Glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC)

A new composite for construction

BY WALLACE NEAL*

FIBER REINFORCEMENT RESEARCH

Reinforcing a matrix with fibers isnt new. Nature has a good head star t on usbeavers pack mud into inter twined branches to build their amazingly strong houses and dams. Barn swallows, robins and other birds build sturdy little mud nests reinforced with straw or twigs. Early man may have noted these benefits of reinforcement materials when he mixed straw into his sun-baked clay bricks and, more recently, when he mixed horsehair into plaster. Strengthening cement by adding fibers dates back to 1908, when asbestos-cement entered the market. This fiber-cement composite soon became a major building product because it overcame the main weakness of cement productsbrittleness. Reinforced concrete depends upon the addition of continuous reinforcement such as steel rebars or welded wire fabric, to give it necessary tensile strength. Asbestos-cement, however, obtains strength from dispersed tiny fibers, so that making thin board products, shingles, siding, pipe and a number of other products is possible. The nature of asbestos-cement manufacture favors mass factor y production of standard shapes. The desire for a more versatile product, one that could even be field mixed and applied, as well as the recent stress on hazards of asbestos fibers have helped stimulate accelerated research on other synthetic fibers for cement product reinforcement. There were earlier effor ts, but serious synthetic fiber research really star ted in the late fifties and early sixties, and commercial products and applications have only begun to appear in the last five or six years. Researchers have evaluated a number of fibers, including carbon steel, stainless steel, carbon, various plastics, rock wool and glass. The success of glass fiber reinforcement for plastics had made glass fiber mixed into cement and concrete look like a winner. Researchers struck out when they first tried this, however. Test samples were initially strong but the strength dropped off as the samples aged because the highly alkaline environment provided by por tland cement attacked sur faces of the glass fibers. In 1971, scientists at Pilkington and the Building Research Establishment, also in England, announced joint development of an alkali-resistant glass fiber. In the U.S., Owens-Corning had developed an alkali-resistant fiber concurrently. The two firms subsequently worked out a technology exchange and both are doing continuing research on the fibers. Pilkington received The Concrete Society Innovation Award for 1974 for its work on the material.

eep-profile precast panels two stories tall and 10 feet(1) wide provide a curtain wall facing for the Lutheran Social Services office building addition built in Minneapolis during 1975. Theyre unusual: each panel weighs only 2000 pounds.(2) A typical precast concrete panel in this design weighs about 14,000 pounds.(3) The high flexural strength of glass fiber re i n f o rc e d concrete (GFRC) made the dramatic weight saving possible. The panels are impressively strong despite the fact that average thickness is only 34 inch.(4) New on the construction scene and still in the development stage, GFRC is described by one British researcher as without doubt one of the major new material developments, if not the most important, to be realized during the past 40 to 50 years. More than 100 firms now manufacture the product throughout the world. Most are in the U.S., Great Britain and Japan. Products now made commercially range from large building panels to livestock watering troughs. So far, the two producers of alkali-resistant glass fibers who license or control fiber sales to end-product manufacturers are limiting recommended uses to modest, nonstructural and semistructural applications. The two fiber producers are Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, Toledo, Ohio, and Pilkington Brothers Limited, England. Pilkingtons fibers are distributed in the United States by Cem-Fil Corporation, Nashville, Tennessee (jointly owned by Pilkington and Ferro Co r p o ra t i o n , Cleveland, Ohio). These two firms are conducting tests on the effects on GFRC of aging and weathering in various parts of the world. Results, as some test installations move into their sixth and seventh years, are encouraging. Glass fiber engineers are likely to broaden recommendations to include more demanding applications before too long;

* Wallace Neal is a professional freelance writer, consultant and researcher with 24 years of construction industry background. His articles appear in a number of construction and general business publications. He has been for many years an active member of the Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter of the Construction Specification Institute. Numbers in parentheses refer to metric equivalents listed with this article. The proprietary initials GRC for glass fiber reinforced cement and the generic initials FRC for fiber glass reinforced cement have been widely used for products made of fiber glass and cement, even when they contain aggregate and are really concrete. In this article the initials GFRC will be used throughout to denote glass fiber reinforced concrete, although in some cases the products described may not actually contain any aggregate.

