Static and dynamic mechanical properties of eco‐friendly polyvinyl alcohol fiber‐reinforced ultra‐high‐strength concrete

Abstract

An eco‐friendly polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber‐reinforced ultra‐high‐strength concrete (PFR‐UHSC) was designed and mixed to evaluate its static and dynamic mechanical properties in this study. A lower water‐to‐binder ratio of 0.22 and a superplasticizer were used to guarantee the performance of PFR‐UHSC, while several industrial by‐products were involved to reduce the negative environmental impact of concrete. Four volume fraction of PVA fibers (Vf = 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5%) were included in the experiment and steel fiber‐reinforced ultra‐high‐strength concrete (SFR‐UHSC) with Vf = 1.0% was also tested as a comparison. Experiment results show that although less ductile than SFR‐UHSC, PFR‐UHSC exhibits relatively good ductility, toughness, and deformability under static loadings. Namely, splitting tensile and flexural strengths as well as flexural toughness of PFR‐UHSC are significantly improved by the incorporation of PVA fibers while no obvious variation is viewed for Young's modulus. And even, the compressive strength of PFR‐UHSC decreases slightly with the increasing PVA fiber dosage. When subjected to dynamic loadings with lower strain rates, PFR‐UHSC displays a better performance than SFR‐UHSC in terms of failure patterns, while a reverse behavior is observed for high strain rate. Affected by introduction of PVA fiber, the enhancement of strain rate for compressive strength of PFR‐UHSC is lower than that for ordinary concrete but higher than that for SFR‐UHSC. Besides, although having a slightly lower compressive toughness, the energy absorption capacity of PFR‐UHSC is similar to that of SFR‐UHSC.

Influence of Fiber Addition on the Properties of High-Performance Concrete

“…An increase in the volume fraction of PP fiber in concrete leads to a decrease of the modulus of elasticity, which is due to the compressive strength of HPFRC. Similar results were obtained in a study on fiber reinforced concrete with a compressive strength up to 100 MPa [52].…”

Influence of different types of fiber on the properties of recycled aggregate concrete

“…Zhang et al examined the influence of PVA fibers and SFs on the static and dynamic mechanical properties of ultra‐high strength concrete (UHSC). Even though the PVA are less ductile than SFR, under static loading the ultra‐high strength fiber reinforced concrete with PVA fibers had shown relatively good ductility, toughness, and deformability.…”

Dynamic fracture toughness of ultra‐high‐performance fiber‐reinforced concrete under impact tensile loading

“…The superior performances at the static level have attracted the interest of many researchers to discover the impact resistance of UHPFRC. UHPFRCs have been reported to produce excellent impact resistance and strain rate sensitivity by maintaining strain hardening behavior at impact rates 5–10 . Consequently, UHPFRC is a promising material for impact resistance structure.…”