Mechanical properties of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer-impregnated cement composites

✍ Scribed by Seung Bum Park; Burtrand I. Lee

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 852 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0958-9465
• DOI: 10.1016/0958-9465(93)90004-s

✦ Synopsis

1 Introduction

A Portland cement was reinforced by incorporating carbon fibers (CF), silica powder, and impregnating the pores with styrene monomers which were polymerized in situ. The effects of type, length, and volume loading of CF, mixing conditions, curing time, and curing conditions on mechanical behavior as well as freeze-thaw resistance and longerterm stability of the carbon-fiber-reinforced cement composites (CFRC) were investigated. The composite paste exhibited a decrease in flow values linearly as the CF volume loading increased. Tensile, compressive, and flexural strengths all generally increased as the CF loadings in the composite increased. Compressive strength decreased at CF loadings above approx. 3% in CFRC having no impregnated polymers due to the increase in porosity caused by the fibers. However, the polymer impregnation of CFRC improved all the strength values as compared with CFRC having no polymer impregnation. Tensile stress-strain curves showed that polymer impregnation decreased the fracture energy of CFRC. Polymer impregnation clearly showed improvements in freeze-thaw resistance, creep resistance, and drying shrinkage when compared with CFRC having no impregnated polymers.