EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON LIGHT TRANSMITTING CONCRETE

Abstract

Due to recent economic and infrastructure development in the developing countries like India, China etc., the dependence on artificial sources of energy has increased drastically. Thus Light transmitting concrete is need of the hour. Light transmitting concrete allows natural sunlight or any light to pass through it. It reduces electricity consumption in the buildings and makes it easier for buildings to achieve higher LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating. It has all the properties what a eco-friendly technique should have to keep up the green building concept into consideration as it increases the use of natural resource i.e. sunlight which is natural light and it reduces the use of electricity, thus, saving power consumption. Light transmitting concrete also gives aesthetically beautiful surface. It is made up of cement, sand, fine aggregates and thousands of plastic optical fiber strands placed in alternate layers. But, no construction material is can be used until it satisfies all the constructional requirements. For this purpose, experimental study on light transmitting concrete has been carried out to determine it’s the light transmittance characteristics with the help of Photometer, device which is used to find the intensity of light in terms of lumens. The Compressive strength of light transmitting Concrete is also found out by testing its cubes with the help of compression testing machine as per the relevant IS code for testing i.e. IS 516:1959. The yielded results shows that light transmittance ratio up to 5.5% can be achieved by using 4% plastic optical fibers in light transmitting concrete. Experimentally found compressive strength results show that there is very little or almost no loss in strength of light transmitting concrete as compared to the traditional concrete. Light transmitting concrete has a very bright future in civil engineering constructions owing to its unique characteristics of transmitting light. Keeping in mind all the advantages of this concrete it is right to say that “Light transmitting concrete is definitely the present as well as future of Civil engineering” as it also encourages the green building concept by reducing the dependence on artificial light sources during the day time. It is also very tremendous innovation in terms of aesthetics and architectural aspect also it gives very pleasing appearance and it can be used for decorative purposes very effectively.