An experimental study on light transmitting concrete

Abstract

Light transmitting concrete is a concrete based building material having light transmissive properties. In this paper, the work is classified in two phases. In phase 1, study of compressive strength is carried out by casting mortar cubes of size 200 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm and in phase 2, flexural behaviour is studied by casting prisms and beams of size 50 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm and 130 cm × 18 cm × 20 cm. For this, plastic optical fibers of diameter 0.38 mm were used and fibers are placed into the mortar cubes in order to investigate the transmitting potential and also to determine the strength parameter i.e., compressive strength. different percentages of fibers such as 2% and 4% with different configurations were prepared, thereby optimum percentage of fibers with fiber number along with configuration is determined. With this optimum values, prims and beams were cast with mesh, Fibers alone and combination of both mesh and fibers and its strength property and corresponding load carrying capacity of beams can be determined by conducting the flexural strength test of prisms and by observing the load vs deflection curves and the test results obtained can be compared with that of conventional concrete.