The American Concrete Institute (ACI) carried out an investigation on basalt fiber-reinforced concrete (BFRC) using various dosages of basalt fibers.
The paper, Use of Basalt Fibers in Fiber-Reinforced Concrete, revealed that the concrete mixture was designed with a target strength of 35 MPa (5075 psi), a typical strength for floor slabs and similar applications in which fiber reinforcement is often used.
ACI says: “The concrete was tested for slump and air content in the fresh condition and for compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, and toughness in the hardened condition.”
Through using the tests, the behaviour of the BFRC was investigated and compared to fiber-reinforced concretes produced using similar dosages of polyethylene synthetic fibers and crimped steel fibers.
“The basalt fibers were found to generally increase tensile and flexural strength (modulus of rupture) but were found to have very little effect on compressive strength and post-cracking behaviour, and inspection found that the fibers had ruptured upon macrocracking,” ACI adds.
This paper was written by Daniel J. Pickel, Jeffrey S. West, and Abdulaziz Alaskar.
