Experimental Study and Failure Criterion Analysis of Rubber Fibre Reinforced Concrete under Biaxial Compression-Compression

In order to examine the biaxial compression-compression properties of rubber fibre reinforced concrete(RFRC),an experimental study on RFRC under different lateral compressive stresses was carried out by considering different rubber replacement rates and polypropylene fibre contents.The failure modes and mechanical property parameters of different RFRC working conditions were obtained from the experiment to explore the effects of rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content on the biaxial compression-compression properties of RFRC.The following conclusions were drawn.Under the influence of lateral compressive stress,the biaxial compression-compression failure mode gradually developed from a columnar pattern to a flaky pattern,suggesting that the incorporation of rubber and polypropylene fibres into the concrete resulted in a significant change in the development of cracks.For different rubber replacement rates and polypropylene fibre contents,the vertical compressive stress exhibited the same developing trend under the influence of lateral compressive stress.Specifically,the lateral compressive stress imposed the minimum effect on the vertical compressive stress when the rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content were 20%and 0.4%,respectively,and imposed the maximum effect when the rubber replacement rate and polypropylene fibre content were 20%and 0%,respectively.With the increase of rubber replacement rate,the vertical peak stress was significantly reduced,which implies that an appropriate amount of polypropylene fibres can increase the vertical peak stress to a certain extent.Then,the biaxial compression-compression mechanism of RFRC was analysed from the microscopic level by using scanning electron microscope(SEM).Meanwhile,based on Kupfer’s biaxial compression-compression failure criterion and the octahedral stress space,a biaxial compression-compression failure criterion for RFRC was proposed,which was proven to have good applicability.The research results of this study provide important theoretical basis for the engineering application and development of RFRC.

Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete Rebound Optimization

Glass fibre reinforced concrete placement technique generates losses due to rebound effects of the already sprayed concrete particles.Rebounded concrete amount cause a significant difference between the initial mix design and emplaced mix compositions.Apart from the structural differences,it comes with a cost increase which was resulted by the splashed concrete amount.Many factors such as viscosity and quantity of mixes dominate this rebound amount in sprayed glass fibre reinforced concrete applications depending on production technologies and processes;however,this research focuses on the spray distance and the angle of the spray gun which mainly effects the rebound amount in glass fibre reinforced concrete production.This paper aims to understand the required angle and distance for glass fibre reinforced concrete mixes having on-site plastic viscosity values.Glass fibre reinforced mixtures were also modelled with a finite element method based software and,the analysis results were compared with production line results.Results of the analysis and on-site studies showed a decisive correlation between,discharge distance,discharge angle and the viscosity of the concrete.

An Improved Test Method and Numerical Analysis for Crack Opening Resistance of FRC Round Determinate Panels

This paper presents a numerical analysis of a material test program investigating the crack opening properties of fibre reinforced concrete （FRC） round determinate panels （RDP）. The objective of this research is to set up a modified RDP test method to improve the current ASTM C1550 test method for FRC and fibre reinforced shotcrete （FRS） composite. By this test method, light small-diameter panels are applied and more crack information can be obtained by a new rotation angle measuring technique. It is shown that this modified test method can be used to effectively evaluate the crack opening resistance of FRC. The finite element analysis was then performed to clarify the crack propaga- tions and failure mode of FRC RDP panels. It helps establish a reasonable theoretical method to predict the structural response of RDP. combining with this modified testing technioue.