Cracking behavior of concrete with shrinkage reducing admixtures and PVA fibers

The reduction of the risk of cracking has been evaluated by the reduction of drying shrinkage due to the addition of shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRA) and by the increase of the crack opening resistance due to the addition of fibers. Both technologies have been considered individually and used in combination. It has been noted that the addition of SRA delays the time of cracking and the addition of fiber reduces the crack opening. However, the addition of the shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA) to the fiber-reinforced concrete has led the concrete to a better cracking behavior even when the fiber dosage had been reduced. Finally, the cracking time has been predicted by applying two different theoretical approaches.     

Development of early age shrinkage stresses in reinforced concrete bridge decks

This paper describes the instrumentation and data analysis of a reinforced concrete bridge deck constructed on 3-span continuous steel girders in Evansville, West Virginia. An instrumentation system consisting of 232 sensors is developed and implemented specifically to measure strains and temperature in concrete deck, strains in longitudinal and transverse rebars, the overall contraction and expansion of concrete deck, and crack openings. Data from all sensors are automatically collected every 30 minutes starting at the time of placing the concrete deck. Measured strain and temperature time-histories were used to calculate the stresses, which were processed to attenuate the thermal effects due to daily temperature changes and isolate the drying shrinkage component. The results indicated that most of concrete shrinkage occurs during the first three days. Under the constraining effects from stay-in-place forms and reinforcement, early age shrinkage leads to elevated longitudinal stress, which is the main factor responsible for crack initiation.     

Effect of polypropylene fibers on shrinkage and cracking of concretes

The effects of admixed polypropylene (PP) fibers on the drying shrinkage of hardened concrete are presented in this paper. Concrete mixtures made with Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and OPC/Slag blended cements containing various volume fractions of PP fiber were tested. The results show small but consistently higher drying shrinkages in concretes incorporating PP fibers than that without fiber. The effect is more pronounced in slag concretes and in concretes cured for only 1 day. An attempt to explain this phenomenon was made by water loss, nitrogen adsorption, sorptivity and scanning electron microscopy tests on the same concretes. Additional moisture loss and porosity are proposed as possible reasons. The results of early-age restrained shrinkage tests on slag concretes show that PP fiber concrete had higher cracking tendency than the concrete without fiber. This was found to be due to higher shrinkage and elastic modulus of PP fiber concrete.     

Mechanism of early age shrinkage of concretes

Moist curing improves the properties of concrete. However, shrinkages at early ages are found to increase with increased curing. The reason for this phenomenon is studied with four binders and two types of curing. The binders are comprised of Portland cement/slag blends with 0, 35, 50 and 65% of slag. Initial moist curing times of 1 and 7 days were studied. The samples were then exposed to standard drying conditions (23°C and 50% RH). During drying, the moisture losses in 7-day cured concretes were about 50% less than in 1-day cured concretes; however, the early age shrinkages were significantly higher in 7-day cured concrete. Pore size distribution tests and analyses showed that the pore radius where meniscus forms during drying is smaller in 7-day cured concrete due to finer pores, as compared to 1-day cured concrete. Further, good correlation can be seen between the meniscus radius and shrinkage, regardless of the binder and curing types. This provides the explanation for the increased early age shrinkage with increased curing. Further, this study demonstrates that the capillary tensile force is the governing mechanism for early age shrinkage. The work presented in this paper was carried out when Tarek Aly was a research student at the Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University.     

Testing system for determining the mechanical behaviour of early age concrete under restrained and free uniaxial shrinkage

A modified uniaxial restrained shrinkage test was developed, characterized by complete automation and high accuracy of measurements. The system developed was such that tensile stresses remained constant throughout the cross-section, excluding any premature failure of specimen. This testing arrangement enables separation of creep strain from shrinkage by means of simultaneous testing of twin specimens, one under restrained shrinkage, and the other under free shrinkage. A variety of mechanical characteristics of the concrete (individual components of strain, shrinkage stresses, moduli of elasticity, creep coefficient and tensile strength) may be determined in one test. Results using this testing arrangement are presented for concrete cured in sealed conditions for 1 day and then exposed to drying at 30° C/40% RH.

