Journal
MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES
Volume 48, Issue 4, Pages 1149-1161Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1617/s11527-013-0221-3
Keywords
Fiber reinforced cementitious materials; Workability; Mechanical properties; Polypropylene fiber; Critical fiber factor; Optimum fiber factor
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Funding
- Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Qazvin, Iran
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This paper discusses a study on the optimization of mechanical properties of polypropylene fiber reinforced cementitious material (FRCM) through workability control of fresh properties. To this aim, a simple model is proposed herein describing the contact network between fibers inside FRCMs. The suspension was regarded as a two-phase composite in which fibers were suspended in a viscous cement paste. The theoretical framework presented in this paper and confirmed by experiments shows that there is a critical fiber factor above which the workability properties of fibers are mainly affected by the interactions of fibers in suspension. Moreover, there is a dense fiber factor above which the fibers tend to clump and both workability and mechanical properties of fibers significantly degrade. The obtained results show that adequate workability and a properly adjusted fiber factor are keys to obtain proper flexural and tensile strength. The findings in this paper can provide a rational foundation for mix design of FRCM by adjusting the fiber factor as an effective tool to control the workability of FRCM and practically achieve optimal hardened properties.
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