Abrasion resistance of concrete micro-reinforced with polypropylene fibers

Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate /conbui ldmat

Abrasion resistance of concrete micro-reinforced with polypropylene fibers

Zoran J. Grdic a,⇑, Gordana A. Toplicic Curcic a, Nenad S. Ristic a, Iva M. Despotovic b

a University of Nis, The Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14 Street, 18000 Nis, Serbiab Belgrade University College of Applied Studies in Civil Engineering and Geodesy, Hajduk Stankova 2 Street, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 3 November 2010Received in revised form 20 July 2011Accepted 20 July 2011Available online 20 August 2011

Keywords:Micro-reinforced concretePolypropylene fibersAbrasion resistance

0950-0618/$ - see front matter � 2011 Elsevier Ltd. Adoi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.07.044

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +381 18 588 181, mo+381 18 588 208.

E-mail addresses: zoran.grdic@gaf.ni.ac.rs (Z.J. Grgaf.ni.ac.rs (G.A.T. Curcic), nenad.ristic@gaf.ni.ac.rs (Ncom (I.M. Despotovic).

a b s t r a c t

This paper presents a research of abrasive resistance of classic concrete and micro-reinforced concretewith two types of polypropylene fibers. Water/cement factor was varied from 0.5 to 0.7, while the con-tent (in%) of the remaining components remained constant. An accelerated test of abrasive erosion ofconcrete was performed on the equipment allowing the high-velocity jet of water/sand mixture to acton the surface of the test specimens. The research results demonstrate that the abrasive resistance of con-crete is in an inverse function of the water/cement factor; the concretes with higher compressive strengthand higher bending strength have also the higher abrasive resistance; the micro-reinforced concretesdemonstrate higher abrasive resistance in comparison to the benchmark concrete.

� 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The abrasive wear of concrete in hydraulic structures is most of-ten caused by the action of water-borne particles (silt, sand, graveland other solid particles) rolling and eroding the concrete surfaceduring hydraulic processes. Abrasive–erosive concrete damagerepresents a continuing issue in maintenance of hydraulic struc-tures and necessitates taking this process into account whendesigning the structures and choosing the concrete mixtures. Theorder of magnitude of damage is several centimeters, but in somecases they can be significantly higher after only several years ofabrasive action. Weak abrasive–erosive actions do not representa big problem, but very pronounced actions may endanger thestructural integrity of concrete, as well as the functionality of thestructure [1]. Abrasive–erosive protection of the hydraulic struc-tures made of concrete requires durable concrete mixtures resis-tant to abrasion–erosion.

The choice of testing methodology of concrete resistance toabrasive wear is very important. Erosion of concrete of hydraulicstructures is a long-term process, and it usually develops over aperiod of several months or even years before the damage can beassessed. For this reason the accelerated concrete abrasion meth-ods are necessary. Several studies, performed on the basis of theaccelerated tests, have been published until now. Majority ofequipment for testing of abrasive resistance of concrete described

ll rights reserved.

bile: +381 63 8 216 244; fax:

dic), gordana.toplicic.curcic@.S. Ristic), ivicka2006@yahoo.

in professional literature was used for simulating mechanisms ofsand blasting [2–4] and grooving with dry friction [5–7]. Many pa-pers [8–10] and test methods according to ASTM standards [11]describe research performed in the conditions similar to naturalenvironment impacts, using equipment allowing a concrete abra-sion process based on aggregate and water mixture model. Mom-ber and Kovacevic [12] also applied the accelerated water jet testmethod for hydraulic concrete wear test. Momber [13] performedtests of accelerated cavitation on concrete by means of a cavitationchamber. For solving the problems in this study, the method ofabrasive water jet could be applied for a very rapid wear of con-crete by a mixture of water and solid particles moving at highvelocity. The same researchers applied this method for parametricstudy of concrete abrasion [14] and for research of hydro-abrasionof mortar and concrete by means of acoustic emission [15]. A verycomplex test of behavior of concrete exposed to accelerated abra-sive jet was presented in the paper [16]. In the general case, theconstruction of the equipment for testing of concrete abrasion bypressurized jets does not allow movement of a total of granularcomposition of water abrasive. Most often, acting as the abrasive,a mixture of fine fractions of sand and pressurized water is usedto act upon the concrete surface at high velocity. It should bepointed out that it is difficult to formulate a universal and generalcriterion of acceptable damage level for hydraulic structures. Whenanalyzing the various tests results, only those results based on thesame friction mechanisms during samples abrasion can be com-pared. These mechanisms are described with four basic externalparameters related to the grain in the water jet: mineralogic com-position (hardness), size, velocity and glancing angle at which thejet hits the sample. Change of one of these parameters causeschange of abrasion mechanisms and renders the comparative

