• Computers and Concrete
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.347-360
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• 2022

Fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) have emerged as a response to the calls for strong, ductile and sustainable concrete mixes. FRCC has shown outstanding mechanical properties and ductility where special fibres are used in the mixes to give it the strength and the ability to exhibit strain hardening. With the possibility of designing the FRCC mixes to include sustainable constituents and by-products materials such as fly ash, FRCC started to emerge as a green alternative as well. To be able to design mixes that achieve these conflicting properties in concrete, there is a need to understand the composition effect on FRCC and optimize these compositions. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the influence of FRCC compositions on the properties of fresh and hardened of FRCC and then to optimize these mix compositions using factorial design approach. Three factors, water-to-binder ratio (w/b), mineral admixtures (total of fly ash and metakaolin by cement content (MAR)), and metakaolin content (MK), were investigated to determine their effects on the properties of fresh and hardened FRCC. The results show the importance of combining both FA and MK in obtaining a satisfactory fresh and mechanical properties of FRCC. Models were suggested to elucidate the role of the studied factors and a method for optimization was proposed.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.457-464
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• 2009

Fiber is an important ingredient in fiber-reinforced cement composite (FRCC) which can control fracture of cement composite by bridging action. In compliance with the action of the fiber and the aggregate size, it also showed a different failure mechanism. For practical application, it is needed to investigate the fracture behavior of the FRCC and to understand the micro-mechanism of cement matrix with reinforcing fiber. In order to evaluate a characteristics of fracture process in the FRCC, acoustic emission (AE) technique was used for the analysis and evaluation of FRCC damage by acoustic emission under flexural and cyclic compressive loadings. The AE signals were monitored by AMSY4 AE instrument during the entire loading period. The specimens are reinforced with 0, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% (by volume) Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber. The test results showed that the damage progress of the FRCC was characteristic for the fiber replacement ratio. As a result of analyzing the felicity ratio (FR) values, it is shown that this values can be used for evaluating the degree of FRCC damage. On the whole the felicity ratio values of FRCC are shown between 0.4 and 1.1. And, the AE kaiser effect was shown in the all FRCC specimen. In addition, the damage behavior and the microscopic fracture process of the FRCC are evaluated using the AE parameters, such as calm ratio, b-value and felicity ratio. The purpose of this reserch was to advance the state of knowledge regarding the applicability of acoustic emission as an evaluation method for FRCC.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.379-387
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• 2017

The objective of this study is to develop sustainable PVA fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCCs) that could exhibit comparable strength level to normal PVA FRCCs with no recycled materials. To evaluate mechanical properties of the FRCCs, compressive, flexural and direct tensile tests were conducted. In addition to the test, to calculate amount of carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) emission at the stage of manufacturing the FRCCs, life cycle inventory data base (LCI DB) were referenced from domestic and Japan. From the test results, the mechanical properties such as compressive, flexural and direct tensile strengths were decreased as the replacement ratio of recycled materials increased. And it was determined that the amount of $CO_2$ emission was reduced for the specimens with higher water-binder ratio (W/B) and replacement ratios. It was also found that binder intensity ($B_i$) value was higher as replacement ratio of fly ash (FA) increased. This result means that larger amount of FA is need to deliver one unit of a given performance indicator (1 MPa of strength) of FRCCs compared to that of ordinary portland cement (OPC). As a result, it could be concluded that FRCCs with W/B 45% replaced by FA 25% and recycled sand (RS) 25% is desirable for both target performance and $CO_2$ emission.

• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.50-57
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• 2010

It is important to detect fibers in the sectional image of fiber reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC), since the fiber distribution is a crucial factor to predict or evaluate the mechanical performance of FRCC. In this paper, we investigated the fluorescence characteristics of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibers, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) fibers, Polyethylene (PE) fibers, and Polypropylene (PP) fibers used in Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC), which is a special kind of FRCC that incorporates synthetic fibers and exhibits extremely ductile behavior in uniaxial tension, to detect each fiber according to its type. Furthermore, optimum excitation and emission wavelengths were proposed on the basis of maximum difference of Relative Fluorescence Intensity (RFI) between two types of fibers used in the hybrid ECC. Optimum threshold values to discriminate two types of fibers using statistical tools were also proposed. Finally, images of four types of fibers obtained using a fluorescence microscope are compared.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.449-459
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• 2017