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Resume On a mis au point un essai de retrait empêché uniaxial modifié caractérisé par une totale automatisation et une grande précision de mesures. Le système mis au point était tel que les contraintes de traction restent constantes tout le long de la section transversale, excluant toute rupture prématurée de l'éprouvette. Ce genre d'essai permet de distinguer la déformation de fluage du retrait au moyen d'essais simultanés de deux éprouvettes jumelles, l'une sous retrait empêché, l'autre sous retrait libre. Un certain nombre de caractéristiques mécaniques du béton (composants individuels de déformation, contraintes de retrait, modules d'élasticité, coefficient de fluage et résistance en traction) peuvent être déterminées en un seul essai. Les résultats obtenus avec cette technique portent sur un béton conservé dans des conditions d'étanchéité pendant un jour et exposé ensuite au séchage à 30° C/40%RH.

     

Effect of different geometric polypropylene fibers on plastic shrinkage cracking of cement mortars

Three kinds of different geometric (cross-section) polypropylene fibers were used to investigate their effects on plastic shrinkage cracking of cement mortars. The test results showed that polypropylene fiber made in drawingwire technique with circular cross-section (abbreviated as DW-PP fiber) had a more pronounced effect on the resistance to plasticshrinkage cracking than the polypropylene fiber made in a fibrillated film technique with rectangular cross-section (abbreviated as FF-PP fiber). Polypropylene fiber with Y-shape cross-section had a little more effective than that of DW-PP fiber. For the three kinds of polypropylene fibers, the plastic shrinkage cracking resistance for cement mortar increased with fiber addition changing from 0.05% to 0.15%. It was observed that there was almost no plastic shrinkage cracking even when the volume fraction of DW-PP fiber was as low as 0.10%. The mechanism of the resistance effect of different geometric polypropylene fibers on the plastic shrinkage cracking of cement mortars is discussed.

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Résumé Cet article présente l'influence des fibres de polypropylène aux différentes formes géometriques sur la fissuration sous retrait plastique du mortier de ciment. Les résultats expérimentaux indiquent que la largeur de fissure et la valeur pondérée de fissuration globale des mortiers de ciment diminuent clairement lorsque l'on incorpore un certain volume de fibres de polypropylène. Dans la résistance à la fissuration sous retrait plastique du mortier, la fibre fabriquée par le tirage de fil est plus forte que celle des fibres fibrillées, mais elle est un peu moins forte que la fibre en forme d'Y. En fonction du volume de fibres, la résistance à la fissuration sous retrait plastique des mortiers fibrés en volume de 0,05% à 0,15% augmente. La fissuration du mortier incorporé en volume de 0,10% de fibres, fabriquées par le tirage de fil, a disparu en substance. L'article présente enfin la recherche sur le mécanisme permettant d'atténuer la fissuration des mortiers par la fibre de polypropylène en différentes formes.

     

碳纤维混杂纤维混凝土抗冲击性能研究

对比美国混凝土学会的混凝土落锤冲击试验装置,自行设计了混凝土落锤弯曲冲击试验装置,进行了不同几何尺寸及弹性模量的碳纤维、钢纤维和聚丙烯纤维混凝土的抗冲击力学性能试验研究。分析比较了不同纤维几何尺寸和弹性模量、种类和掺量对混杂纤维混凝土抗冲击性能的影响和增强机理。本文通过定义混杂效应系数,可定量评价混凝土抗冲击力学性能的正混杂效应。研究表明纤维可以明显提高混凝土的抗冲击强度,其中碳纤维混杂纤维混凝土的提高幅度更为显著。     

Effect of the water saturation of aggregates on the shrinkage induced cracking risk of concrete at early age