TABLE I. Typical ranges of physical properties at 28 days of GFRC applied by direct spray Property Modulus of rupture (ultimate flexural strength) Limit of proportionality (ultimate tensile strength) Compressive strength 57 to 143 Impact strength per square inch Youngs modulus (elasticity) U.S. customary units 3000 to 4600 psi SI metric units 21 to 32 megapascals

and causes a break. The presence of glass fibers provides crack arresters. When the first crack occurs in the matrix, the strong fibers pick up the load. That support is stronger than the matrix itself, so the next crack must occur elsewhere. More loading adds only new cracks, immediately arrested, rather than causing first cracks to p ro p a g a t e. Failure develops as a gradual, plastic-like yielding. Fractus when fibers pull out or break.

1000 to 1600 psi

7 to 11 megapascals

Composition of GFRC
Ge n e ra l l y, higher cement contents are used in cement-sand mixtures and concretes that contain glass fiber reinforcement than in those that do not, particularly when more than minimal amounts of fiber are added. A lower content and smaller size of coarse aggregate in GFRC concrete is also typical. The GFRC mix is stiffer, with less slump. Workability thus decreases. Since addition of excess water should be avoided because it produces weaker concrete, water-reducing admixtures are frequently used to ease placing and finishing. Normally Type I portland cement is used. Vibration is needed to consolidate the placed material. Fibers are normally supplied in either continuous or chopped strands. GFRC producers who buy continuous strands use a rotary-blade device to chop them into the mix. A strand is usually a bundle of 204 individual filaments, each of which is 0.0005 inch(5) in diameter. Due to the addition of sizing on the surfaces of the filaments they remain bound into a strand in the cement matrix. Experiments with binders which permit filaments to be individually dispersed have produced concrete with lower physical properties and less workability. Commonly used fiber lengths are 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 inches.(6) Because batch mixing requires use of shorter fibers to obtain more uniform fiber distribution, the 1inch(7) length is commonly used. Sp ra y-head mixing permits use of longer fibers, often the 1.5-inch(8) length. One producer has developed a spray-head system which permits use of 4-inch(9) fibers. Flexural strength of GFRC increases up to a fiber content of about 7 percent by volume. As fiber content increases, density decreases because it is more difficult to compact and dewater the mix. For most spra y- h e a d mixed products glass fiber content is generally 4 to 5 percent. For batch-mixed products fiber content tends to be less. Putting more fibers in a mixer makes it more difficult to achieve completely unifo the fiber surfaces. For batch-mixed product applications, howe ve r, high fiber content is often not critical. Often a desired pro p e rt y such as crack resistance is achieved with as little as 0.25 percent fiber content.

7200 to 11,400 psi

50 to 79 megapascals

inch pounds newtons per meter 1.5 to 3.0 x 106 psi

10,000 to 25,000

10,500 to 20,500 megapascals 1.70 to 2.10 megagrams per cubic meter

Density

105 to 130 pounds per cubic foot

Source: Cem-Fil Corporation

eventual use for major load-bearing elements appears imminent, if test results continue to be good.

Physical properties of GFRC

With the alkalinity problem apparently licked (see box), research has advanced on physical properties and applications of glass fiber cement and concrete composites. Properties vary of course, depending on fiber content, fiber size, fiber orientation, water-cement ratio, type of cement, use of aggregates, use of admixtures, and techniques of mixing and application. In general, as a composite GFRC has characteristics intermediate between the rigidity and compressive strength of cement and the high tensile strength of glass fiber. Typical physical properties are shown in Table I. Understandably, physical properties are stated conservatively and caution is used in recommending applications. Test results to date are very good, both accelerated and real time. Unlike cement and concrete products, the strength of GFRC falls off after initial curing, but the rate of loss decreases with time. Nevertheless, GFRC scores high enough in strength to suggest many uses where its properties can be used to advantage, even allowing ample safety factors. Its impact resistance is 20 times that of asbestos-cement. Glass fiber reinforced concrete offers two to three times the flexural strength of unreinforced concrete. Moreover, the material under increasing load doesnt fail abruptly but yields gradually. Theorists in the mechanics of cement and concrete suggest tensile failure begins with microcracks and microscopic separations. These combine into a cohesive crack, a weakness which quickly travels in brittle cement

Production methods
Three practical methods are being used to produce GFRC. Premixing Premix is simply batch-mixed GFRC, using conven-

Photo courtesy of Cem-Fil Corporation

Photo courtesy of Glas-Con Inc.

