Steel and basalt fiber comparison in the flexural strength of conventional concrete

Plain conventional concrete structural elements are known for their brittleness. This brittleness causes the weakness and failure suffered by these elements. The plain concrete normally contains numerous micro cracksand under sustained loading conditions, it fails in tension. To solve these problems, this paper investigated the effect of dispersed chopped steel and basalt fiber in conventional concrete rectangular prisms. The main objective of this research paper was to determine the flexural strength of basalt fiber and steel fiber reinforced concrete specimens for different fiber dosages and compare the flexural strengths of the two types of fiber reinforced concrete with those of control (plain) concrete. The fiber dosages chosen for the study were 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% of total volume of concrete. Four sets of concrete mixtures were used of which each set produced 9 rectangular prisms which were tested for flexure on day 7, day 14 and day 28 per 3 rectangular prisms. The experimental results showed that addition of chopped fiber increased the flexural strength of the concrete prism. 1.5% fiber gave the best flexural strength in both basalt fiber reinforced concrete and steel fiber reinforced concrete. Basalt fiber reinforced concrete showed more plasticity with lesser cracks than steel fiber reinforced concrete.