• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.133-152
• /
• 2022

Ecological issues such as natural resource reduction and enormous waste disposals are increasingly leading in developing civilization toward sustainable construction. The two primary environmental issues are the depletion of natural resources and the disposal of trash in open landfills. Waste steel fiber (WSF) was investigated for usage as a cement-based concrete (CBC) constituent in this research. Recycling waste fibers both makes cement composites more long and cost-effective, also aids in pollution reduction. The objective of this study is to analyze the impacts of waste fiber on the fresh and mechanical features of concrete using recycled additives. A comparative research on the durability and mechanical qualities of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) constructed with natural aggregates was conducted for this aim. The obstacles to successful WSF recycling methods application in the building industry have been investigated, resulting that CBCs with these fibers make an economic and long lasting choice to deal with waste materials. The workability of fiber enhanced concrete was found to be comparable to that of normal concrete. Fibers have a considerable impact on the splitting tensile strength, flexural and compressive strength of recycled concrete. Fiber may enhance the water permeability. When the WSF content is 0.6 kg/m3, the water absorption is nearly half. Fibers would have no effect on its permeability.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.831-848
• /
• 2016

This study aims to characterize the multiple cracking behavior of HTPP-ECC (High tenacity polypropylene fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composites) by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) Method. Digital images have been captured from a dogbone shaped HTPP-ECC specimen exhibiting 3.1% tensile ductility under loading. Images analyzed by VIC-2D software and ${\varepsilon}_{xx}$ strain maps have been obtained. Crack widths were computed from the ${\varepsilon}_{xx}$ strain maps and crack width distributions were determined throughout the specimen. The strain values from real LVDTs were also compared with virtual LVDTs digitally attached on digital images. Results confirmed that it is possible to accurately monitor the initiation and propagation of any single crack or multiple cracks by DIC at the whole interval of testing. Although the analysis require some post-processing operations, DIC based crack analysis methodology can be used as a promising and versatile tool for quality control of HTPP-ECC and other strain hardening composites.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.291-296
• /
• 2015

In this study, structural design and analysis of the automobile bonnet is performed. The flax/vinly ester composite material is applied for structural design. The Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding-Light (VARTML) manufacturing method is adopted for manufacturing the flax fiber composite bonnet. The VARTML is a manufacturing process that the resin is injected into the fly layered-up fibers enclosed by a rigid mold tool under vacuum. A series of flax/vinyl ester composite panels are manufactured, and several kinds of specimens cut out from the panels are tested to obtain mechanical performance data. Based on this, structural design of the automobile bonnet is performed.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.46-51
• /
• 2015

In this study, structural design and analysis of the automobile bonnet is performed. The flax/vinly ester composite material is applied for structural design. The Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding-Light (VARTML) manufacturing method is adopted for manufacturing the flax fiber composite bonnet. The VARTML is a manufacturing process that the resin is injected into the fly layered-up fibers enclosed by a rigid mold tool under vacuum. A series of flax/vinyl ester composite panels are manufactured, and several kinds of specimens cut out from the panels are tested to obtain mechanical performance data. Based on this, structural design of the automobile bonnet is performed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.74 no.4
• /
• pp.515-520
• /
• 2020

In the modern era, the world is facing unprecedented challenges in form of environmental pollution and international agencies are forcing scientists and materialists to look for green materials and structures to counter this problem. Composites based on renewable sources like plant based fibres, vegetable fibres are finding increasing use in interior components of automobile vehicles, aircraft, and building construction. In the present study, jute and flax fibre based composites were developed and tested for assessing their suitability for possible applications in interior cabin and parts of automobile and aerospace vehicles. Matrix system involves epoxy as resin and fibre weight fractions used were 45% and 55% respectively. Composites samples were prepared as per American society for testing and materials (ASTM) standard and were tested for individual fiber tensile strength, composite tensile strength, and flexural strength to analyse its behavior under various loading conditions. The results revealed that the Jute fibre composites possess enhanced mechanical properties over Flax fibre composites.