Crews place a curtain wall panel of GFRC concrete 10 feet by 21 feet 6 inches(11) averaging 34 inch(4) in thickness and weighing 2000 pounds(32) on the Lutheran Social Services building, Minneapolis. The panel has a deep shadow box profile with integral window frames in the recesses. Part of the tan colored surface is fluted and part is smooth. used with good distribution, and permits use of longer fibers. The result is a stronger composite. Sheet material can be made. The sheets are initially plastic but cohesive enough to be lifted soon after making and shaped to a mold. Profile suction molds can also be used. This 30-inch(33) GFRC sewer pipe has a straight exterior and thin walls, yet meets strength requirements. Field tested, it is now marketed commercially in England. tional concrete mixing equipment. It is the simplest process and requires minimal capital outlay. St re n g t h levels achieved are more modest than those with the spray processes, because high fiber concentration is difficult and because the fibers become randomly oriented in three dimensions. The premixed material is usually placed into a mold and vibrated but it can alternatively be applied by trowel or spray. There is experimental evidence that when coarse aggregate is used mixing and compaction may cause damage to fibers, decreasing the GFRC strength. To minimize this possibility, the glass is added near the end of the mixing cycle. Automatic spray-suction process The second method is a spray-head mixing process which can be adapted to continuous-line factory production. This automatic spray-suction process consists of spraying a fairly wet cement slurry and simultaneously chopping fiber strands onto a perforated pan covered with filter media. Suction removes excess water and helps compact the material. The method produces twodimensional fiber orientation, allows more fibers to be Direct-spray mixing The third method is a spray-head mixing technique similar to that used for reinforced plastics. Not limited by vibrator-mounted casting molds or by suction machinery, the direct-spray method is versatile and produces a product with the strength advantages of automatic s p ra y-suction process products. It is sophisticated but has a broad range of applications, including large panels with thin cross sections and complex profiles. The direct-spray method warrants a more detailed description because the end products can be varied and complex. Here are the production steps used by one firm specializing in the process: A glass-fiber-reinforced plastic mold is made to the required pattern and coated with a release agent. GFRC is applied from a spray head that combines a cement-sand slurry gun and a glass fiber chopper. Typically the applied thickness averages 38 to 34 inch.(10) The mix is then compacted with a disc roller to remove air bubbles and ensure that the material conforms to the mold. Anchors, inserts or reinforcing steel are placed, and over them additional material is spra ye d and rolled. An alternative technique is to spray up a flat sheet at the same time the mold is sprayed. The sheet is cohesive enough to be picked up and laid over the anchors and reinforcement. The sheet is formed to envelop the reinforcement and lap onto the original coat, and is

Photo courtesy of Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation

The worker is securing a 115-pound(34) GFRC curtain wall panel to the building frame by welding. An unerected panel is in foreground. Structure is an office-retail shops building in Dayton, Ohio. then rolled to bond the two layers together. The completed section is cured in the mold for about 16 hours, then stripped and moist cured in polyethylene wrapping for 7 days. can be utilized, for example, in the sculptured facade cladding of a building to eliminate the mass otherwise needed for deep relief in ordinary concrete. In the Lutheran Social Services building mentioned in the beginning of this article, GFRC panels weighed one-seventh what architectural precast concrete sections would have. Those panels, typically 10 feet by 21 feet 6 inches(12) were removed from molds and handled in the shop with an ordinary fork lift truck. The plastic molds themselves were relatively light. Massive forms would have been needed for regular deep-section precast panels which would have had to be about 6 inches(13) thick. The 7-ton(14) cast sections would have re q u i re d heavy-duty cast-in attachments for lifting, and could not have been handled by a light-duty crane. GFRC offers the architect freedom to design complex shapes in large, light sections with the option of using color and texture and achieving fine detail. Molds are sufficiently inexpensive to justify reusing them the limited number of times required by a small project. Sandwich panels with foam insulation are easily made. The tendency toward shrinkage cracking is greatly reduced in GFRC. For this reason it has been used for septic tanks, burial vaults, picnic tables and tra n s f o rm e r pads. Concrete industrial floors up to 100 feet(15) in length

