Torsional Behavior of Recycled Aggregate Based Glass Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete
Torsional Behavior of Recycled Aggregate Based Glass Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete
Torsional Behavior of Recycled Aggregate Based Glass Fiber Reinforced Self-Compacting Concrete
Abstract:
The quality and characteristics of concrete are profoundly impacted by
factors such as compaction integrity and its inherently brittle nature. A
promising solution to challenges related to compaction is Self-
Compacting Concrete (SCC), which achieves consolidation without the
need for vibrators. Despite its potential, there remains a need for
comprehensive investigations, particularly concerning its behavior in
torsion a fundamental structural action often overlooked but crucial for
analyzing structures exposed to wind and seismic forces.
The significance of torsion lies in its role in analyzing structures
subjected to lateral loads. Factors like torsional rigidity, toughness, and
twist at ultimate torque significantly influence the behavior of members
under lateral forces. By incorporating glass fibers, concrete gains
improved energy absorption characteristics, while the integration of
recycled aggregates supports sustainable concrete development.
Within the existing literature, research on the torsional behavior of Self-
Compacting Concrete reinforced with glass fibers and recycled
aggregates remains limited. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on
investigating self-compacting concrete beams with varying ratios (20%,
30%, and 40% replacement of total coarse aggregate by weight) of
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recycled coarse aggregate, coupled with glass fiber aspect ratios of 0.5,
1, and 1.5, in comparison with traditional Vibrated Concrete.
16 beams were cast using 30 MPa concrete, employing both natural and
recycled coarse aggregate. Our findings demonstrate a noteworthy
enhancement in torsional properties—including ultimate torque, angle
of twist, torsional stiffness, and torsional toughness—in self-
compacting concrete compared to vibrated concrete, regardless of
whether natural or recycled coarse aggregates were used. Moreover, the
introduction of fibers contributes to this improved performance.
Particularly promising outcomes were observed in members featuring
fiber aspect ratios of 1.5 in self-compacting concrete and 0.5 in
traditional vibrated concrete. Furthermore, the optimal recycled
aggregate ratio was found to be 40% for self-compacting concrete and
the same ratio for traditional concrete.
In summary, this study underscores the significant potential of self-
compacting concrete, especially when enhanced with glass fibers and
combined with recycled aggregates, to achieve superior torsional
properties. These findings hold implications for enhancing the
performance and sustainability of concrete structures.
1.0 Introduction:
Any compound system of forces is defined in five basic terms of
actions as axial tension, compression, flexure, shear force, and
torsional moment. Torsion is present in many structural members as
space frames, curved beams in water tanks, inverted L-beams, flat
slab edge beams..... etc. The analysis of torsion in reinforced concrete
beams is complex. Plain concrete members’ torsion test is helpful in
understanding the more complex issue of torsion in reinforced
concrete members. It can be used as a preface study of reinforced
concrete. Generally, part of torsion strength in reinforced concrete
member comes from the fraction plain concrete member. The
torsional strength of concrete can theoretically calculated by using
Elastic and Plastic analysis.
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Glass fiber reinforced materials is being used in many industrial
applications due to exceptional mechanical properties, non-corrosive,
in addition to lifetime maintenance costs. Both tensile strength and
modulus of elasticity as well as strain increased with the increase in
fiber content. Glass fiber has a vital role as an additive in concrete
admixture, which is exposed to severe environment conditions and
severe loading conditions where traditional concrete could not stand.
It was found that a unique physical and mechanical properties of glass
fiber reinforced concrete is suitable for applications where traditional
concrete would be unsuitable. So, the effect of glass fibers in
increasing torsion strength could be understood when added to plain
concrete members. The recycling of concrete aggregate (coarse &
fine) gives new chances to use recycled materials for structural
applications; indeed, it may be an important revolution towards
sustainability. The utilization of recycled aggregate plays a vital role
finding the solution to the problem of excessive waste materials while
at the same time maintaining satisfactory concrete quality. The usage
of waste construction materials should be connected to the quality
control systems to achieve acceptable product properties. A fine
understanding of the characteristics of this new material is extremely
important so that good applications can be applied. Recycled
aggregate (RA) is a part of stone that is attached to old cement mortar,
generated by crushing concrete waste .Recycled aggregate concrete
(RAC) is made by mixing RA with other natural ingredients, cement,
water, coarse , fine aggregate and other materials. Since concrete is
only consisted of cementitious materials, and the fine powders
generated through the production of RA can be reused as cement
resources. Concrete is the adaptable material used in construction
industry.
