,Mr.R.M.Saravan
akumar “Experimental Investigation Of Polypropylene Fiber
In Engineered Cementitious Composites.” International
Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Research .Vol. 2,
Issue 2, pp: (40-46), Month: October 2014 - March 2015

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