An Experimental Study On Enhancing The Mechanical Properties Of Fly Ash Blended Concrete Beam By Using Artificial Fibers
The quantity of flyash produced from thermal power plants in India is approximately80 million tons each year, and its percentage utilization is less than10%. During the last few years, some cement companies have start educing fly ash in manufacturing cement, known as 'Pozzolana Portland Cement', but the overall percentage utilization remains very low and most of the flyash is dumped at landfills. An attempt has been made to utilize these cheaper materials in concrete production. Since flyash possesses cementitious properties, it is used to replace cement partially. Artificial fibres will be added by weight of the flyash blended cement in various proportions to enhance its mechanical strengths, microstructural properties. This thesis aims at investigating the characteristics of fresh concrete and various strengths of hardened concrete made with flyash blended cement, along with artificial fibers in various proportions. M25 grade concrete is considered for experimental studies with 53 grade Ordinary Portland Cement blended with varying percentages of flyash. The maximum size of coarse aggregateusedis20mmsize.Artificialfibers such as glass fibers and polypropylene fibres will be added in various percentages from0.5%to3%. The optimum percentage of flyash replacement in cement and various mechanical test will be carried out after the addition of artificial fibers in the fly ash blended cement concrete mix. Eventually the most effective fiber and its optimal dosages will be arrived. Concrete is an artificial material which has wider range of applications in the construction industry. The basic ingredients of concrete are cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water. Since the cost of cement have increased due to increased cost of production or increased demand, there is an urgent need to replace them partially or wholly by cheaper materials.Concrete is very strong in compression, but its tensile strength is only about 10% of its compressive strength. Also, concrete is brittle in nature. In plain concrete, structural cracks develop even before loading, particularly due to drying shrinkage or other causes of volume change. The width of these initial cracks seldom a few microns, but their other two dimensions may be of higher magnitude. Also this becomes a major cause for the reduction in the compressive strength of the concrete. Mineral admixtures are finely divided siliceous materials which are added to mixtures in relatively large quantities.They are classified as follows a. Reactive minerals which are either pozzolanic or cementitious or both. The example of a pozzolanic admixture is low-calcium fly ash. The example of a cementitious admixture is ground granulated blast-furnace slag. High calcium fly ash is both pozzolanic and cementitious. b. Inert mineral fillers which have no pozzolanic or cementitious properties Fly ash is an industrial byproduct that has refocused and rekindled the interests of scientists and engineers on the material and structural implications of incorporating it as an essential cementitious component of concrete. It is now universally recognized that the needs of environment protection and sustainability of concrete construction demand that fly ash is not used in landfills or dumped as a waste material but instead utilize the availability of these pozzolanic and cementitious admixtures to