Table 1Physico-mechanical properties of cement.

Binding time (min) Start 135 end 160

Mill fineness – sieve residue 0.09 mm (%) 3.2Specific mass 3.0 g/cm3

Loose material bulk density 925 kg/m3

Compacted material bulk density 1521 kg/m3

Bending strength after 2 days 5.99 N/mm2

Bending strength after 28 days 7.21 N/mm2

Compressive strength after 2 days 33.67 N/mm2

Compressive strength after 28 days 54.21 N/mm2

Fig. 1. Granulometric composition of the aggregate.

306 Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312

analysis of test results impossible. Laboratory simulation of abra-sion process in the conditions similar to the natural makes the cor-rect assessment of concrete abrasive resistance possible.

Abrasive resistance of concrete depends of several parameterssuch as: aggregate properties, mixture material proportion, con-crete strength, type and quantity of added cement materials, addi-tion of fibers, hardening conditions, surface treatment. Manyprevious studies demonstrated that abrasive resistance of concretemostly depends on its compressive strength. For this reason, thehigh strength concretes with high resistance to abrasive actionare sometimes used as for coating of hydraulic structures [17].High quantity of cement in the mixture of these concretes causesincrease of hydration temperature and concrete shrinking, whichgenerates a potential for the onset of cracks and reduction of ser-vice life of the structure. In order to increase the service life of ahydraulic structure, and to retain it for as long as possible in a safeand reliable condition, the hydraulic concrete must have a highresistance. Therefore, in the majority of concrete mixtures, cementis in part replaced by additional cement materials such as fly ash[12–16,18], silica powder [19], blast furnace slag, milled basalt[20] in order to reduce the hydration heat and increase durabil-ity/service life.

The polypropylene fibers are primarily used for reduction ofcracks in fresh concrete, but also exhibit the secondary effects,improving a number of characteristics both of fresh and hardenedconcrete. The addition of fibers has a positive effect, because in theearly phase, (2–6 h upon placing of concrete) contribute to reduc-tion of both size and frequency of the cracks because they allowconcrete to endure higher internal stresses. Also, addition of fibersto concrete improve the hydration of cement by reducing the sep-aration of water from the fresh concrete. In a later period, in asomewhat more mature concrete, the fibers bind the potentialcracks and reduce the risk of concrete destruction [21–23]. Thepolypropylene fibers in concrete significantly increase the abrasiveresistance [24–27], cavitation resistance [28,29], impact anddestruction. This property is ascribed to a high quantity of energyabsorbed when the fibers are separated, broken or extracted fromconcrete after failure. The polypropylene fibers reduce the waterpermeability of concrete and absorption of fluids.

Resistance of concrete to abrasive action, apart from the compo-sition of the concrete mixture, also depends on the external condi-tions to which concrete is exposed. The research by various authorsdemonstrated that the concretes produced with various mineraladmixtures (silica powder, fly ash, blast furnace slag, milled basalt)[19,20,30,31], addition of still fibers [32–34], addition of polypro-pylene fibers [24–27,34] or with aluminate cements [35], highstrength concretes [36–38] and rolled concretes [6] have to a lesseror larger extent a better abrasive resistance in comparison to thebenchmark concrete produced without any admixtures, with thecommon Portland cement. This paper presented research of abra-sive resistance of the concrete with the admixture of polypropyl-ene fibers of FIBRILs F120 and FIBRILs S120 types.

