Mechanical Performance of Basalt Fibre Reinforced Concretes

The fresh and hardened characteristics of concrete reinforced with basalt fiber (BF) have been investigated in the presented study. The chopped micro BF with the length of 12 mm are included in concrete mixes at 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8% of total volume along with the variation of water to cement ratios (w/c) of 0.47 and 0.59. Mechanical features of concrete incorporating BF are specified using the parameters obtained from static modulus of elasticity, compressive, flexural and splitting tensile strength tests. The multi objective optimization analyses using response surface method (RSM) is performed by the parameterization of the minimized cost and the maximized performance based on the dependent parameters presented. Test results reveal that the mechanical properties are improved while the workability of concrete is remarkably deteriorated by BF incorporation. The optimization analysis has inferred that the BF content of 0.356% provides the optimum result with the w/c ratio of 0.47.