Improving performance of light weight concrete with brick chips using low cost steel wire fiber

• GI wire fiber can be used as a low-cost alternative to steel fibers in concrete.
• Optimum GI fiber content is 2–2.5% by weight for conventional brick chip concrete.
• Considerable cost saving can be achieved by using GI fiber instead of steel fiber.

Brick chips, produced from burnt clay, are quite common in Bangladesh and other countries of the south-east region of Asia and have been used as coarse aggregate for many years. These brick chips are considered as light weight aggregate (LWA) because of their light weight and porous structure. Brick chips concrete is a form of light weight aggregate concrete (LWAC) and has lower mechanical properties and higher brittleness than conventional normal weight concrete. Improving this aspect of LWAC with brick chips is of great importance since brick chips are very popular in the country due to low cost and wide availability. Therefore, a comprehensive investigation has been made in this study on the improvement of strength and ductility of concrete having brick chips as coarse aggregate using locally produced low cost lightly galvanized mild steel wire fiber (commonly known as GI wire fiber in this region) as an alternative to conventional steel fibers. Steel fibers are not available in local markets in many countries of this region such as Bangladesh and importing is quite expensive. Compressive and splitting tensile strength of test cylinders as well as load–deflection and cracking behavior of test beams with variable fiber contents have been evaluated. Marked improvement has been noticed for compressive and tensile strength of concrete through GI wire fibers addition. Ultimate strength and toughness showed maximum increment up to thirty percent for a certain range of fiber content. Moreover, fiber inclusion has enhanced resistance against crack formation and propagation which is evident from crack width, crack spacing with respect to loads applied and crack patterns. Results of the experiments and cost comparison reveal that GI fiber can be adopted as a viable low cost alternative to steel fibers for performance enhancement of brick chips concrete.