Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete About

What is GFRC?

GFRC is a cement-based composite material, which is used in architecture and construction industry.

For architectural products, the most advanced type of reinforced concrete is reinforcement with glass fiber, which gives rise to a resulting material - glassfiber reinforced concrete. Glassfiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) is a type of concrete reinforced with glass fibers, which is made by combining a mixture of fine sand, cement and glass fibers, uniformly distributed throughout the product or its parts. The concrete-fiber interaction is ensured by mutual anchoring.

GFRC: a light, strong, attractive composite for replication the original designs

Glass fibers were first used to reinforce concrete in Russia in 1941, but the attempts failed due to the fact that fibers were destroyed by highly alkaline Portland cement matrix. In the 1970s, the idea of creating glassfiber reinforced concrete products has received new attention of research and development centers. The specialists focused on creation of non-steel reinforcement to reduce steel consumption, as well as to obtain a man-made equivalent of natural fibers that were made of fiber rock. Complex studies have shown that glass fibers significantly improve the structural properties of concrete materials. One of the benefits of GFRC is its tensile and flexural strength, as well as crack resistance and impact strength. As a result, it became possible to create thin sectioned, high performance reinforced concrete products for various purposes. Specialists of the State Glass Institute successfully solved the problem of standard glass fibers corroded by the highly alkaline environment. The development of a specific composition of alkali-resistant glass fibre with zirconium dioxide additives allowed glassfibre reinforced concrete to start its spreading throughout the world.

GFRC is an environmentally friendly material, which is composed of natural components and does not require large energy costs in production. At present, GFRC is used to produce a very wide range of products. Due to its expressiveness, unrivalled flexibility in architectural design, as well as cost effectiveness, GFRC ranks high among versatile materials.

GFRC facade decor with a unique ornament

The use of GFRC construction structures significantly reduces a labour cost, energy intensity and value, as well as increases durability and shortens the time of building constructions. This is achieved primarily by partial or complete replacement of welded wire meshes, frames and rods with fibre reinforcing. The use of GFRC allows to create designs of various structural sections, especially thin-walled and those of complex configuration, as well as significantly increase the architectural quality of buildings.

GFRC is often used to produce facade cladding panels. Depending on the texture of the concrete formwork, GFRC panels appearance can be made like that of wood, stone, terracotta and other finishes.

The GFRC being flexible gives the ability of creating the exact shape and the most complex surface features, it is strong and durable. And if we add to this the light weight of products at considerable dimensions, the uniqueness of GFRC is obvious.

Light weight of GFRC ensures:
• easy processing, low installation and shipping costs;
• reducing the load on the load-bearing structure and building flooring;
• reducing the cost of building foundation and its frame;
• using in restoration of old and dilapidated buildings;

The use of glassfibre reinforced concrete in construction effectively reduces the use of metal and other materials. Using GFRC instead of steel reinforced concrete allows to bring down the cost price by 1.2-2 times, weight - by 8-10 times and reduce cement consumption by 2-4 times.

In Russia and CIS glassfiber reinforced concrete has been used for the past 20 years to produce concrete products, especially for ornamental architectural purposes. Today there are dozens of successful production plants in Russia and abroad that use GFRC equipment STs-45 (СЦ-45) (manufactured by NST), where a wide range of GFRC products can be offered.