2. Details of the experiment

2.1. Materials used in the experiment

The benchmark concrete was produced with the Portland cement CEM I 42.5 R,whose properties are presented in Table 1.

For preparation of concrete, the aggregate obtained by mixing three fractions 0/4, 4/8 and 8/16 mm from the river aggregate of the Southern Morava River wasused. Granulometric composition of the aggregate is presented in Fig. 1.

Two types of polypropylene fibers were used for production of micro-reinforcedconcretes: the concretes marked ‘‘F120’’ used the FIBRILs F120 fibers, and the con-cretes marked ‘‘S120’’ used the FIBRILs S120 fibers, produced by ‘‘Motvoz’’ Gros-uplje from Slovenia. The polypropylene fibers of FIBRILs F120 type belong to thegroup of fibrillated fibers composed of a great number of fibers of a very small

diameter, Fig. 2, left hand side, while the FIBRILs S120 fibers belong to the groupof monofilament fibers of circular cross sections and smooth surface, Fig. 2, righthand side. The fibers characteristics are given in Table 2.

2.2. Concrete mixture composition

Regarding the fact that additives in our country have been used only since rel-atively recently, there are no additives in the composition of the structural concreteof existing hydraulic structures in Serbia. The goal of the research has been to deter-mine the degree of abrasive resistance of classic concretes, and in this manner as-sess durability and potential for repairing the existing hydraulic structures inSerbia. By selecting various water/cement factors, three different consistencies ofconcrete have been covered (rigid, plastic and fluid), in order to provide thoroughplacing of fresh concrete in various structural elements of hydraulic structures.

Nine mixtures for testing fresh and hardened concrete properties were made. Asbenchmarks, three concrete mixes were used, each with different water/cementfactor xc = 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7, which are designated as E1, E2 and E3 respectively. Also,three mixtures of micro-reinforced concrete with polypropylene fibers FIBRILs F120(F1/120, F2/120, F3/120) were made, as well as three mixtures with polypropylene fibersFIBRILs S120 (S1/120, S2/120, S3/120), with water/cement factors as in plain concrete.The compositions of the concrete mixtures are given in Table 3.

3. Experimental research

The scheme of the equipment for concrete abrasive resistancetesting is displayed in Fig. 3. Similar equipment was used by theresearchers in Taiwan for testing of abrasive resistance of concrete[19,39].

The equipment consists of a tin basin, with dimensions2.0 � 2.0 m at the base and 1.5 m of height, whose front side is cov-ered with a panel of transparent plexiglass for visual observationduring the tests. For the test, the basin is filled up to one third ofits height with the mixture of water and sand, with granulationfrom 0 mm to 4 mm, in the mass ratio of 10:1. The sand used asthe abrasive for wearing concrete was also used for production ofconcrete mixtures. Two electrical motors turn the vanes making

Fig. 2. Polypropylene fibers used for reinforcing concrete: FIBRILs F120 (left) and FIBRILs S120 (right).

Table 2Characteristics of FIBRILs fibers.

Characteristic FIBRILs F120(fibrillated fibers)

FIBRILs S120(monofilament fibers)

Fiber length 12 mm 12 mmTensile strength 274.0 ± 26.9 N/mm2 300.7 ± 31.7 N/mm2

Melting temperature 160.0 �C 163.1 �C

Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312 307

a homogenous mixture of water and sand, while the centrifugalpump which via an intake sucks in the mixture and then ejects itunder pressure though a nozzle on the test concrete slab withthe dimensions 200 � 200 � 50 mm. The concrete slab is fittedonto the rig which can rotate around the horizontal axis, and in thismanner change the incidence angle of the jet and the examinedspecimen. The appearance the equipment for testing of abrasiveresistance of concrete is presented in Fig. 4.