Applications
The cost of GFRC by the cubic yard is not low because adding glass fiber to a cubic yard of concrete can quadruple its raw material cost. Producing GFRC is at least as labor intensive as producing regular concrete p ro d u c t s. A typical thin-wall GFRC product may cost $4.00 to $8.00 per square foot.(11) Shape, aesthetics, surface characteristics and weight savings are what make GFRC an ideal product for some kinds of applications. For these, despite its bulk cost, GFRC can offer savings in cost. Adding glass fiber to cement creates a composite which can be molded in fine detail. Corners and thin sections have high impacchipping, making fine detailing practical. The molded surface of GFRC is smooth, aesthetically pleasing, easy to maintain and resistant to water penetration. G F RC s high flexural strength makes possible deepprofile concrete shapes made with thin-wall sections, so that hollowed-out units can be made. This advantage

TABLE II. SOME VARIED APPLICATIONS OF GFRC

Sewer pipe: No steel; thin walls; in-wall joint, not bell joint Retaining walls: Made of hollow hexagonal GFRC units linked by steel bars Coffer units: Integral forms for wide-span structural concrete floor Corrugated sheets: Integral forms for bridge deck Sewer liner: Thin, grooved cur ved sheets assembled with bolts to make jointed tube liner for deteriorated sewer. Grout pumped through holes in liner to fill between it and existing sewer Ventilation ducts: For underground parking structure. Wall thickness varied from 12 to 1 inch.(18) Ducts designed to withstand impact of car at 5 miles per hour(19)

This hollow GFRC base being lowered into an excavation will support pad-mounted electrical gear at approximately ground level. Such units will support up to 7500 pounds(25) of equipment. have been successfully placed without contraction joints. Specific examples of some of the other varied applications for GFRC are given in Table II. Some have been produced primarily for field testing. Others have been produced commercially.

Precast trench lids: 34 by 20 by 32 inches,(20) weighing 50 pounds,(21) compared with 125 pounds(22) for concrete lids Equipment bases: For electrical industr y. Up to 30 inches by 6 feet by 6 feet(23) with 58-inch(24) walls, to support equipment weighing up to 7500 pounds(25) Pavement overlays: Test slabs for highways and runways. 6-inch-thick(26) GFRC slab equivalent in per formance (in test slabs in Texas and Ohio) to 8-inchthick(27) steel-reinforced concrete Fire-resistant coverings: 38-inch-thick(28) GFRC integral form used to cast 8-inch-square(29) reinforced concrete column. In Building Research Establishment (England) fire test, the column sustained its load 100 minutes compared with 40 minutes for a column cast in wood forms. Improved fire resistance attributed to prevention of spalling over rebars at corners Artificial rock: For zoos, marine aquariums, and similar exhibits. Actual rock formations utilized to create the molds used Simulated wood shake roofing shingles: 58- by 15- by 36-inch(30) panels made by replica molding Marine uses: Schooner, workboats, pontoons, buoys Miscellaneous: Acoustic foam-lined trough for air conditioner, infant caskets and vaults, planters, litter bins, picnic tables, street signs, junction boxes, wheels for traffic striping, watering troughs for livestock

Future uses of GFRC

The GFRC industry is enthusiastic but cautious in speaking of future applications of this composite. The industry is not just waiting for time-related data; further testing under stress conditions and other research has to be conducted, and it is anticipated that it may be three or four years at least before the industry can commit itself to promoting purely structural uses, depending on what happens in testing. Various firms are now building structural prototypes for testing and evaluating, including a shell roof structure in Germany. If no snags occur in the continuing development of GFRC, we may see some interesting products in a few years. Some of those listed in Table III are already under development.

Design precautions
While using engineering calculations based on published physical properties and applying suitable safety factors may be adequate for established materials, development of GFRC applications which are at all critical or dependent on structural behavior should proceed more conservatively. An essential first step should be to consult with a GFRC producer because each producer has a close working relationship with the research labs of a fiber manufacturer. Products which will be exposed to wind loads and other stresses, such as building panels, should be load tested. Drying shrinkage and moisture-induced expansion is greater in GFRC than in ordinary concrete. Moisture-volume change will tend to dictate maximum dimensions. Jointing and anchoring must allow for such movement. The wall thickness of direct-sprayed GFRC should be kept to a minimum, for economy in weight and material. A practical average thickness may be 38 to 34 inch(10) depending on application, allowing for minimums due to surface variations of from 14 to 12 inch.(16) Stiffness is then providedns, contours or attached studs. Because GFRC panels are thin in contrast to precast concrete sections they can warp more readily if designed improperly. For example, applying an impervious coat-