Fresh and hardened behaviors of a new hybrid fiber (steel fiber, polyvinyl alcohol fiber and calcium carbonate whisker) reinforced cementitious composites (HyFRCC) with admixtures (fly ash, silica fume and water reducer) have been studied. Within the limitations of the equipment and testing program, it is illustrated that the rheological properties of the new HyFRCC conform to the modified Bingham model. The relations between flow spread and yield stress as well as flow rate and plastic viscosity both conform well with negative exponent correlation, justifying that slump flow and flow rate test can be applied to replace the other two as simple rheology measurement and control method in jobsite. In addition, for the new HyFRCC with fly ash and water reducer, the mathematical model between the rheological and mechanical properties conform well with the quadratic function, and these quadratic function curves are always concave upward. Based on mathematical analysis, an optimal range of rheology/ flowability can be identified to achieve ideal mechanical properties. In addition, this optimization method can be extended to PVA fiber reinforced cement-based composites.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2013

In this study, the resistance of various reinforced concrete (RC) slabs subjected to contact detonation was assessed. In order to enhance the blast resistance, fibers and external FRP sheets were reinforced to RC slabs. In the experiment, the $2,000{\times}1,000{\times}100mm$ sized RC slabs were fabricated using normal concrete (NC), steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC), polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced cementitious composite (PVA FRCC), and ultra-high performance cementitious composites (UHPCC). The damage levels of RC slabs subjected to contact detonation were evaluated by measuring the diameter and depth of crater, spall and breach. The experimental results were compared to the analyzed data using LS-DYNA program and three different prediction equations. The diameter and depth of crater, spall and breach were able to be predicted using LS-DYNA program approximately. The damage process of RC slabs under blast load was also well expressed. Three prediction equations suggested by other researchers had limitations to apply in terms of empirical approaches, therefore it needs further research to set more analytical considerations.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2017

As the amount of construction wastes increase, reuse of recycled materials is being considered in research areas. While there are many experimental investigations focusing on development of mortar and concrete using the recycled materials, the studies regarding the fiber-reinforced cement composites (FRCCs) using recycled materials are still limited. In this paper, an experimental attempt has been made to investigate the effect of recycled fine aggregates and fly ash on the mechanical properties of PVA FRCCs. The cement and natural sand were respectively replaced by fly ash and recycled fine aggregates at two content levels, 25% and 50%. Ten types of PVA FRCCs mixes were fabricated and tested to investigate the flexural, compressive and direct tensile behaviors. The test results show that flexural, compressive and direct tensile strength were decreased with increase in fly ash content at all ages. In particular, flexural, compressive and direct tensile strengths of specimens, containing 50% recycled fine aggregates and 50% fly ash, showed the lowest values. The modulus of elasticity of specimens showed similar trend to the 28-day compressive strength. Poisson's ratio was increased with increase in fly ash and recycled fine aggregates content.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.2 s.86
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• pp.263-271
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• 2005

HPFRCC(High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composite) is a class of FRCCs(Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites) that exhibit multiple cracking. Multiple cracking leads to improvement in properties such as ductility, toughness, fracture energy, strain hardening, strain capacity, and deformation capacity under tension, compression, and bending. These improved properties of HPFRCCs have triggered unique and versatile structural applications, including damage reduction, damage tolerance, energy absorption, crack distribution, deformation compatibility, and delamination resistance. These mechanical properties of HPFRCCs become different from the kinds and shapes of used fiber, and it is known that the effective size of fiber in macro crack is different from that in micro crack. This paper reports an experimental findings on the mechanical properties of HPFRCCs reinforced with the micro fiber(PP50, PVA100 and PVA200) and macro fiber(PVA660, SF500). Uniaxial compressive tests and three point bending tests are carried out in order to compare with the mechanical properties of HPFRCCs reinforced with micro fibers or hybrid fibers such as compressive strength, ultimate bending stress, toughness, deformation capacity and crack pattern under bending, etc.,

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.72 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2019

The mechanical behavior of Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (FRCC) under direct shear is studied through experiment and analytical simulation. The cementitious composite considered contains 55% replacement of cement with fly ash and 2% (volume ratio) of short discontinuous synthetic fibers (in the form of mass reinforcement, comprising PVA - Polyvinyl Alcohol fibers). This class of cementitious materials exhibits ductility under tension with the formation of multiple fine cracks and significant delay of crack stabilization (i.e., localization of cracking at a single location). One of the behavioral parameters that concern structural design is the shear strength of this new type of fiber reinforced composites. This aspect was studied in the present work with the use of Push-off tests. The shear strength is then compared to the materials' tensile and splitting strength values.