Formulation of an Alternate Light Weight Concrete Mix for Concrete Filled Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum (GFRG) Panels

Glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels are new building materials made essentially of gypsum plaster reinforced with glass fibers. GFRG panels can be unfilled when used as partition walls, but when used as external walls, it is filled with M20 grade concrete (reinforced concrete filling) in order to resist the lateral loads. M20 grade is adopted in order to satisfy the durability requirements stipulated in the code IS 4562000 rather than for strength. In the present scenario, the experiment was conducted in two stages In the first stage, a study was conducted on normal concrete by replacing cement with phosphogypsum and fine aggregates with EPS beads, to formulate a trial mix with optimum percentage which can be used as an alternative to M20 grade concrete (and is lighter than the same). In the second stage, the trial mix developed in first stage is used for a comparative study between GFRG filled with M20 grade concrete and with the alternative trial mixes. The results of the first stage are presented in this paper.