This work consists in studying the effect of the water saturation of aggregates on the development of shrinkage and the potential cracking risk of early age ordinary concrete. Different concretes were obtained from a given concrete mixture by changing only the initial degree of saturation of limestone aggregates. Three degrees of saturation were studied, namely: 0% (dry aggregates), 50% (partially saturated aggregates) and 100% (saturated aggregates). From the experimental results, the early age behaviour and the mechanical properties of the concrete strongly depend on the water saturation of aggregates. A relative cracking risk was estimated from a stress-based approach and experimentally assessed parameters. The potential risk of cracking of these different concretes was shown to be different. Even if the total water content is kept constant, the water remaining in the cement paste actually depends on the initial water saturation of aggregates. The early age behaviour of concrete and the development of its early age properties depend on the amount of added water during the mixing.     

Application of high performance polypropylene fibers in concrete lining of water tunnels

In this study, the application of high performance polypropylene fibers (HPP fibers) in concrete lining of water tunnels, was investigated experimentally. A comparison between the behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete and HPP fiber reinforced concrete with ordinary concrete is drawn. Advantages and shortcomings of HPP fibers used for concrete lining of water tunnels are also presented.The obtained results showed that the HPP fibers were not effective in compressive strength when compared to steel fibers, but the effects of HPP fibers on tensile strength, flexural strength, toughness and energy absorption of concrete were significant. Based on the results, the effects of HPP fibers on concrete characteristics such as the flexural toughness, concrete permeability and resistance to chloride penetration were higher than those of steel fibers. The results also showed that with application of HPP fibers, durability and serviceability of the concrete linings can be improved.     

减缩剂对机制砂混凝土干燥收缩的影响

为降低机制砂混凝土的开裂敏感性,提高其应用技术水平,通过测试机制砂混凝土的干燥收缩值,并结合相应砂浆保水性和扫描电镜(SEM)微观形貌分析,研究了不同使用方式的减缩剂对石粉(SD)含量不同的机制砂混凝土干燥收缩的影响。结果表明,对于减缩剂使用方式不同的相同混凝土试件,内掺(SRA-M)和外涂(SRA-C)都降低了试件的干燥收缩,但对于不同的试件其降低幅度不同;对于减缩剂使用方式相同的不同混凝土试件,SRA-M更有利于降低石粉含量为5%的机制砂混凝土试件(5-SD)干燥收缩,而降低石粉含量为10%的机制砂混凝土试件(10-SD)干燥收缩更有效的减缩剂使用方式是SRA-C;减缩剂通过阻滞试件内部自由水分迁移渗出,提高其保水性,从而降低干燥收缩值。     

Reduction of fire spalling in high-performance concrete by means of superabsorbent polymers and polypropylene fibers: Small scale fire tests of carbon fiber reinforced plastic-prestressed self-compacting concrete

High-performance concrete (HPC) is prone to explosive spalling when exposed to fire, which may lead to failure of the concrete elements. Polypropylene fibers (PP) are often added to HPC, as upon their melting they create channels through which water vapor is evacuated, preventing the build-up of high vapor pressures. In self-compacting HPC (HPSCC), the amount of PP fibers needs to be limited in order to keep the self-compacting properties, which may reduce the fire resistance.In this paper, a novel strategy to reduce fire spalling in HPSCC is illustrated, based on adding small particles of superabsorbent polymers (SAP) during mixing. The SAP end up as empty macropores, similar to air voids, in the HPSCC matrix. The PP fibers-SAP voids system percolates at a lower fiber loading than the fibers alone, allowing maintenance of the self-compacting properties while reducing substantially the fire spalling. In particular, in this paper it is shown how addition of SAP is able to reduce fire spalling in thin-walled HPSCC slabs prestressed with carbon fibre reinforced plastic reinforcement.     

