SYNOPSISFlexural behavior of particle-filled fiber-reinforced polyester composite was investigated by varying the polymer and fiber contents. The polymer content was varied between 10% and 18% of the total weight of the polyester composite (PC) and the glass fiber content was varied up to 6% (by weight of PC) . The chopped glass fibers were 13 mm long. The fine aggregates were well graded, with particle size varying from 0.1 to 5 mm, and were mainly composed of quartz. The fine aggregates and glass fibers were also pretreated with a coupling agent ( y-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, T-MPS) to improve the mechanical and fracture properties of the polyester composites. In general, the addition of fibers increased the flexural strength, toughness, fracture properties, and failure strain (strain at peak stress), but the flexural modulus of polyester composites remained almost unchanged. The addition of 6% fiber content and silane treatment increased flexural strength of 18% PC by 95% to 41.6 MPa (6,040 psi). Crack resistance curves, based on the stress intensity factor (&curve), have been developed for the fiber-reinforced PC systems. A two-parameter relationship was used to predict the complete flexural stress-strain data. There is good agreement between the predicted and measured stress-strain relationships.
This study investigates the influence of aggregates, glass fibers and a coupling agent on the compressive and flexural (three‐point and four‐point bending) behavior of a polyester mortar. Particle size of fine aggregates (quartz and limestone) varied from 0.1 to 5 mm (0.004 to 0.2 inch) and the glass fiber content was varied up to 6% by weight of mortar. A silane was introduced into the polyester mortar by pretreating the aggregates and the glass fibers. The mechanical properties of mortar were studied at room temperature. The test results indicate that the selection of aggregate type, size and distribution is very important. Silane treated aggregate systems showed more than 66% increase in compressive strength and 35% increase in flexural strength when compared to the untreated systems. Addition of glass fibers enhances the strength and toughness of the polyester mortar, and silane treatment of glass fibers helps to further enhance these properties. Flexural (three‐point bending)‐to‐compressive strength ratio varied from 0.28 to 0.35 for unreinforced system and from 0.26 to 0.54 for the reinforced system. The mortar with only 14% polyester and 86% aggregates (by weight) and a coupling agent had a compressive strength of 103 MPa (15,000 psi) which is 94% of the polyester polymer strength. A stress‐strain relationship is proposed to represent the complete stress‐strain response under compression and flexural loading. Also, a method is proposed to quantify the failure patterns.
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