Flexural Behaviour of Cementitious Mortars with the Addition of Basalt Fibres

Abstract

The results of flexural tests of basalt fibre-reinforced cementitious mortars in terms of flexural strength and the occurrence of the bridging effect are summarised. Mixture proportions and curing conditions were altered for various series. The main parameters concerning mixture proportions were water to cement ratio (w/c), micro-silica and plasticiser addition and fibre dosage (1%, 3% and 6.2% by binder’s mass). Various curing conditions were defined by different temperatures, humidity and time. The influence of the amount of water inside the pores of the hardened cementitious matrix on the flexural strength values, as far as the impact of the alkaline environment on basalt fibres’ performance is concerned, was underlined. The designation of flexural strength and the analysis of post-critical deformations were also performed on the reference series without fibres and with the addition of more common polypropylene fibres. The bridging effect was observed only for the basalt fibre-reinforced mortar specimens with a relatively low amount of cement and high w/c ratio, especially after a short time of hardening. For the lowest value of w/c ratio (equalling 0.5), the bridging effect did not occur, but flexural strength was higher than in the case of non-reinforced specimens. Comparing mortars with the addition of basalt and polypropylene fibres, the former demonstrated higher values of flexural strength (assuming the same percentage dosage by the mass of the binder). Nevertheless, the bridging effect in that case was obtained only for polypropylene fibres.

Investigation of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Cement Mortar Incorporating Waste Cotton Fibres

“…These density results indicate that the presence of cotton fibres produces additional pores in the microstructure, causing a reduction in density. This aligns with the results in a previous study [37].…”

“…These density results indicate that the presence of cotton fibres produces additional pores in the microstructure, causing a reduction in density. This aligns with the results in a previous study [37]. When we analysed the influence of the length of the cotton fibres on the density of the mortar mixes, as shown in Figure 5, we observed a slight difference among the densities of the mortar samples.…”

Changes in the Strength Properties and Phase Transition of Gypsum Modified with Microspheres, Aerogel and HEMC Polymer

“…Serna Jara et al [45] proved in their research that the addition of graphene to gypsum slurry increased its resistance to mechanical forces by almost 13% when compared to the reference sample. A similar effect of strengthening a building material was noted for cement mortars modified with basalt fibers [46].…”

Effect of sand types and mixing procedures on the flexural behaviour of the high ductile mortar in monotonic and cyclic loadings

“…The flexural stress-deflection curves of specimens were transformed into the flexural stress-strain curve. The flexural strain ( ) was calculated from the deflection value using the following equation [ 61 ]. here, is the deflection value in mm.…”