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) was first developed in 1988 in order to
achieve durable concrete structures. Since then, various researches was
carried out, and large construction companies in Japan have used the
self-compacting concrete in practical structures. In order to make a
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rational mix design method many researches have been carried out and
self-compact ability testing methods have been carried out due to
making it a standard concrete. Not only in Japan but also in many
countries a lot of investigations have been started, and it has been
applied to practical structures mainly in Canada, Sweden, The
Netherlands, Thailand, and Taiwan. Manuals and recommendations for
self-compacting concrete (SCC) have also been issued in Japan.
Self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a solution to Problems that is related
to compaction and can achieve consolidation without using vibrators.
SCC can fill the formwork, maintain homogeneity, integrity even at
congested reinforcement places without any use of external source
contribution, and achieve full compaction without any concrete
segregation. Inadequate compaction effects the strengthened properties
such as strength and durability.
1.1 Literature Review:
Considering the lack of a proper mix design for SCC, Su et.al [6]
proposed a simple mix design method for SCC, where a term Packing
Factor was introduced to calculate the quantities of aggregates. The
method involved determining the aggregate Packing Factor (PF) and
influence on the strength, flowability, and self-compatibility ability.
Specifications and Guidelines for SCC EFNARC [7], defines specific
requirements of materials used for SCC, its composition and
application. EFNARC guidelines proposed several test methods to
characterize the fresh properties of SCC viz: flowability, passing
ability, viscosity and segregation resistance. Nagaratnam et.al. [9],
studied the effect of fibers with different aspect ratio in resisting
torsional loads in vibrated concrete. Zoran Jure Grdic et. al. [15],
research on potential use of recycled coarse aggregate obtained from
crushed concrete for making self-compacting concrete. The results
indicated that the properties of these concretes have only a slight
difference, and hence recycled coarse aggregate could successfully be
used for making self-compacting concrete. Steel fibers improve the
load carrying capacity of concrete under pure torsion and combined
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bending-torsion Patil et. al. [16]. A study on strength characteristics
of recycled coarse aggregate with different replacement levels was
done by Saha [17] and it was observed that 25% replacement will not
affect strength characteristics significantly. Pandaa and Balb [18],
presented the influence of different amounts of recycled coarse
aggregate (RCA) obtained from a demolished waste on the properties
of self-compacting concrete (SCC) and compared the results with
vibrated concrete (VC) containing 100% natural aggregate (NA).The
study recommended that SCC almost achieved the required
compressive strength with 30% replacement of RA.
From a detailed literature review on SCC, it was evident that SCC is
new type of concrete can compact in to every corner of formwork by
means of its self-weight. There is abundant amount of literature
available on SCC. Usage of recycled aggregates in concrete as a
replacement of natural aggregates is now gaining importance
especially in SCC. From the review of literature, it was found that the
use of recycled aggregates as substitute to natural aggregates is an
effective way of handling disposal of waste concrete when used at
proper replacement proportions, and also influence of steel fibers on
SCC was studied. The literature available on the torsional behaviour
of steel fiber reinforced SCC is very limited.
Torsion failure is mainly due to inherent weakness of concrete in
tensile strength. The presence of the cracks both in interfacial
transition zone and the mortar matrix of concrete is the factor
responsible for insignificant strength. From literature review, it was
found that tensile properties of concrete can be significantly enhanced
with the inclusion of steel fibers. In this investigation hookend steel
fibers with various aspect ratios (50, 70 and 100) were used. It was
aimed to study the effect of aspect ratios of hookend steel fibers on
performance of concrete under pure torsion. The performance of SCC
is analyzed with respect to vibrated concrete (VC). The usage of
recycled aggregates is limited to certain extent in conventional natural
aggregate concrete doesn’t significantly affect the fresh and hardened
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properties. So, in this investigation the effect of Recycled Coarse
Aggregate (RCA) on the torsional behaviour of concrete is studied by
replacing natural coarse aggregate with 25% of recycled coarse
aggregate by weight.
1.3 Research Significance:
Very few research investigations were done on torsional
characteristics of SCC but the research on torsional behaviour of
recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) based GFRSCC is scant. Hence, this
study aims to study the effect of glass fiber with different aspect ratios
(0 %,0.5 %,1.0 % and 1.5 %) on fresh, hardened and torsional
properties of SCC and a comparison is made with traditional concrete
(TVC). The effect of using different ratios of RCA with (0 %, 20 %,
30 % and 40 %), replacement of natural coarse aggregates on both
SCC and TVC with and with glass fibers is investigated. 16 beams of
size 100 x 200 x1700 mm were cast with a parametric variation in
plain and fiber reinforced concrete, aspect ratio of glass fiber, type of
concrete with 30 MPa . The dosage of fibers with 0.5% by volume of
concrete.
2.0 Materials and Methods
Cement: Ordinary Portland cement of 42.5 grade, with particle size of
90µ has been used in the present investigation. The specific gravity,
standard consistency were 3.12 and 32% respectively.