The test specimen, i.e. concrete slab, is first dried to the constantmass at 105 ± 5 �C which is then measured (m1). The specimen isthen saturated by water via the gradual immersion method and ex-posed to the action of the water/sand mixture jet for the period of90 min. The water temperature during the test was 30 �C. Eventu-ally, the specimen is again dried up to the constant mass and thenthe mass of abraded (m2) is measured. The accuracy of the speci-men mass measurement is ±0.1 g. The water/sand mixture jet actson the surface of concrete test slab at the angle of 45� via the rect-angular jet nozzle with dimensions of 10 � 200 mm. The nozzle jetvelocity is 20 m/s, which is equivalent to the pressure of 2.4 bars,that is, 0.24 MPa. The difference of masses Dm is the mass of the

Table 3Composition of concrete mixtures used in the experiment.

Series Aggregate Cement (kg/m3) Water

0/4 mm (45%)(kg/m3)

4/8 mm (25%)(kg/m3)

8/16 mm (30%)(kg/m3)

E1 825 458 550 366 183E2 794 441 530 353 212E3 773 429 515 344 241F1/120 825 458 550 367 183F2/120 795 442 530 353 212F3/120 774 430 516 344 241S1/120 822 457 548 366 183S2/120 795 442 530 353 212S3/120 775 431 517 344 241

material abraded under the action of the abrasive suspended inwater. The abrasion erosion rate ER is calculated as:

ER ¼ Dm=t ¼ ðm1 �m2Þ=t ½g=min�;

where m1 and m2 are the masses of the specimen dried up to theconstant mass before and after the action of the mixture of waterand the abrasive. t is the time of action of the mixture on the testsample (t = 90 min).

On the fresh concrete, the consistency was measured by theslump test (SRPS ISO 4109:1997) and the bulk density (SRPS ISO6276:1997). The compressive strength and bulk density of hard-ened concrete were tested on the cubes with 150 mm sides (SRPSISO 4012:2000), and the tensile strength at bending on the prismswith dimensions 100 � 100 � 300 mm (SRPS ISO 4013:2000).

4. Results of experimental research and discussion

The tests results of fresh and hardened concrete are presentedin Tables 4 and 5. The dependence of abrasive resistance of con-crete specimen on water/cement ratio, compressive strength (fp)and tensile strength (ft) at bending have been presented in theform of linear functions in Figs. 5–7.

It is obvious from the diagram presented in Fig. 5 that the abra-sion erosion rate of concrete increases with the increase of thevalue of water/cement ratio both of the benchmark concretesand those with added fibers. It is known that the concrete madewith the lower value of water/cement ratio has the lower porous-ness, better structure and higher strength. That is why the obtainedresult is absolutely expected. It has been determined that anincrease of water/cement ratio from 0.5 to 0.7 causes an almost

(kg/m3) Water/cementratio (–) FIBRILs F120 (kg/m3) FIBRILs S120 (kg/m3)

0.5 – –0.6 – –0.7 – –0.5 0.91 –0.6 0.91 –0.7 0.91 –0.5 – 0.910.6 – 0.910.7 – 0.91

Fig. 3. Scheme of equipment for testing abrasion of concrete.

Fig. 4. The appearance of the equipment for testing abrasion resistance of concrete.

Table 4Characteristics of concrete in fresh and hardened state.

Series Typeoffibers

Water/cementratio

cc,fresh

(kg/m3)

Slumpclass

cc,hard.

(kg/m3)

fp

(MPa)ft

(MPa)

E1 – 0.5 2382 S1(15 mm)

2370 35.11 3.06

E2 – 0.6 2329 S2(60 mm)

2326 26.67 2.32

E3 – 0.7 2302 S4(170 mm)

2300 17.78 1.54

F1/120 F120 0.5 2383 S1(15 mm)

2364 38.00 3.47

F2/120 F120 0.6 2332 S2(60 mm)

2328 30.67 2.80

F3/120 F120 0.7 2304 S4(170 mm)

2299 19.11 1.75

S1/120 S120 0.5 2376 S1(10 mm)

2376 37.78 3.35

S2/120 S120 0.6 2332 S2(55 mm)

2326 27.11 2.40

S3/120 S120 0.7 2308 S4(160 mm)

2302 18.44 1.60

Table 5Loss of specimen mass and the abrasion erosion rate.

