Study of the Influence of Fibres Type and Dosage on Properties of Concrete for Airport Pavements

Abstract The paper follows the potential practice of fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) as a solution for airport`s runway pavements, in order to increase the bearing strength, resulting in decreasing the height of the concrete layer that is currently used. Experimentally, the study focuses on the properties of fiber reinforced Portland cement concrete using 3 different percentages (0.5%, 1% and 1.5% of the concrete volume) and 4 different types of fiber (for 1% percentage – hooked steel fiber 50 mm length, hooked steel fiber 30 mm length, crimped steel fiber 30 mm length and polypropylene fiber 50 mm lenght), using as reference a plain concrete with 5 MPa flexural strength. More exactly, the study presents the change in compressive and flexural strength, shrinkage, thermal expansion factor, elastic modulus and Poisson`s ratio over fiber type and dosage. For the highest performance concrete (7 MPa flexural strength), it has been made a study using two methods for rigid airport pavements design (general method and optimized method), and one method for evaluation of bearing strength (ACN – PCN method), which is compared to a plain 5 MPa concrete. Furthermore, the decrease in the slab`s thickness proportionally to the growth of the flexural strength is emphasized by evaluating the slab`s height for a high performance 9 MPa concrete using both design methods.