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2006

Interfacial evaluation of the untreated and treated Jute and Hemp fibers reinforced different matrix polypropylene-maleic anhydride polypropylene copolymer (PP-MAPP) composites were investigated by micromechanical technique and dynamic contact angle measurement. For the statistical tensile strength of Jute and Hemp fibers, bimodal Weibull distribution was fitted better than the unimodal distribution. The acid-base parameter on the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) of the natural fiber composites was characterized by calculating the work adhesion, $W_a$. The effect of alkaline, silane coupling agent on natural fibers were obtained with changing MAPP content in PP-MAPP matrices. Alkaline treated fibers made the surface energy to be higher due to removing the weak boundary layers and thus increasing surface area, whereas surface energy of silane treated Jute and Hemp fibers decreased due to blocked high energy sites. MAPP in the PP-MAPP matrix caused the surface energy to increase due to introduced acid-base sites. Microfailure modes of two natural fiber composites were observed clearly differently due to different tensile strength of natural fibers.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.405-411
• /
• 2015

Carbon composites for flexible fiber heating element were examined to improve the electrical conductivity in this study. Carbon composites using carbon black, denka black, super-c, super-p with/without CNF or dispersant such as BCS03 and Sikament-nn were prepared. Carbon composite slurry was coated on plane film and yarns(cotton, polyester) and the performances of prepared heating materials were investigated by checking electrical surface resistance, adhesion strength. The plane heating element using carbon black under natural drying condition($25^{\circ}C$) had better physical properties such as surface resistance(185.3 Ohm/sq) and adhesion strength(above 90%) than those of other carbon composite heating elements. From these results, polyester heating element coated by carbon black showed better electrical line resistance(33.2 kOhm/cm) than cotton heating element. Then, it was found that polyester heating element coated by carbon black with CNF(3 wt%) and BCS03(1 wt%) appeared best properties(0.604 kOhm/cm).

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

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2009

Natural fiber-filled polymer composites have attracted great interest due to increasing environmental concerns and their low costs. In this study, the properties of rice husk flour-filled polypropylene (PP) were analysed in view of the large quantities of this agricultural product available as residue in Brazil. The rice husk flour (RHF) was characterized by SEM and particle size distribution. The properties of the composites were studied by MFI, DMA, DSC and TGA analyses. A commercial PP modified with maleic anhydride (MAPP) was used as coupling agent. It was verified that RHF decreased the MFI of the composites and that the coupling agent decreased it even more. The efficiency of MAPP was confirmed by the high storage modulus and high loss factor of the coupled composites.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.315-328
• /
• 2023

The main goal of the present study was to assess the effects of eggshell powder (ESP) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) on the mechanical properties of abaca fiber (AF)-reinforced natural composites. For this purpose, a limited number of indentation tests were first performed on the AF/polypropylene (PP) composites for different HNT and ESP loadings (0 wt.% ~ 6 wt.%), load amplitudes (150, 200, and 250 N), and two types of indenters (Vickers or conical). The Young's modulus, hardness and plasticity index of each specimen were calculated using the indentation test results and Oliver-Pharr method. The accuracy of the experimental results was confirmed by comparing the values of the Young's modulus obtained from the indentation test with the results of the conventional tensile test. Then, a feed-forward shallow artificial neural network (ANN) with high efficiency was trained based on the obtained experimental data. The trained ANN could properly predict the variations of the mentioned mechanical properties of AF/PP composites incorporated with different HNT and ESP loadings. Furthermore, the trained ANN demonstrated that HNTs increase the elastic modulus and hardness of the composite, while the incorporation of ESP reduces these properties. For instance, the Young's modulus of composites incorporated with 3 wt.% of ESP decreased by 30.7% compared with the pure composite, while increasing the weight fraction of ESP up to 6% decreased the Young's modulus by 34.8%. Moreover, the trained ANN indicated that HNTs have a more significant effect on reducing the plasticity index than ESP.