Influence of Jute Fiber on Tensile, Electrical, and Permeability Characteristics of Slag Concrete: A Better, Cheaper, and Eco-Friendly Substitute for Conventional Concrete

This works promotes the idea of simultaneous incorporation of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and jute fiber (JF) to develop eco-friendly and ductile concrete. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted, where two concrete families were produced using 0% and 25% GGBS as partial replacements for cement. JF was incorporated as 0%, 0.25%, and 0.5% by volume fractions. Effect of plasticizer was also studied on behavior of jute fiber reinforced concrete (JFRC) with GGBS. Compressive strength-CS, splitting tensile strength-STS, flexural strength-FS, water absorption-WA, chloride ion penetration depth-CIPD, and electrical resistivity-ER were studied. The results showed that with the increasing JF content the CS of concrete declined and STS and FS improved. However, the positive effect of JF on CS was observed in mixes containing GGBS with or without a plasticizer. Incorporation of 0.5% JF without plasticizer improved the STS and FS of concrete by 11% and 17%, respectively. However, after achieving the target workability using plasticizer, the net gains in STS and FS due to the 0.5% addition of JF were 24.3% and 29%, respectively. The negative effects of hydrophilic nature of JF on WA and CIPD resistance of concrete were minimized by using GGBS and controlling workability.