Investigation on the effects of basalt fibers on the mechanical properties and fracture energy of ordinary concretes

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of basalt fibers on mechanical properties and fracture behavior of ordinary concrete. for this purpose, 15 notched concrete beams measuring 50x100x480 mm were prepared and tested using three point bending test in accordance with rilem tc 50-fmc. mixtures were produced using basalt fibers of 24 mm length at contents of 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kg/m³ in addition to the mixture without fiber for comparison. fracture energies were calculated using the area under the load-crack mouth opening displacement (cmod). the results obtained from the tests indicate that basalt fibers have considerably increased the fracture energy of ordinary concrete. however, it was observed that the addition of basalt fibers had no significant effect on the compressive strength and elastic modulus. it was also observed that the splitting tensile and flexural strengths began to decrease beyond a fiber content of 2 kg/m³. overall evaluation indicated that addition of 2 kg/m³ basalt fibers to the mixture seems to be proper in relation with the properties tested in this work.