Series of Fiber type Mass loss Dm (g) ER (g/min)

E1 – 14.1 0.1567E2 – 15.6 0.1733E3 – 17.5 0.1944F1/120 F120 12.2 0.1356F2/120 F120 13.3 0.1478F3/120 F120 14.8 0.1644S1/120 S120 13.1 0.1456S2/120 S120 14.6 0.1622S3/120 S120 16.2 0.1800

308 Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312

uniform reduction of concrete resistance to abrasive erosion, irre-spective whether it is a benchmark concrete or concrete withadded fibers. In the benchmark concrete, this reduction amountsto 24.06%, in the concrete with the addition of S120 type polypro-pylene fibers it is 23.63%, and in the concrete with the addition ofF120 type polypropylene fibers it is 21.24%. On the basis of theseresults, one may conclude that the addition of fibers within thesame type of concrete cannot have a significant effect on the in-crease of abrasive resistance of concrete if the value of water/ce-ment ratio is increased. On the other hand, the addition of fibersto concrete significantly increases the resistance of concrete toabrasive erosion in respect to the benchmark concrete. Thus, forthe water/cement ratio 0.5, the addition of type S120 fibers in-creases the abrasive resistance of concrete for 7.08%, and whentype F120 fibers are added, the increase amounts to 13.47%. Thesimilar values have been established for the water/cement factor0.6: the addition of type S120 fibers increases the resistance toabrasion for 6.41%, and the addition of type F120 fibers for14.71%; for the water/cement factor 0.7: the addition of typeS120 fibers increases the resistance to abrasion for 7.41%, and theaddition of type F120 fibers for 15.43%.

The concrete produced with a higher water/cement ratio has ahigher porousness and can be relatively easily eroded under a jetof water. Consequentially, additional porousness is generated, giv-ing rise to undesirable cyclical effects which accelerate the abra-sion processes. Simultaneously, concrete becomes too sensitive toother aggressive influences such as action of frost and hazardouschemicals. As opposed to that, the low value of water/cement ratio,especially in concretes produced with addition of polypropylene

Fig. 5. The relationship of water/cement ratio and abrasion erosion rate.

Fig. 6. The relationship of compressive strenght and abrasion erosion rate.

Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312 309

fibers, reduces the porousness, the size of the pores and strength-ens the connections between parts of hydrated matrix, makingthem more resistant to abrasive erosion. The fibrillated fibers ofFIBRILs F120 type demonstrate better results in comparison tothe monofilament fibers of FIBRILs S120 type.

Fig. 8, left-hand side, shows the surface of an examined concreteslab produced with the water/cement ratio xc = 0.7 after being ex-posed for 90 min to the water jet test. The coarse aggregate sus-tained the minimum damage, in respect to the surroundingcement paste which exhibits the deep cracks. These cracks arecharacteristic for high water/cement ratio. On the other hand, thesurface of the tested concrete slab with the water/cement ratioxc = 0.5 (Fig. 8, right-hand side) sustained considerably lessdamage.

The increase of value of water/cement ratio from 0.5 to 0.7caused reduction of compressive strength for around 50% for allthe concretes used in the experiment. The addition of polypropyl-ene fibers has not significantly influence the change of compressivestrength in respect the benchmark, averaging between 7% and 8%,the slightly higher increase being recorded when the F120 type ofpropylene fibers were added.

When the test slab is tested by the water jet containing finehard particles in it, the impacts create pressure, tensile and shearstresses in the immediate proximity of the test slab. It is clear thatthe strength of concrete has a significant influence on the abrasiveresistance of the tested concrete. The diagrams in Figs. 6 and 7illustrate the dependence of the abrasion erosion rate on the com-pressive strength and tensile bending strength for the 90 minwater jet test. Generally, the abrasive erosion resistance is higherwhen the strength of the concrete is increased, as it may be seenin Figs. 6 and 7 as a reduction of the abrasive erosion degree. Ifon the diagram presented in Fig. 6 a compressive strength of30 MPa is observed, on the basis of established dependences, theabrasion erosion rate ER can be calculated with high accuracy,and in the benchmark concrete, in the concrete with the additionof S120 fibers and the concrete with the addition of F120 fibers itamount to 0.1665, 0.1578 and 0.1486 respectively. This means thatthe increase of resistance of concrete to abrasive erosion, reflectedin the decrease of the coefficient ER, amounts to 5.23% in the con-crete with the addition of the S120 fiber, i.e. 10.75% in the concretewith the addition of the F120 fiber in comparison to the benchmarkconcrete. Regarding that the straight lines showing dependence of

Fig. 7. The relationship of flexural strenght and abrasion erosion rate.