TABLE III. SOME POSSIBLE FUTURE USES OF GFRC

Large shell structures: Prototype 28-foot-diameter(31) domes 10 feet(1) high placed on membrane that is later inflated by air Modular housing units: Especially for developing countries Plaster repair coats: For deteriorating concrete structures. Test installations made on locks and dams Accurate replicas: To reproduce deteriorating decorative features of historic buildings, such as metal draperies, flowers and gargoyles. Plastic molds can be made directly from existing pieces Extruded window sills and copings: Extrusion process reorients fibers parallel to axis of extrusion and improves flexural strength. Some cross-sectional shapes that cannot be cast can be extruded Miscellaneous: Pedestrian skyway bridge enclosures, acoustical ceiling panels, roof decks, roof tiles, transmission towers, light standards, pools and foundations

panel contractor or manufacturer. Items to be specified in other sections include structural support, framing and backup walls, anchors embedded in the structure, caulking and final cleaning and protection.

Outlook
GFRC is on the scene. Although a new arrival, future success seems assured, enhanced by its parentage. The product is being carefully shepherded by the two substantial corporations who developed and produce the alkali-resistant glass fiber: Owens-Corning and Pilkington. Both companies have conducted much research on GFRC and are actively continuing product development and evaluation. A variety of construction industry products has been made of GFRC with the major volume emphasis being on building panels. Even as testing continues, cautious consideration of new more demanding uses is likely where there are cost or strength advantages despite a high raw material price. In the future, the cost FRC and conventional materials may possibly narrow, opening up broader applications.

ing to one side may create an imbalance in moisture-induced movement. Thermal expansion and contraction of GFRC is similar to that of ordinary concrete. It is possible, howe ve r, that a very large sandwich panel with insulation core could bow due to temperature extremes between inner and outer surfaces, intensified by the insulation. One fiber producer cautions against the embedment of large or long sections of rebar or other steel into GFRC, saying it may cause distortion or cracking due to the shrinkage of the concrete. They recommend casting in attachment sockets and keeping the large metal sections external to the panel. Bridging of fibers has been a potential problem when spraying into sharp angles, fine projections, grooves or slots, or spraying around inserts such as sockets. Fibers bridge across narrowly spaced points and dont receive an adequate cover of cement matrix. Weakness results in such areas. This may be dealt with to some extent by care in spraying and rolling. Recent research to create a softer fiber may lead to reduced bridging problems.

Editors note: This article has been reprinted by permission of the Construction Specifications Institute, 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. It originally appeared in The Construction Specifier, March 1977, pages 20-23, 26-28, 30-32.

Metric equivalents
(1) 3 meters (2) 910 kilograms (3) 6350 kilograms (4) 19 millimeters (5) 0.013 millimeters (6) 13, 25, 38 and 51 millimeters (7) 25-millimeter (8) 38-millimeter (9) 100-millimeter (10) 10 to 19 millimeters (11) $43 to $86 per square meter (12) 3.05 by 6.55 meters (19) 8 kilometers per hour (20) 19 by 510 by 810 millimeters (21) 22.5 kilograms (22) 57 kilograms (23) 0.760 by 1.83 by 1.83 meters (24) 16-millimeter (25) 3400 kilograms (26) 150-millimeter-thick (27) 200-millimeter-thick (28) 9-millimeter-thick (29) 200-millimeter-square (30) 16- by 380- by 915-millimeter (31) 8.5-meter-diameter (32) 910 kilograms (33) 760-millimeter (34) 52-kilogram

Specifying GFRC
A performance approach to specifying GFRC building components is appro p ri a t e. Specifiers should tolerate preferences in production, structural design, anchorage and erection techniques. This may be done by stating s t ru c t u ral and aesthetic results to be achieved and by requiring complete details in shop drawings. Required submittals should also include range-bracketing samples for color and texture. Load tests on each typical panel or similar GFRC component should be required. The panel specification section should include cast-in anchors, related loose anchorage parts, cast-in lifting inserts if required, and erection as responsibilities of the

(13) 150 millimeters (14) 6.4-megagram (15) 30 meters (16) 6 to 13 millimeters (17) 125 millimeters (18) 13 to 25 millimeters

PUBLICATION#C780644
Copyright 1978, The Aberdeen Group All rights reserved