International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) Volume: 12 Issue: 11 | Nov 2025
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e-ISSN: 2395-0056 p-ISSN: 2395-0072
COMPARATIVE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF STEEL AND POLYPROPYLENE FIBRE REINFORCED CONCRETE AGARALA REVATHI [1], Dr. D.V. PRASADA RAO [2] 1PG Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering, Tirupati,
Andhra Pradesh, India. 2Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering, Tirupati, Andhra
Pradesh, India, Email: dvprsvu@gmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT: This paper has presented the findings of an experimental study that was carried out on the strength of
properties of M30 grade of concrete reinforced with hooked steel fibre and monofilament polypropylene fibre at the dosage of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0 percent by the volume of concrete. The research involves the comparison of the strength of concrete to assess the compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength, in order to establish the best fibre content. It was discovered that the compressive strength greatly increased when there was 0.75% of steel fibres and 0.5% of polypropylene fibres. The highest tensile strength split is obtained at 0.5% dosage of fibre in both types and highest flexural strength is obtained at 0.75% dosage of steel fibre and 0.5% dosage of polypropylene fibre. This demonstrates that addition of fibres to concrete increases the impact resistance of fibre-strengthened concrete, as the optimum fibre dosages of 0.5% polypropylene fibre and 0.75% hooked steel fibre by volume of concrete significantly increases impact strength on drop weight. The polypropylene fibres also were found to be better than the steel fibres in flexural strength and resisting crack propagation. In addition, polypropylene fibres emerged to be cheaper than steel fibres in an economic viewpoint. Findings confirm that the mechanical behaviour of concrete may be significantly enhanced by the fibre reinforcement with optimum proportions and result in the enhanced structural behaviour.
Keywords: Steel fibres, Polypropylene fibres, Reinforced concrete, Compressive Strength, Split tensile strength, Flexural Strength.
INTRODUCTION Concrete is a construction material which is highly utilized in the world. It is very versatile and can be shaped in any form, and the material is made using cost-effective materials. But concrete is brittle substance that has low tensile strength, flexural strength and it forms cracks when it is under services loads. Fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) is designed in order to eliminate these shortcomings. FRC is a composite material that is constituted of hydraulic cement, water, aggregates, and discontinuous discrete fibre. Fibre gives concrete superior toughness, ductility, crack resistance and post crack behaviour, and over the last few years, there has been intense research leading to significant success and innovations in fibre technology [1]. Some of the materials studied include steel, glass, polypropylene and carbon fibre which has enhanced understanding of mechanical behaviour of concrete with the fibres. The use of fibres in experimental studies is owed to other fibres including the steel fibres due to their high tensile strength and strain to increase impact resistance [6]. The polypropylene fibres are of choice as they are light in weight and nonreactive. They both improve compressive, tensile and flexural strength, but the comparative effectiveness is dependent on the kind of fibre utilized, dosage and dispersal of the fibre in the mix [2]. Although many studies have claimed to improve mechanical properties as a result of adding fibre, the comparative study under controlled conditions is required to identify a specific dosage and performance efficiency of different types of fibres. The given study will fill this research gap by providing an experimental study of M30 grade concrete reinforced with different ratio of hooked steel fibre and polypropylene fibre and to determine the optimum dose of fibres to be applied to provide the concrete with maximum strength properties (compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength).
LITERATURE REVIEW The mechanical performance improvements of fibre-reinforced concrete have been studied widely. Gupta et al. [1] evaluated the M40 grade concrete with steel and polypropylene fibres (0.3 cent) and found that polypropylene fibres with
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