Fig. 9. The appearance of the surface of concrete slabs reinforced with fiber FIBRILsF120 after testing water jet (w/c = 0.6).

310 Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312

the abrasion erosion rate on compressive strength are almost equi-distant, it can be generally claimed that he previous statementreferring to the increase of resistance to abrasive erosion is validfor the entire zone of compressive strength from 20 to 40 MPa.

Very similar conclusions can be drawn when the dependence ofabrasion erosion rate is analyzed in the function of bending tensilestrength. The addition of fibers increases the tensile strengthacross the entire range of water/cement factor from 0.5 to 0.7 foraround 9.5–13.4% in respect to the benchmark concrete. It is logicalthat the higher tensile strengths are present in the concrete with alower water-cement factor and the concrete with the addition ofF120 type fibers. Accordingly, the highest resistance to abrasiveerosion has the concrete made with the water/cement ratio 0.5and the addition of F120 type fibers where the value of the abra-sion erosion rate is ER = 0.1356, and the lowest the benchmark con-crete made with the water/cement ratio 0.7 where the value isER = 0.1944.

Visual inspection of the slabs tested under the water/sand jetreveals that the impact of the water jet on the test slabs generatestensile forces in the highest layers of the exposed concrete. Basedon the theory of conservation of energy, the intensity of tensileforces varies along with the hydraulic jet force of the impactmomentum. These tensile forces are the primary cause of micro-cracks in the hardened cement past and the cracks around theaggregate grains leading further to abrasive erosion. As it is known,nothing can decelerate this abrasive erosion process except

Fig. 8. Benchmark concrete slab surface after testing water jet: concrete slab

enhancement of mechanical characteristics of concrete, that is,compressive strength, resistance to tension by tearing and resis-tance to tension by bending.

In Fig. 9 is presented the appearance of the surface of the con-crete slab reinforced by the FIBRILs F120 type fibers, after thewater jet test. The slab surface is moderately rough, as the fiberson the concrete surface, showing good adhesion with the cement

s prepared with water/cement ratio w/c = 0,7 (left) and w/c = 0,5 (right).

Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312 311

matrix, partly dampened the impacts of the water abrasive and re-duced abrasive wear. The better characteristics of the concretereinforced with the FIBRILs F120 type are the result of the verystructure of the fiber. Namely, these fibers belong to the group offibrillated fibers with network structure enabling better connec-tion with cement matrix, while the FIBRILs S120 type fibers belongto the group of monofilament fibers and do not have the networkstructure, but single, individual fibers.

5. Conclusions

On the basis of the experimental research results, the followingconclusions can be drawn:

� The test procedure and equipment presented in this paper aresuitable for practical experimental evaluation of abrasive resis-tance of concrete subjected to sand/water jet action.� Abrasive resistance of concrete is reduced with the increase of

water/cement ratio which is reflected in the increase of thevalue of abrasion resistance rate ER. Change of water/cementratio from 0.5 to 0.7 leads to the change of abrasive resistanceof concrete for 21–24%.� The addition of polypropylene fibers has a positive effect and

contributes to increase of concrete resistance to abrasive ero-sion. Thus, for the water/cement ratio 0.5 the addition of mono-filament polypropylene fibers of FIBRILs S120 type increases theabrasive resistance of concrete for 7.08%, and when the polypro-pylene fibrillated fibers of FIBRILs F120 type the increaseamounts to 13.47%. The similar values are established also forthe water/cement ratio 0.6: the addition of the S120 type fibersincreases the abrasion resistance for 6.41%, and the addition ofF120 type fibers for 14.71%; for the water/cement ratio 0.7: theaddition of S120 type fibers increases the abrasion resistance for7.41%, and the addition of F120 type fiber for 15.43%.� The addition of polypropylene fibers does not affect signifi-

