International Journal On Engineering Technology and Sciences IJETS

ISSN (P): 2349-3968, ISSN (O): 2349-3976

Volume 2 Issue 4, April -2015

STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR OF LIGHT TRANSMITTING

CONCRETE USING OPTICAL FIBRE
Sathish Kumar V
Assistant Professor
Valliammai Engineering College
Mail id:sathishkumarcivil@yahoo.co.in

Suresh T
Final Year Student (Civil)
Valliammai Engineering College

Abstract Energy saving and safety evaluation are two key issues for infrastructure. In this paper, the concrete specimen is produced by
reinforcing Optical fibres with the different percentages and comparing it with the conventional concrete. Different tests were carried out on
the specimen like Compressive strength test, Split tensile strength, Intensity of light passing through it, etc. The experimental results show
than an optical fibre can be easily combined with concrete and it can provide a steady light transmitting ability. The compressive strength
results obtained for the specimen with the optical fibre was found to be higher strength as compared to the conventional concrete, which
clearly indicates that light transmitting concrete transmits light without affecting the strength of the concrete.
Index Terms Compressive strength, Light transmitting concrete, LDR, Optical fibre.

I. INTRODUCTION

II.

ungarian architect AronLosonczi was first introduced the

light transmitting concrete in 2001 at the Technical University
of Budapest and then successfully produced the first
transparent concrete block in 2003. LiTrancon (light
transmitting concrete) is also called as Translucent concrete.
It presents the concept of light transmitting concrete in the
form of applicable new building material. It can be used for
interior walls or exterior walls, decorative pavements or even
in design objects. By reinforcing the optical fibres in the
concrete, light can be transmitted from the one end to another
end of the fibre.
In this paper, the main purpose is to use sunlight as a
light source in order to reduce the power consumption,
because the brightness of indoor environment is entirely
created by artificial lighting which has consuming a large
amount of power supply. The mechanical performance like
compressive strength, Split tensile strength of light
transmitting concrete is compared with the conventional
concrete is also determined.
As references from literature review, the light transmitting
concrete with optical fibre has high strength than with the
glass rod in the concrete, hence we are preferred optical fibre
with different proportion based on the volume of the cube by
0.15%, 0.25%, 0.35%. The cube and cylinder mould used in
this project is standard size of 150mm*150mm and
150mmdia*300mm respectively.
The orientation of fibre in the cube plays a vital role in the
strength. In general, the orientation of fibre parallel to the load
has high strength than the fibre perpendicular to the load. The
testing is carried out in both orientations by fibre parallel to
the load and fibre perpendicular to the load.
We also used LDR (light dependent resistor) to measure the
intensity of light passing through the light transmitting
concrete. A Light-Dependent resistor is a light controlled
variable resistor. The resistance of a incident light intensity, in
other word, it exhibits photoconductivity. LDR is used to
measure the Light transmitting property of concrete.

MATERIALS AND ITS PROPERTIES

A. Cement
The type of cement used in this work is 53-grade OPC. The
specific gravity of the cement uses is 3.15 and its fineness
modulus of 2% which is less than the maximum value of 7%.
B. Fine Aggregate
Fine aggregate used in this project is having the specific
gravity of 2.65.The density of the fine aggregate is found to be
511.4 kg/m3. The zone of fine aggregate is determined by
sieve analysis. As per the Indian standards the zone obtained
is zone-II.
Table 1: Fineness modulus of fine aggregate
I.S. Sieve
% of passing as
% of passing
designation
per IS (zone II)
(obtained)
10mm
100
100
4.75mm
90-100
95.88
2.36mm
75-100
88.4
1.18mm
55-90
68.6
600 micron
35-59
35.7
300 micron
8-30
12.6
150 micron
0-10
4.0
C. Coarse Aggregate
Coarse aggregate having a size of 12mm were used. Its
specific gravity is 2.65 and its impact strength is 13.3%,
which is found to be satisfied as per Indian standards.
D. Optical Fibre
It is an optical fibre which is made out of plastic.
PMMA(acrylic) is the core material and fluorinated polymers
are the cladding materials. In large diameter fibre, 96% of its
cross section is the core that allows the transmission of light.
It is similar to the traditional glass fibre, POF transmit light
through the inner core of the fibre. The core size of POF is in
cases 100 times larger than glass fibre. The core has the higher
refractive index of 1.5 and its cladding having lower
refractive index of 1.4.

