Compressive and Flexural Behaviour of Glass Fibre Reinforced Blast Furnace Slag Based Material

Abstract

For sustainable development, conventional fill material required to be replaced by industrial by-products. In this experimental work, Blast Furnace (BF) slag was used as a base material to develop a new material which could replace the use of conventional fill material in civil engineering works. To achieve the aim the BF slag was blended with cement, glass fibre and water. The mix consists 10% cement by dry weight of BF slag and the optimum water content of BF slag. The mixture of slag-cement was reinforced with glass fibres in four different mix ratios of 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2%. For each mixing ratio three different aspect ratios (AR) 385, 769 and 1154 of glass fibre were used. The glass fibre reinforced blast furnace slag based material was then moulded into cylinders and beams. The size of cylinder and beam specimen, used in the experimental study was 75 mm diameter 150 mm long and 50 × 50 × 400 mm respectively. The specimens were then cured for 7, 14 and 28 days curing under room temperature. The effect of mix ratios, aspect ratio and curing periods on density, initial tangent modulus, stress–strain relationship, compressive and flexural strength were studied and results were incorporated in the paper. The relationship between the mix ratio and both compressive, flexural strengths was found to be non-linear. The specimens reinforced with AR 1154 glass fibre yield higher compressive strength at 0.6% mix ratio, and flexural strength at 0.9% mix ratio.