Fine Aggregate: Locally available desert sand conforming to Zone-II
as per IS: 383-1999 [20] has been used. The bulk density, specific
gravity, and fineness modulus of the sand were 1.41g/cc, 2.68, and
2.9.
Coarse Aggregate: Crushed granite aggregate of maximum 16 mm
size conforming to IS: 3831999 [20] has been used. The bulk density,
specific gravity modulus of the coarse aggregate were 1.46g/cc, 2.7.
Recycled Coarse Aggregate (RCA): The RCA used in this study was
obtained by crushing tested specimens of concrete cubes available in
concrete laboratory of benha faculty of engineering. Before using, the
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aggregates were washed with water to remove any unwanted
substances, and pre-soaked for 30 minutes and then air-dried. The
bulk density, specific gravity, and fineness modulus of the coarse
aggregate used were 1.30g/cc, 2.52 and 7.10.
Chemical Admixture: Modified polycarboxylate based
superplasticizer confirming to IS 91031999 [23] was used. The
product name is Master Glenium SKY 8612. The dosage used is 1.5%
of weight.
Glass Fibers: monofilament glass fiber chopped from type E of glass.
The fibers are coated with silane based to sizing improve initial
dispersion and bond. The fibers are extremely fine, single filaments,
measuring 13 microns in diameter, cut to 18 (used in research) mm.
Water: Potable water is used for mixing and curing of concrete.
Mix Proportions:
Mix proportions for 20MPa traditional vibrated concrete are
developed based on IS: 10262-2009 [26] while SCC mix proportion
was developed based on Nan Su, et al [6] method. The details of
quantities of ingredients along with the corresponding split tensile
strengths and cube compressive strengths are presented in Tables 1
and 4, 5. Testing of concrete specimens was done according to per IS:
516-1999 [27].
Table 1: Quantities of ingredients (kg/m3).
Compaction
% of Fiber
% of RCA
Specimen
Cement
Gravel
Water
Fiber
Code
RCA
Sand
No.
S.P.
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Compaction
% of Fiber
% of RCA
Specimen
Cement
Gravel
Water
Fiber
Code
RCA
Sand
No.
S.P.
7 R30 – F0.5- S 30 0.50 51.87 33.72 18.56 8.35 15.56 0.68 0.27
8 R30 – F1.5- S 30 1.50 51.15 33.25 18.56 8.35 15.35 2.03 0.27
The study includes testing of fiber reinforced SCC and TC beams with
recycled concrete of aspect ratios 0%, 20%, 30% and 40% by weight.
The dosage of fiber is variable with aspect ratio 0, 0.5%, 1.0% and
1.5% by volume of concrete. 16 beams were cast each with a cross-
sectional width of 100 mm and depth of 200 mm having an overall
span of 1700 mm with 1500 mm test span. Three companion cubes of
size 150x150x150 mm were cast and tested to determine compressive
strength as per IS: 516-1999 [27]. All the specimens were cured under
water at room temperature up to 28 days.
2.1 Experimental setup:
After 28 days of curing, the beams described earlier were white
washed and two sections were selected at distances of L/3 and 2L/3
from left side of the beam where ‘L’ is the unsupported length and
equals 1500 mm . The two sections were marked on all faces of the
beams to enable measure the inclination of crack. Simply supported
end conditions were created by mounting the beams on two rigid
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supports. To enable twisting of beam, a roller was positioned on the
supports in the longitudinal direction. The support on East face of
beam about the longitudinal axis was partly restrained to rotate. The
twist arms at each support of the beam were specially made and
positioned with an arm length of 1.8 m. Mechanical screw jack was
used to apply the load on the twist arm. The beam was subjected to
pure torsion and any probability of bending was avoided, so that the
twisting arm and plane of loading were at right angles to the
longitudinal axis of the beam. The complete testing arrangement is
shown in Fig.1.
Eccentricity of the load was 1.51 m from center of the beam. The load
was measured digitally. Twist meters were used to measure the twist
of the beam. By means of transverse screws, twist meters consisting
of steel frame attached to the beam as shown in Fig 2. To facilitate the
measurement of rotation, rigid steel frames with an arm length of 230
mm on vertical faces of the frame were used. Four dial gauges were
positioned underneath the steel arms as shown in Fig. 2. The spacing
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between the dial gauges was 250 mm which enabled calculation of
twist per unit length.
2.2 Testing Procedure:
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Table 5: Details of the mechanical properties of Traditional Vibrated
Concrete.
Specimen Code Cube Compressive strength (MPa)
CT 315.56
R0 – F1- T 304.59
R20 – F1- T 299.11
R30 – F1- T 303.85
R40 – F1- T 281.33
R30 – F0- T 281.19
R30 – F0.5- T 314.37
R30 – F1.5- T 270.07
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Fig. 3(a): Crack pattern on four sides of self-compacting concrete
beams
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Fig. 3(b): Crack pattern on four sides of traditional vibrated
concrete.
