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Evaluation of fire performance of polypropylene fiber RC slabs

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Abstract

The fire performance of five RC slabs after exposure to the standard ISO 834 fire test without loading has been experimentally investigated and the results presented in this paper. To prevent the explosive spalling of concrete and to control the rise of temperature in the steel re-bar during fire, Polypropylene (PP) fiber was mixed in the slab and this improved the fire resistance of the concrete. During heating, concrete spalling was observed for concrete without PP fibers; however no spalling occurred in the specimens containing PP fibers. The maximum temperature of PP fiber concrete was lower than that of concrete without PP fibers. The results show that the fire performance of an RC slab is improved by adding PP fibers. Also, the addition of a volume fraction of PP fibers higher than 0.05% improves fire performance, including the reduction of explosive spalling and temperature. After fire damage, the residual load-carrying capacity of the RC specimen without PP fiber decreased to 67.5% of that of the intact case, but the specimens with PP fiber showed 91.6∼98.1% of intact load-carrying capacity. Therefore, it is confirmed that mixing RC with PP fiber can enhance residual load-carrying capacity after fire exposure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Dankook University, Yongin, 448-160, Korea

    Chul Hun Chung, Jungwhee Lee & Hyun Jun Kim

Authors
  1. Chul Hun Chung
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  2. Jungwhee Lee
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  3. Hyun Jun Kim
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Correspondence to Jungwhee Lee.

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Chung, C.H., Lee, J. & Kim, H.J. Evaluation of fire performance of polypropylene fiber RC slabs. KSCE J Civ Eng 17, 1040–1050 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-013-0101-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-013-0101-y

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