Fresh and some mechanical properties of sifcon containing silica fume

Slurry infiltrated fiber concrete (SIFCON) is one of the recently developed construction material. SIFCON could be considered as a special type of fiber concrete with high fiber content. The matrix of SIFCON consists of flowing cement mortar or cement slurry. SIFCON has a very good potential for application in area where resistance to impact and high ductility are needed especially in designing the seismic retrofit, in the structures under impact and explosive effects and repair of structural reinforced concrete element. The main objective of this paper is to determine the effect of steel fiber content and silica fume (SF) cement replacement on the mechanical properties of SIFCON concrete. The percentage of SF replacement was 10% by weight of cement in SIFCON slurry, and three different volume fractions of hooked ended steel fiber (6, 8.5, and 11) % were used. The tested properties of SIFCON were compressive strength and splitting tensile strength which were carried out on standard size of cubes and cylinders respectively at the age of 7and 28 days. It was observed that the mechanical properties of SIFCON were affected in a positive manner by using silica fume as a partial replacement of cement and by adding steel fiber reinforcement in different percentages. The compressive and splitting tensile strength up to 83.7 MPa and 17.3MPa, respectively were obtained at the age of 28 days