Flexural toughness of concrete with high performance polymers

Flexural toughness is a measure of energy absorption capacity and characterization of material's ability to resist fracture under flexure loads. Concrete, when unreinforced, behaves generally well in compression but its flexural behaviour particularly the post-peak performance is rather weak and brittle. Conventional method has been to include steel fibres to enhance the flexural capacity but was discouraged by their impractically heavy cost and weight constraints. This paper presents the use of high performance polymeric fibres as a cost-effective and lightweight potential alternative which also fits well into the modern era of sustainable construction seeing that they leaves substantially lower carbon footprint compared to steel. Mechanically deformed high performance polymer (HPP) made of 100 percent virgin polypropylene was adopted and incorporated into concrete mixes and its composite performance was experimentally investigated and compared to plain concrete and those reinforced by steel fibres. An analytical method to predict the overall flexural toughness response has also been proposed and verified.