Workability and Strength Properties of Nylon Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Presence of fibers in a fibre-reinforced concrete has been associated with its better shrinkage, durability, and toughness characteristics. Such a concrete by virtue of its relatively improved properties has found its application in structures where permeability and/or toughness have an important role to play; e.g. water retaining structures, and airfield pavements etc. Steel fibers are the commonly used fibers for the production of such a concrete, however, recently synthetic fibers like polypropylene, polyethylene, polyolefin, and nylon have attracted the attention of many concrete technologists around the world for their relatively lightweight, better dispersion characteristics, and good tensile strength. In the present study, nylon fibers have been incorporated in the concrete mix to assess their effect on its workability and strength characteristic. Nylon is stable at relatively high temperatures, in addition to being relatively inert, and resistant to a wide variety of chemicals, thus making it a potential candidate for its incorporation in concrete. Concrete mixes containing different percentages of nylon fibers; viz. 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 by volume of concrete mix, in addition to the control mix, have been prepared and it has been observed that the addition of nylon fibers has a marginal effect on the compressive strength of concrete, however, the flexural strength improves to an appreciable extent, thereby making it a potential candidate for its application in concrete pavements. Moreover, addition of nylon fibers decreases the workability of the concrete, therefore, proper measures should be taken while designing such a concrete mix, giving due consideration to the required workability.