Mechanical and Fracture Parameters of Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforcement Concrete Cured via Steam and Water: Optimization of Binder Content

Avan Ahmed Mala; Aryan Far H Sherwani; Khaleel H Younis; Rabar H Faraj; Amir Mosavi

doi:10.3390/ma14082016

Mechanical and Fracture Parameters of Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforcement Concrete Cured via Steam and Water: Optimization of Binder Content

Materials (Basel). 2021 Apr 16;14(8):2016. doi: 10.3390/ma14082016.

Authors

Avan Ahmed Mala¹, Aryan Far H Sherwani², Khaleel H Younis^{3

4}, Rabar H Faraj⁵, Amir Mosavi^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep 27400, Turkey.
² Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Soran University, Soran 44008, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
³ Road Construction Department, Erbil Technology College, Erbil Polytechnic University, Erbil 44001, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
⁴ Civil Engineering Department, Tishk International University, Erbil 44001, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
⁵ Civil Engineering Department, University of Halabja, Halabja 46006, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
⁶ Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technische Universität Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany.
⁷ Institute of Structural Mechanics, Bauhaus Universität-Weimar, 99423 Weimar, Germany.
⁸ John von Neumann Faculty of Informatics, Obuda University, 1034 Budapest, Hungary.

Abstract

An investigational study is conducted to examine the effects of different amounts of binders and curing methods on the mechanical behavior and ductility of Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concretes (UHPFRCs) that contain 2% of Micro Steel Fiber (MSF). The aim is to find an optimum binder content for the UHPFRC mixes. The same water-to-binder ratio (w/b) of 0.12 was used for both water curing (WC) and steam curing (SC). Based on the curing methods, two series of eight mixes of UHPFRCs containing different binder contents ranging from 850 to 1200 kg/m³ with an increment of 50 kg/m³ were produced. Mechanical properties such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, static elastic module, flexural tensile strength and the ductility behavior were investigated. This study revealed that the mixture of 1150 kg/m³ binder content exhibited the highest values of the experimental results such as a compressive strength greater than 190 MPa, a splitting tensile strength greater than 12.5 MPa, and a modulus of elasticity higher than 45 GPa. The results also show that all of the improvements began to slightly decrease at 1200 kg/m³ of the binder content. On the other hand, it was concluded that SC resulted in higher mechanical performance and ductility behavior than WC.

Keywords: binder content; fracture mechanics; fracture parameters; materials design; mechanical properties; micro steel fibers; silica fume; steam curing; ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC); water curing.