Use of biochar-coated polypropylene fibers for carbon sequestration and physical improvement of mortar

Biochar is widely recognized as an effective material for sequestration of carbon dioxide. The possibility of using it as a coating material on polypropylene fibers to improve mechanical properties and permeability mortar is explored in this study. Effectiveness of two types of biochar – fresh biochar and biochar saturated with carbon dioxide prior to application as coating – on compressive and flexural strength, post-cracking behavior and permeability of mortar is studied. The biochar used was derived from mixed wood saw dust by pyrolysis at 300 °C. Experimental results show that application of fresh biochar coating offer significant improvement in compressive strength and flexural strength of mortar. Residual strength and post-cracking ductility of mortar with biochar coated fibers is found to be higher than control samples, although fresh biochar coating offers the best performance. Mortar with polypropylene fibers coated with fresh biochar shows higher impermeability, compared to reference samples and mortar with saturated biochar coated fibers. The findings suggest that biochar coating could be a potential solution to improve properties of fiber reinforced cementitious composites that also promotes waste recycling and carbon sequestration.     

Transient strain of high strength concrete at elevated temperatures and the impact of polypropylene fibers

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the transient strain of high strength concrete (HSC) under heating up to 750°C and the impact of polypropylene (PP) fibers. Concerning this topic only few results are available in the literature and systematic investigations are missing. However, basic knowledge is necessary for the understanding of the internal damage processes in the material as well as for heated structures. The transient strain during heating can be separated in two basic components: the free thermal strain and the mechanical strain. They were experimentally determined exemplarily for one HSC. For the determination of the mechanisms of transient strain and particularly the influence of PP fibers different techniques were applied. In this context the monitoring of the microcracking was done for the first time with acoustic emission analysis in combination with ultrasonic measurements. This new approach helps fundamentally to explain the impact of PP fibers on free thermal strain and mechanical strain during heating up. Furthermore weight loss measurements were carried out to characterize the moisture transport. It was shown that the PP fibers cause an acceleration of the moisture transport in the temperature range from 200 to 250°C which leads to drying shrinkage in opposite direction to the free thermal strain. Hence this paper is a contribution to the general understanding of the impact of PP fibers in HSC at high temperatures and emphasizes the important influence of PP fibers on the thermal and mechanical induced strain of HSC.     

Creep and drying shrinkage characteristics of concrete produced with coarse recycled concrete aggregate

Laboratory tests are performed to investigate the effects of a new method of mixture proportioning on the creep and shrinkage characteristics of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). In this method, RCA is treated as a two component composite material consisting of residual mortar and natural aggregate; accordingly, when proportioning the concrete mixture, the relative amount and properties of each component are individually considered. The test variables include the mixture proportioning method, and the aggregate type. The results show that the amounts of creep and shrinkage in concretes made with coarse RCA, and proportioned by the new method, are comparable to, or even lower than, those in similar concretes made entirely with natural aggregates. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that by applying the proposed “residual mortar factor” to the existing ACI and CEB methods for calculating creep or shrinkage of conventional concrete, these methods could be also applied to predict the creep and shrinkage of RCA-concrete.     

Strength and shrinkage behaviors of roller-compacted concrete with rubber additives

The strength and shrinkage behaviors of roller-compacted concrete (RCR) with used tire-rubber additive were experimentally investigated by keeping the compressive strengths of all specimens at the level of 40 MPa. Four rubber contents were used: 50, 80, 100, and 120 kg/m³. Test results show that the rubber particles homogeneously distributed in RCR, rubber particle emersion was not observed during vibrating for compaction. The workability of RCR was slightly influenced by replacing portion of sand with the same volume of tire rubber particles. RCR specimen exhibited a ductile failure under compression. In comparison with the control concrete, when the compressive strength was kept constant for RCR, the tensile strength, flexural strength, and ultimate tension elongation increased with the increase of rubber content. The incorporation of tire rubber did not help in reducing the drying shrinkage, on the contrary, a little more drying shrinkage developed in RCR than that in the control concrete.     

