AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON HIGH STRENGTH CONCRETE

Abstract

Since the early times, many researches and advancements were carried to improve the physical and mechanical properties of concrete. High strength concrete may be termed as recent advancement in concrete world. Fibre reinforcement to High strength concrete is one among those advancements which offers a convenient, practical and economical method for overcoming micro cracks and similar type of deficiencies. Since concrete is frail in tension, hence some measures must be adopted to overcome this insufficiency. Human hair is generally strong in tension; hence it can be used as a fibre reinforced material. Human hair fibre is a substitute non-degradable matter obtainable in abundance and at low cost. It also creates environmental problems. Experiments were conducted on concrete cubes of standard sizes with addition of various percentages of human hair fibre i.e., 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% by weight of cement, fine and coarse aggregate and results were compared with those of plain cement concrete of M60 grade. For each percentage of human hair added in concrete, 9 cubes were tested for their respective compressive properties at curing periods of 3 days, 7 days and 28 days. The change in compressive strength of concrete is determined and analysed. The results obtained show us that the optimum content of human hair fibre to be added to M60 grade of concrete is 1% to the weight of cement, fine and coarse aggregate together and consequently there has been a significant increase in compressive strength of concrete