Experimental Investigating the Effect of Non-steel Fibers on the Consistency and Mechanical Properties and Toughness of RCCP

Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC), which is a kind of dry consistency concrete with zero slump, has two various main applications, pavement and dams. But, owing to the benefits such as cost efficiency, low hydration heat, durability, and high speed of execution, RCC is particularly preferred in the construction of airstrips, military sites, and nuclear plants. In order to evaluate the effect of non-steel fibers on the Vebe time, modulus of elasticity, and also compressive strength, flexural strength, and splitting tensile strength of RCC as the aim of this research, a basic mix was used by adding three types of fibers including Barchip, Emboss and Glass fibers with percentages of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5, the less percentage for controlling shrinkage cracks and higher amount for improving mechanical properties. The results showed that the addition of non-steel fibers to RCC reduced or increased compressive strength up to 5%, little decrease in Modulus of Elasticity and flexural strength and increasing up to 20% in tensile strength. Also, the fibers decreased the consistency and increased the vebe time of the basic mix. Barchip and Emboss fiber compared with Glass fibers showed better softening behavior after cracking. The amount of toughness was increased with the volume percentage of fiber, and this increase was higher for the Barchip fiber than the Emboss fiber. The best behavior after cracking was shown by Barchip fiber with a volume percentage of 0.5.