cantly the change of compressive strength in respect to thebenchmark concrete, averaging between 7% and 8%, wherebythe slightly higher increase was noticed in the case when thepolypropylene fibers of F120 type were added.� The addition of fibers increases tensile strength across the

entire range of water/cement factors from 0.5 to 0.7 for around9.5–13.4% in respect to the benchmark concrete.� The concretes with high compressive and tensile strength (at

bending) have higher abrasive resistance, so these parametersmay serve as indicators of the abrasive–erosive resistance ofconcrete.� The polypropylene fibrillated fibers of FIBRILs F120 type proved

better in respect to the monofilament fibers of FIBRILs S120type in terms of abrasive–erosive resistance of concrete.� In the future research the correlation between abrasion wear

and wear by Boehme should be determined experimentally. Itis widely known that surface strength of concrete decreaseswith the increase of water/cement factor. It is realistic to expectthat concrete wear by Boehme will be increasing, that is, risingwith the increase of water/cement factor, in a similar fashion asabrasion wear.� Future research should be directed towards determining corre-

lation of simulated and actual abrasion effects on hydro-techni-cal concrete in time.

Acknowledgements

The work reported in this paper is a part of the investigationwithin the research project TR 36017 ‘‘Utilization of by-products

and recycled waste materials in concrete composites in the scopeof sustainable construction development in Serbia: investigationand environmental assessment of possible applications’’, sup-ported by the Ministry for Science and Technology, Republic of Ser-bia. This support is gratefully acknowledged.

References

[1] Graham JR. Erosion of concrete in hydraulic structure, Reported by ACICommittee 210, ACI manual practice, Part I; 1998.

[2] ASTM C 418-98: Standard test method for abrasion resistance of concrete bysandblasting.

[3] Małasiewicz A. Test systems for abrasion of hydraulic concrete. GospodarkaWodna 1974(4):152–5.

[4] Misra A, Finnie I. On the size effect in abrasive and erosive wear. Wear1981;65.

[5] ASTM C 944-99: Standard test method for abrasion resistance of concrete ormortar surfaces by the rotating-cutter method.

[6] Nanni A. Abrasion resistance of roller compacted concrete. ACI Mater J1989;86(10).

[7] Shi ZQ, Chung DDL. Improving the abrasion resistance of mortary by addinglatex and carbon fibers. Cem Concr Res 1997;27(8):1149–53.

[8] Bania A. Bestimmung des Abriebs und der Erosion von Betonen mittels einesGesteinsstoff-Wassergemisches, Dissertation B, TH Wismar; 1989.

[9] Haroske G. Erosionsverschleiss an Betonoberflächen durchGeschiebetransport, Dissertation, TH Wismar; 1998. p. 53–63.

[10] Horszczaruk E. New test method for abrasion erosion ofconcrete. Krakow: WPK; 1996. July 19–22.

[11] ASTM C 1138-97: Standard test method for abrasion resistance of concrete(underwater method).

[12] Momber AW, Kovacevic R. Accelerated high speed water erosion test forconcrete wear debris analysis. Tibol Trans 1996;39:943–9.

[13] Momber AW. Short-time cavitation erosion of concrete. Wear2000;241:47–52.

[14] Momber AW, Kovacevic R. Test parameter analysis in abrasive water jetcutting of rocklike materials. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 1997;34:17–25.

[15] Momber AW, Mohan RS, Kovacevic R. On-line analysis of hydro-abrasiveerosion of pre-cracked materials by acoustic emission. Theor Appl Fract Mech1999;31:1–17.

[16] Momber AW. Stress–strain relation for water-driven particle erosion of quasi-brittle materials. Theor Appl Fract Mech 2001;35:19–37.

[17] Höcker T, Schnütgen B. Zementgebundene Betone mit und ohne Stahlfasernzur Instandsetzung extrem verschleißbeanspruchter Betonrandzonen. In:Wittmann FH, editor. Werkstoffwissenschaften undBauinstandsetzen. Technische Akademie Esslingen; 1996. p. 1709–21.

