Basalt Fibers as New Material for Reinforcement and Confinement of Concrete

Abstract

Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymer (BFRP) is a new material in civil engineering and has shown to be a promising material for infrastructure strengthening. In comparison to carbon fiber, glass fiber and other composites, it has some advantages such as high-temperature resistance and low cost. At the Structural and Composite Laboratory at Reykjavik University (SEL) several research projects involving strengthening concrete beams and columns by using FRP materials have been on-going in recent years. These tests have shown improvements in strength and durability compared to unstrengthened concrete members. The benefit of using basalt fiber or other FRP material is that they are non-corrosive, which is a good choice for reinforcing concrete structure exposed to de-icing salts, for examples in bridge decks and parking garage elements. Also for concrete exposed to marine environment, such as seawalls, water breaks and buildings or other structures located near a waterfront. Two research projects are presented in this paper; a test of prestressed concrete with internal basalt rods instead of steel and a test of columns strengthened by wrapping fibre-reinforced composite sheets around the columns to increase their strength and ductility. These experimental tests show increasing strength and ductile for both the beams and the columns.

Analytical and Numerical Approaches for the Design of Concrete Structural Elements with Internal BFRP Reinforcement

“…Thus, pre-tensioning can compensate for the lower flexural rigidity of beams reinforced by flexural BFRP reinforcement as compared with traditional reinforced concrete beams. This conclusion agrees with previous results obtained by finite element simulation [38] and experimental testing of BFRP-reinforced concrete beams [21,22,39,40].…”

A Review on Tin Slag Polymer Concrete as Green Structural Material for Sustainable Future

“…In the case of TSPC, there was no available FEM found in the previous literature, which make the process of TSPC modeling become troublesome as there were no baseline parameters to be referred. Therefore, there was a potential Previous study on cement concrete structures has reported the confinement of concrete structure using aramid fiber (Yang et al 2015), basalt fiber (Thorhallsson and Snaebjornsson 2016;Nabi et al 2019;Yang et al 2018), and steel tube (Kedziora and Anwaar 2019;Tao et al 2013). All of these studies have provided new fundamental data contributing toward the concrete structure design for strengthening purpose.…”

Effect of Plasma Treatment on the Impact Behavior of Epoxy/Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Composites: A Preliminary Study

“…Major advantages associated with natural fibers include low cost, low density, high toughness and biodegradability. Among the natural fibers, basalt fibers are attracting significant interest due to good sound insulating properties, good heat resistance (superior to glass), excellent protection from chemical attack, and low water absorption properties [ 1 ]. High heat resistance of basalt is useful for applications requiring thermal insulation as for hot fluids transportation pipes.…”