Effect of shrinkage reducing agent on pullout resistance of high-strength steel fibers embedded in ultra-high-performance concrete

The interfacial bond strength of long high-strength steel fibers embedded in ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) reinforced with short steel microfibers was investigated by conducting single-fiber pullout tests. In particular, the influence of the addition of a shrinkage-reducing to a UHPC matrix on the pullout resistance of high-strength steel fibers was investigated. The addition of a shrinkage-reducing agent produced a noticeable reduction in the fiber pullout resistance owing to the lower matrix shrinkage, although the reduction of pullout resistance differed according to the type of fiber. Long smooth and twisted steel fibers were highly sensitive to the addition of the shrinkage-reducing agent whereas hooked fibers were not. Among the various high-strength steel fibers tested, twisted steel macrofibers showed the highest interfacial bond resistance, although twisted fibers embedded in UHPC showed slip softening pullout behavior rather than the typical slip hardening behavior observed in mortar.     

Influence of heat treatment conditions on the structure of hollow carbon fibers prepared from solid PVA fibers using iodine pretreatment

The influence of heating conditions on the structure of hollow carbon fibers (H-CFs) during their fabrication from solid poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fibers is reported. The hollow structure of PVA-derived carbon was formed by selective iodination and subsequent stabilization of precursor PVA fiber close to the fiber surface followed by carbonization. The broadening of X-ray diffraction peaks due to disorder and the small size effects of the (002) plane were strongly reduced by increasing the heat treatment temperature (HTT) from 800 to 3000 °C, but the asymmetric shape of (10) and (110) reflections suggests turbostratic layer stacking. The increase of HTT to 3000 °C increased the degree of graphitization evident from the decrease of interplanar spacing from 0.360 to 0.338 nm and the intensity ratio of D to G bands in Raman spectra from 0.93 to 0.58. The crystallite size, orientation and electrical conductivity of the resultant H-CFs were also improved with higher HTT. Besides, the size of the hollow core was also influenced by the HTT and both wall thickness and carbon yield decreased with higher HTT. The core of the H-CFs could be easily filled with polymer by bulk polymerization of monomer.     

Interply hybrid composites with carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene and self-reinforced polypropylene

The focus of the present study is on hybrid composites with interplied carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene (CFRPP) between self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP) layers. SRPP is produced by hot compaction of a woven fabric of highly oriented polypropylene and has an intrinsic behavior of shrinkage under high temperatures. The aim of this research is to enhance the tensile properties of the CFRPP/SRPP hybrid composites by using the SRPP shrinkage to introduce a compressive pre-strain in CFRPP. The results from tensile testing show that the failure strain of the hybrid composites is improved in comparison with CFRPP. The modulus and strength are noted to be lower than the ones expected from the rule of mixture. This may be attributed to the introduction of local misalignment (waviness) of carbon fibers caused by the SRPP shrinkage during consolidation.     

Flow induced orientated morphology and properties of nanocomposites of polypropylene/vapor grown carbon fibers

Nanocomposite filaments composed of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and vapor grown carbon fibers (VGCF) were prepared by melt mixing extrusion, followed by melt drawing. The effect of composition and flow on the morphology was investigated by X-ray diffraction and high resolution scanning electron microscopy. Apparently in the drawn filaments, the presence of nanofibers resulted in a higher degree of orientated morphology and - as revealed by differential scanning calorimetry - higher degrees of crystallinity and crystallization kinetics enhancement. The amount of the orientated crystals increased as a result of VGCF addition, suggesting that the nanofibers obstructed the motion of polymer chains after the cessation of stretching force resulting in the delayed relaxation of stretched polymer segments. Significant stiffness improvements were observed due to the nanofibers and high draw ratios of the filaments. These results indicate that the orientated VGCF aligned in the flow direction, joined by fiber-induced crystallization of the surrounding iPP matrix, generate a strong stiffening effect.