Bonding and toughness properties of PVA fibre reinforced aqueous epoxy resin cement repair mortar

Orthogonal experiment with three elements (one of three levels) was employed to optimise the experimental parameters for the repair performances of PVA fibre reinforced aqueous epoxy resin cement mortar (PVA-FPCM) by the analysis of means and variances. The experimental parameters were selected as polymer-cement ratio (P/C), water-cement ratio (W/C), and PVA fibre loading (w(PVA)) in this paper. Results indicate that, w(PVA) has the greatest influence on the fracture toughness (flexural/compressive strength ratio f(b)/f(c)), the bond strength (f(AT)), and the impact toughness (the number of repeated impact to the initial crack n(1), to the final crack n(f)). The optimal combination of the process parameters for a high-performance repair mortar through further confirmatory experimental is P/C at 0.20, W/C at 0.35, and w(PVA) at 1%. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.