Tailoring of fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) for flexural strength and reliability

Bending is the most common form of loading for many construction elements. The bending strength or Modulus of Rupture (MOR) and flexural ductility are therefore critical properties particularly for those elements which are not reinforced by rebars. Such elements include highway barriers, certain wall panels, thin sheet elements and small diameter pipes. The tensile and bending strengths of concrete are very low. In addition, as a brittle material, concrete also demonstrates a large variability in bending strength. A large variability in MOR leads to inefficient use of the material since the design strength has to be close to the lower bound of the material's strength distribution. The potential of fiber in improving MOR is well recognized in fiber reinforced concrete. The use of fiber to enhance material reliability is much less studied. This thesis addresses both aspects employing a combination of theoretical and experimental treatments. Research findings are reported as Part I and Part II of this thesis.; Carbon fibers are increasingly attractive for reinforcing cementitious composites. They can be manufactured to yield a wide range in modulus and strength. Carbon fibers are non-corrosive, and fire and alkali. In addition, the price of pitch based carbon fibers are dropping rapidly to make them economically viable for the building and construction industries. In Part I of the thesis, a study on the optimization of the bending strength of carbon FRCC using a fracture based flexural model that links the fiber, interface, and matrix micro-parameters to composite bending strength is presented. Carbon fiber, interface and matrix parameters were tailored to yield optimal properties such as high MOR and ductility. Four point bend tests were conducted on CFRCCs to confirm the findings. Some problems specially affecting carbon FRCCs such as fiber breakage during mixing were also studied and its effects on composite uniaxial tensile properties analyzed by developing new models.; In Part II of the thesis an investigation on the use of fibers for reduction of MOR variability of cementitious materials is reported. Specifically, the concept of lowering the sensitivity of MOR to flaw size based on fiber bridging is confirmed with experimental studies of flexural strength of mesh reinforced mortar beams. Variability of composite properties due to variability introduced by fiber itself was identified, and techniques in controlling such variability were introduced. In this connection, the influence of viscosity of the fresh mix on fiber dispersion uniformity was investigated.