Drying shrinkage behaviour of fibre reinforced concrete incorporating polyvinyl alcohol fibres and fly ash

Abstract

The current study assesses the drying shrinkage behaviour of polyvinyl alcohol fibre reinforced concrete (PVA-FRC) containing short-length (6 mm) and long-length (12 mm) uncoated monofilament PVA fibres at 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.375%, and 0.5% volumetric fractions. Fly ash is also used as a partial replacement of Portland cement in all mixes. PVA-FRC mixes have been compared to length change of control concrete (devoid of fibres) at 3 storage intervals: early-age (0-7 days), short-term (0-28 days), and long-term (28-112 days) intervals. The shrinkage results of FRC and control concrete up to 112 days indicated that all PVA-FRC mixes exhibited higher drying shrinkage than control. The shrinkage exhibited by PVA-FRC mixes ranged from 449 to 480 microstrain, where this value was only 427 microstrain in the case of control. In addition, the longer fibres exhibited higher mass loss, thus potentially contributing to higher shrinkage. © 2014 Amin Noushini et al.