Creating Conditions for the Industrial Application of Basalt-Plastic Reinforcement in Manufacturing Precast Concrete Structures

The search for alternative methods of replacing steel reinforcement in load-bearing reinforced concrete structures with composite polymer reinforcement is an urgent scientific and practical task. Composite reinforcement (basalt-plastic, fiberglass) is an economically viable alternative to steel reinforcement; it possesses high tensile strength and chemical resistance, light weight (more than 4 times lighter than the steel ones), low thermal conductivity, radio transparency, dielectric properties. Such properties make it possible to use this type of reinforcement of concrete structures in civil, industrial, and road construction. Only in recent years, the specialists in Uzbekistan have paid special attention to the need for composite polymer reinforcement in construction. This type of reinforcement makes it possible to increase the service life of concrete structures and the building as a whole and to reduce the country's dependence on imports of steel reinforcement. At present the production of basalt-plastic reinforcement is localized in the country – its fiber is made from local basalt. For the possibility of industrial application of composite polymer reinforcement in construction, it is necessary to establish a relationship between a customer, a designer, and a manufacturer. For a customer, the project must be economically profitable, a designer must understand the physical and mechanical properties of the reinforcement and know the regulatory base, and a manufacturer must be interested in producing quality units and assemblies in accordance with the interstate standards, and be sure that the reinforcement produced by him will be in demand. The high deformability of structures caused by the low modulus of elasticity of composite reinforcement does not allow the manufacture of structures that work as bending and eccentrically compressed elements, embedded in reinforced concrete; however, it is noted that such reinforcement can be used in structures for which the requirements for the second group of limiting states are not determinant. The national standards acting in the CIS countries and other states limit the scope of application of composite polymer reinforcement in concrete structures in industrial objects of the economic complex. An analysis of the actual operation of prefabricated road panels, taking into account the low deformation characteristics of basalt-plastic reinforcement, showed the possibility of replacing steel reinforcement with a composite polymer one according to the criterion of uniform strength in terms of design tensile strengths while maintaining the number of working reinforcement bars and their location in reinforcing units.The results of testing the pilot panels of the road surface (prefabricated ones) reinforced with basalt-plastic reinforcement were considered to determine their crack resistance and bearing capacity. The test results of experimental road panels show that the bearing capacity not only decreased but substantially increased. The high corrosion resistance of basalt-plastic reinforcement, when used in road panels, contributes to an increase in the service life of such panels, since the values of crack opening under operational loads are set lower than the permissible limit values. The results of this study show that it is possible to expand the scope of industrial application of basalt-plastic reinforcement in the production of precast concrete structures, for example, for road construction. To do this, it is necessary to create a regulatory framework based on the results of relevant research work.