Micromechanical study on polypropylene-bicomponent fibers to improve mechanical interlocking for application in strain-hardening cement-based composites
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Polyproplylene (PP) fibers find application in strain-hardening cement-based composite to enable the formation of multiple fine cracks for high energy absorption. Often, however, the mechanical performance of such composites suffers from insufficient fiber-matrix interaction. In the research at hand, bicomponent PP single fibers with rough surfaces for improved mechanical interlocking are produced using an IPF (Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e. V.), an in-house designed and built, laboratory-scale piston fiber spinning device. The melt-spun fibers consist of a shell component composed of PP and various volume percentages of different inorganic particles of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and of a core component made of the same polymer as in the shell. The bicomponent fibers, with shell diameters between 20 and 45 μm, were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to understand their morphology and to study the fiber surfaces after composite failure. Tensile strength and Young's modulus of the fibers were evaluated using tension tests. Furthermore, the single fiber pullout (SFPO) test was used to investigate the interfacial interaction between fiber and a cement-based matrix. Significant improvements in fiber-matrix bonding were achieved due to the rough surface employed in connection with the particles incorporated in the outer shell. Still further, the fiber's strength, attained using an offline step in the drawing process, contributes to enhanced energy adsorption under dynamic pullout loading. To evaluate the performance of the newly developed bicomponent fibers, they were compared to a self-spun monocomponent PP fiber and a commercial PP fiber. This comparison revealed slip-hardening induced by increasing surface roughness for enhanced mechanical interlocking and plastic polymer deformation in the fiber-matrix contact zone.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 105181 |
Journal | Cement and Concrete Composites |
Volume | 142 |
Publication status | Published - 26 Jul 2023 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
Scopus | 85165949276 |
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WOS | 001047431300001 |
Mendeley | 26e68b06-6f3d-39a2-afeb-852c625dc85b |
Keywords
Research priority areas of TU Dresden
DFG Classification of Subject Areas according to Review Boards
Subject groups, research areas, subject areas according to Destatis
Sustainable Development Goals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Bicomponent fibers, Cement-based composites, Crack bridging, Dynamic loading rate, Melt-spinning, Polypropylene fibers, Single fiber pullout test, Strain-hardening