Briefing: Performance of polypropylene fibre in high-performance concrete

Abstract

Polypropylene fibres are popular additive materials in concrete to enhance the mechanical properties, shrinkage-cracking characteristics, toughness and impact resistance of concrete. This paper highlights the effect of polypropylene fibre on the mechanical properties of high-performance concrete (HPC) containing silica fume as the mineral admixture. Four different fibre volume fractions (0, 0·1, 0·3 and 0·6%) were added to the HPC mixture and the addition of fibre has little effect on the workability of HPC. Tests on hardened concrete properties, such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity, were conducted. The test results show that the addition of 0·1 and 0·3% fibre is more suitable for making high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete.