Mechanical Properties of PVC Fiber-Reinforced Concrete-Effects of Fiber Content and Length

This paper presents the key mechanical properties of PVC fiber-reinforced concrete. Six concrete mixtures were produced using plastic fibers obtained from clear PVC sheets. Three concrete mixtures were made using 20 mm long PVC fibers, whereas the other three were prepared with 40 mm long PVC fibers. The fiber content was varied in the range of 0-1.5 wt.% of cement for each length of fiber. The fresh concrete mixtures were tested for workability in terms of the slump. The hardened concretes were tested for their compressive and splitting tensile strengths, flexural strength and toughness, static elastic modulus, and impact resistance and toughness. The effects of the fiber content and fiber length on the workability and above-mentioned mechanical properties were observed. In addition, the correlations between various mechanical properties were sought. The test results revealed that the workability of concrete was reduced for both fiber lengths as the fiber content increased. The compressive strength, flexural strength and toughness, elastic modulus, and impact resistance and toughness increased at up to 1 wt.% fiber content, then decreased for 1.5 wt.% fibers. A similar trend was also noticed for the splitting tensile strength, particularly in the case of 20 mm long PVC fibers. Compared to the fiber length, the fiber content exhibited a more pronounced effect on the mechanical properties of concrete. The optimum fiber content was 1 wt.%, which produced the best performance in this study. Furthermore, excellent correlations were observed for the tested mechanical properties of concrete, except for splitting tensile strength, which was not well-correlated with compressive strength.