International Journal On Engineering Technology and Sciences IJETS

ISSN (P): 2349-3968, ISSN (O): 2349-3976
Volume 2 Issue 4, April -2015

Figure 3: Cube mould

V. TESTING OF CONCRETE
Figure 1: Optical fibre
The core and cladding layer are based upon Extremely pure
fused silica, which is a fibre glass which almost no impurities
which helps to very low loss for the long distance
transmission. Snells law guides how light travels at interface
of the core and the cladding (reflection and refraction).
III. MIX PROPORTION
Control mixture for M25 grade concrete was designed as
per IS:10262-2009. In this paper, we have four types of
concrete mixes namely CC, OFRC1, OFRC2 & OFRC3 with
different proportions of optical fibre say 0%,0.15%,0.25%
and 0.35% respectively were casted and cured with normal
water for 28 days. For each mix, we have prepared 6 numbers
of cubes and 3 numbers of cylinders were casted and tested.
Table 2: concrete mix proportion
Optical
Cement
F.A
C.A
Water
fibre
Specimen
(kg/m3)
CC
457.78
606.5
1032.7
206
Nil
OFRC1 457.75
606.5
1032.7
206
3.25
OFRC2 457.75
606.5
1032.7
206
5.33
OFRC3 457.75
606.5
1032.7
206
7.40

A. Compressive Strength
Compressive strength of concrete is carried out by
Compressive testing machine. It is known that concrete is
good in compression and weak in tension. The cubes were
tested by placing the cube with fibres parallel to load and
fibres perpendicular to load.
Table 3: 28th day compressive strength of concrete
Compressive
Compressive
Avg. Load
Avg. Load
Specimen
strength
strength
(KN)
(KN)
(N/mm2)
(N/mm2)
CC
594
26.4
Load Applied
Load Applied
Parallel to optical
Perpendicular to
fibre
optical fibre
OFRC1
639
28.4
616.9
27.42
OFRC2
730.5
32.47
637.6
28.34
OFRC3
718.8
31.93
653.1
29.03

IV. MOULD PREPARATION

To place the optical fibre like a reinforcement in the cube,
mould to be prepared by which the placing of optical fibre
work can be easily done while casting. In this work plastic
straws have been used to insert the optical fibres and then
removed as soon as the concrete is poured.

Figure 2: cylinder mould

Figure 4: 28th day compressive strength of OFRC

B. Split Tensile Strength
With the increase in technology in construction field many
innovative concrete have been developed such that the
concrete having the capacity to with stand more tensile
strength than its actual strength. By reinforcing optical fibre in
concrete the tensile nature of the concrete is also studied. The
formula for the calculating of tensile strength of concrete is
given below,
Tensile strength=
Table 4: 28th day Split tensile strength of concrete
Load
Tensile strength
Specimen
(kN)
(N/mm2)
CC
207.71
2.93
OFRC1
270.59
3.83
OFRC2
377.27
5.39
OFRC3
360.32
5.1

International Journal On Engineering Technology and Sciences IJETS

ISSN (P): 2349-3968, ISSN (O): 2349-3976
Volume 2 Issue 4, April -2015

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

1. The results obtained from the compressive test shows
that the increases in the compressive strength of the
concrete with reinforcement of optical fibre.
2. There is a gradual increase in the Mechanical
properties of the concrete by increasing the optical
fibre up to 0.25% and on further addition of the
optical fibre decreases the strength parameters.
3. Compressive strength of the concrete is higher in the
optical fibre parallel to the load applied than the
optical fibre perpendicular to the load applied.
4. Compressive strength of the concrete is increased by
22.99% of the normal concrete mix for 0.25% of
optical fibre (OFRC2).
5. The tensile strength of the concrete is increased by the
83.95% for the 0.25% of optical fibre (OFRC2).
6. Thus, the reinforcing of optical fibre will transmit
light and also eventually increases the strength of the
concrete.

Figure 5: Split tensile strength of concrete

C. Light Transmittance Test
The light transmittance ability of the specimens is tested by
an electrical circuit setup with an LDR. The light
transmittance through the sample can be measured by
measuring the current corresponding to the light which can be
measured by the LDR. From the circuit setup, we are taking
two reading from ammeter, one without sample (A1), and one
with sample (A2). The source of light used is taken as 40w
incandescent bulb, a resistance of 100 is applied in the
circuit setup and uniform DC voltage of 10V is kept between
the circuits.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]

Figure 6: Electrical setup

[5]

Figure 7: Experimental work

( 40w incandescent bulb placed over specimen)
Table 5: Test results for light transmittance
Specimen
Optical fibre specimen
OFRC1 OFRC2 OFRC3
Ammeter
Without
24.4
24.4
24.4
Reading
Sample
(Ma)
(A1)
With
3.8
4.2
4.5
sample
(A2)
Light Transmittance
15.57
17.21
18.45
=100-((A1-A2)/A1)*100%

Basma F. Bashbash (2013) paper on Basics of light Transmitting

Concrete, (2013)
AkshayaB.KAmdi, paper on Transparent concrete as a Green Material
For Building, ISSN2319-6009.Volu 2, No.3, August 2013.
BhavinK.Kashiyani, et.al A Study on Transparent Concrete: A Novel
Architectural Material to Explore Construction Sector IJEIT.
M.N.V. Padma Bhushan et.al Optical fibre in the modelling of
translucent concrete blocks, ISSN: 2248-9622.Vol.3, Issue 3,
May-June 2013.
Soumyajit Paul and AVikDutta Translucent Concrete IJSRP, vol. 3,
Issue 10, October 2013.