Performance Characteristics and Applications of High-Performance Polyolefin Fiber Reinforced Concretes

Abstract

This paper presents the performance characteristics of a newly developed polyolefin fiber-reinforced concrete. The polyolefin fibers were used for the first time for a full-depth pavement, a thin bridge-deck overlay, a jersey barrier, white-topping on scarified asphalt pavement, and a full-depth bridge deck slab. An attempt is made to assess, evaluate and appreciate the behavior of the polyolefin fiber-reinforced concrete. The performance of fresh concretes and the properties of hardened concretes with and without fibers are compared. A comparison is also made between the non-metallic polyolefin fiber-reinforced concrete and steel fiber-reinforced concrete. The test program on fresh concrete included: slump, concrete properties included: compressive strength, static modulus, modulus of rupture, load-deflection curves, first crack toughness strength and post crack behavior, ASTM toughness indices, Japanese toughness index, equivalent flexural strength, fatigue strength and impact strength.