Effects of fibers on expansive shotcrete mixtures consisting of calcium sulfoaluminate cement, ordinary Portland cement, and calcium sulfate

The mining industry often uses shotcrete for ground stabilization. However, cracking within shotcrete is commonly observed, which delays production schedules and increases maintenance costs. A possible crack reduction method is using expansive shotcrete mixture consisting of calcium sulfoaluminate cement (CSA), ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and calcium sulfate (CS) to reduce shrinkage. Furthermore, fibers can be added to the mixture to restrain expansion and impede cracking. The objective of this paper is to study the effects of nylon fiber, glass fiber, and steel fiber on an expansive shotcrete mixture that can better resist cracking. In this study, parameters such as density, water absorption, volume of permeable voids, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), splitting tensile strength (STS), and volume change of fiber-added expansive mixtures were determined at different time periods (i.e. the strengths on the 28th day, and the volume changes on the 1st, 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days). The results show that addition of fibers can improve mixture durability, in the form of decreased water absorption and reduced permeable pore space content. Moreover, the expansion of the CSA-OPC-CS mixture was restrained up to 50% by glass fiber, up to 43% by nylon fiber, and up to 28% by steel fiber. The results show that the STS was improved by 57% with glass fiber addition, 43% with steel fiber addition, and 38% with nylon fiber addition. The UCS was also increased by 31% after steel fiber addition, 26% after nylon fiber addition, and 16% after glass fiber addition. These results suggest that fiber additions to the expansive shotcrete mixtures can improve durability and strengths while controlling expansion.