Experimental Studies on Fly Ash Based Basalt Fibre Reinforced Concrete

The use of supplementary cementitious materials by replacing cement makes the concrete more economical and the use of industrial wastes like fly ash for this makes the disposal method of these wastes easy and ecofriendly. Basalt fibre is an inorganic fibre manufactured from the extrusion of melted basalt rock. Basalt fibres are characterized by high corrosion and thermal resistance, lightweight and high strength. The fibres act as a proactive reinforcement that provides immediate tensile load carrying capacity when micro-cracks are developed in concrete. It has excellent mechanical and physical properties and an environmental friendly manufacturing process. The advantages are fire resistance, good resistance to chemically active environments, vibration and acoustic insulation capacity. The optimum of fly ash in concrete is found to be 20% by weight of cement. The optimum percentage of basalt fibre is 0.5% by volume of concrete. Basalt fibre addition may not be an effective method to increase concrete compressive strength. By adding basalt fibre in concrete, the split tensile strength and flexural strength can be increased up to 37.73% and 36.71% respectively. Tests on the concrete are conducted according to IS: 516-1959.