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R30 – F1.5- S 7.2 0.0133
CT 6.15 0.0078
R0 – F1- T 5.85 0.0316
R20 – F1- T 4.2 0.0107
R40 – F1- T 4.2 0.0217
R30 – F1- T 4.5 0.0217
R30 – F0- T 4.2 0.0084
R30 – F1.5- T 4.05 0.0103
R30 – F1- T 4.5 0.0217
R30 – F0.5- T 4.65 0.0145
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The enhancement in the mechanical properties of the concrete is due
to localized reinforcing capability of fibers and also arrest the
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The torsional properties of both the concretes are shown in Table 6.
The torsional strength has increased with inclusion of fibers in both
the concretes. The linear portion of torque-twist curve (slope of initial
tangent) indicate torsional stiffness of beams and was found to
increase with addition of steel fibers. This increase is essentially with
increase in modulus of matrix due to steel fibers. The area under
torque-twist curve indicate torsional toughness of concrete which is
observed to be significantly increased with addition of steel fiber. This
is due to crack delaying property and energy absorption capacity of
fibrous matrix. The percentage increase in torsional properties of
fibrous beams both SCC and VC with respect to plain beams are
shown in Table 7.
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Fig. 6: Torque-Twist behavior of SCC – Effect of recycled Agg.
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Comparison of test results with various models from Literature:
In this section, the experimental results obtained for ultimate torsional
strength of TVC and SCC are compared with torsional strength
models available in the literature for vibrated concrete.
Where, α = Constant depends on b/d ratio = 0.246 for the b/d ratio 0.5,
b = breadth of the beam (smaller dimension), d = depth of the beam
(larger dimension), ft = Tensile strength of the concrete.
The torsion of a fully plastic elastic rectangular section can be
determined using membrane analogy. In this theory, the slight increase
in ultimate torque for plain concrete members due to plasticity is
neglected for conservative purposes. Consequently, it might seem
reasonable to predict the ultimate torque with good accuracy using
Saint-Venant's elastic theory of torsion. However, tests conducted on
plain concrete members demonstrate that the elastic theory significantly
underestimates the ultimate torque.
Plastic Theory [1]:
The torsion analysis of a fully plastic rectangular section is achieved
through the implementation of the sand heap analogy. Consequently,
the expression representing the torsional strength is formulated as
follows: Tp = αb2dft
For plastic analysis, the value of ‘α’ is given as (0.5 - (b/6d)).
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torque of the plain concrete rectangular section was characterized by
the following equation:
Tue= 1/3(b2d (0.85fr))
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(Te) (Tp) (Tue) (Tcr) (Tg) (Texp)
CT 2.75 4.67 3.17 4.08 4.29 6.15
R0 – F1- T 2.56 4.33 2.95 3.78 3.99 5.85
R20 – F1- T 2.6 4.41 3 3.85 4.06 4.2
R30 – F1- T 2.62 4.44 3.02 3.88 4.09 4.5
R40 – F1- T 2.64 4.47 3.04 3.91 4.12 4.2
R30 – F0- T 2.76 4.67 3.18 4.08 4.3 4.2
R30 – F0.5- T 2.64 4.48 3.04 3.91 4.12 4.65
R30 – F1.5- T 2.52 4.28 2.91 3.74 3.94 4.05
Conclusions:
1. The incorporation of glass fibers in both types of concrete leads
to a slight reduction in the fresh concrete properties but
contributes to a slight improvement in compressive strength.
Additionally, the split tensile strength of both concretes shows a
significant increase with the addition of glass fibers, regardless
of the aspect ratio, as compared to plain concrete.
2. As the aspect ratio of the glass fiber increases from 0.5 to 1.5,
there is a noticeable enhancement in torsional toughness,
ultimate torsional strength, and twist at ultimate torque. This
improvement applies to both concrete mixtures, with and
without superplastisizer.
3. Due to addition of glass fibers, the ultimate torsional strength
and angle of twist increased in both types of concrete SCC and
TVC .
4. It was observed that the increase in torsional properties of SCC
is more than TVC. It is true for concretes with and without
superplastisizer.
5. It was observed that optimum percent of RCA is 30% and the
optimum glass fiber ratio is 1.5 in SCC and 0.5 in TVC.
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Highlights:
• The present investigation is focused on the torsional behaviour
of Self compacting Concrete
• It highlights the effect of glass fiber and its aspect ratio on
various grades of concrete.
• The present investigation produces the sustainable concrete with
the use recycled concrete aggregates along the glass fibers
• The experimental torsional strength of Self compacting concrete
is compared with standard approaches available in literature
review
• The torsional behavior of self-compacting concrete is compared
with the conventional vibrated concrete.
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