[18] Haroske G, Vala J, Diederichs U. Sonderbetone und Saniermörtel für dieInstandsetzung verschleißgeschädigter Betonbauteile im Wasserbau. In:Wittmann FH, editor. Werkstoffwissenschaften undBausanierung. Freiburg: Aedificatio Publishers; 1999. p. 145–56.

[19] Lui YW. Improving the abrasion resistance of hydraulic–concrete containingsurface crack by adding silica fume. Constr Build Mater 2006.

[20] Binici H, Aksogan O, Gorur EB, Kaplan H, Bodur MN. Hydro-abrasive erosion ofconcrete incorporating ground blast-furnace slag and ground basaltic pumice.Constr Build Mater 2009;23:804–11.

[21] Izaguirre A, Lanas J, Alvarez JI. Effect of a polypropylene fibre on the behaviourof aerial lime-based mortars. Constr Build Mater 2011;25(2):992–1000.

[22] Nili M, Afroughsabet V. The effects of silica fume and polypropylene fibers onthe impact resistance and mechanical properties of concrete. Constr BuildMater 2010;24:927–33.

[23] Meddah MS, Bencheikh M. Properties of concrete reinforced with differentkinds of industrial waste fibre materials. Constr Build Mater2009;23:3196–205.

[24] Li H, Zhang MH, Ou JP. Abrasion resistance of concrete containing nano-particles for pavement. Wear 2006;260:1262–6.

[25] Chen PW, Fu Xuli, Chung DDL. Microstructural and mechanical effects of latex,methylcellulose, and silica fume on carbon fiber reinforced cement. ACI MaterJ 1997;94:147–55.

[26] Chernov V, Zlotnikov H, Shadalov M. Structural synthetic fiber-reinforcedconcrete. Experience with marine applications. Concr Int 2006;8:6–61.

[27] Sadegzadeh M, Kettle R, Vassou V. The influence of glass, polypropylene andsteel fibers on the physical properties of concrete. Concrete 2001;35:12–22.

[28] Jacobs F. Betonabrasion imWasserbau. Beton 2003;1:16–23.[29] McDonald JE. Evaluation of materials for repair of erosion damage in hydraulic

structures, durability of concrete. Proceedings fifth international conferenceBarcelona 2000, ACI SP-192, vol. II. Farmington Hills; 2000. p. 887–98.

[30] Yen T, Hsu TH, Lui YW, Chen SH. Influence of class F ash on the abrasion–erosion resistance of high-strength concrete. Constr Build Mater2007;21:458–63.

[31] Cavdar A, Yetgin S. Investigation of abrasion resistance of cement mortar withdifferent pozzolanic compositions and subjected to sulfated medium. ConstrBuild Mater 2010;24:461–70.

[32] Hu XG, Momber AW, Yin YG. Hydro-abrasive erosion of steel-fibre reinforcedhydraulic concrete. Wear 2002;253:848–54.

312 Z.J. Grdic et al. / Construction and Building Materials 27 (2012) 305–312

[33] Hu XG, Momber AW, Yin Y, Wang H, Cui DM. High-speed hydrodynamic wearof steel-fibre reinforced hydraulic concrete. Wear 2004;257:441–50.

[34] Horszczaruk EK. Hydro-abrasive erosion of high performance fiber-reinforcedconcrete. Wear 2009;267:110–5.

[35] Scrivener KL, Cabrion JL, Letourneux R. High-performance concretes formcalcium aluminate cements. Cement Concrete Res 1999;29:1215–23.

[36] Horszczaruk E. Abrasion resistance of high-strength concrete in hydraulicstructures. Wear 2005;259:62–9.

[37] Liu YW, Yen Tsong, Hsu TH, Liou JC. Erosive resistibility of low cement highperformance concrete. Constr Build Mater 2006;20:128–33.

[38] Papayianni I, Anastasiou E. Production of high-strength concrete using highvolume of industrial by-products. Constr Build Mater 2010;24:1412–7.

[39] Lui YW, Yen T, Hsu TH. Abrasion erosion of concrete by water-borne sand. CemConcr Res 2006;36:1814–20.