Mechanical properties of polymer fibre reinforced concrete in the light of various standards

Abstract

The article presents the results of a detailed experimental campaign including a compressive strength test, three- and four-point bending test (3PBT and 4PBT, respectively) of polymer fiber reinforced concrete with the addition of metakaolin. The comprehensive analysis included three Types of concrete mixture differing in amount and used polymer fibers. It was concluded that polymer fibers did not influence the maximum compressive and flexural tensile strength of concrete. On the other hand, they had a beneficial effect on the ductility, residual and equivalent flexural tensile strengths, and fracture energy of samples. The mixtures of Type 1 and 2 were characterized by softening behaviour but the mixture of Type 3 by soft-hardening behaviour. In the 3PBT, the residual flexural tensile strengths obtained according to EN 14651 did not correspond clearly with equivalent flexural tensile strengths calculated in compliance with RILEM TC 162-TDF. It is noteworthy that the effectiveness and correctness of equations presented in other work of the authors referring to dependencies between deflection, crack and tip mouth opening displacements for the 3PBT were confirmed on samples with different composition and fibers. Based on the 4PBT, the equivalent flexural tensile strengths according to JCI-SF4 standard were calculated and the correlations with the results from 3PBT were defined.