Abstract:
The effects of length to diameter ratio and mixing amount of polyester fiber on the mechanical properties of concrete, such as compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, fracture toughness and impact load, were studied. The mechanism of toughening and cracking resistance of polyester fiber concrete was studied by composite material theory and fiber spacing theory. The microscopic morphology observed by SEM was used to analyze the influence of fiber length-diameter ratio and content on the mechanism of toughening and cracking resistance. Orthogonal experimental design method and laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM) were used to study the influence of impact height, specimen thickness, aspect ratio and content on the impact resistance of fiber/concrete. The results show that the polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 300 and ratio of length to diameter of 600 would reduce the compressive strength of concrete, the low content of polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 150 increases the compressive strength of concrete by increasing the density of concrete. In terms of tensile strength, the polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 150 mainly exist in the form of defects, the polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 150 have the most significant effect on improving the concrete internal pulling, the addition of 3% (volume ratio to cementitious materials) polyester fiber is the most significant to improve the flexbility of concrete. For the fracture toughness of concrete, the fracture toughness of polyester fiber/concrete with ratio of length to diameter of 300 and 600 is significantly improved. According to the SEM microscopic morphology, it is found that the micro-cracks generated by fiber pulling action would improve the energy dissipation capacity of concrete, thus increasing the ultimate load and central deflection of concrete during failure, and the variation of tensile strength of polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 300 reinforced concrete is in good agreement with the composite material theory and fiber spacing theory. Impact height is the main factor affecting the impact load, and the fiber length and diameter have greater influence than fiber content. Through LSCM analysis of three-dimensional damage morphology, it is concluded that the damage improvement effect of polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 150 on concrete material is relatively significant, and at the same dosage, the small spacing of polyester fibers with ratio of length to diameter of 150 results in the improvement of local mechanical properties of concrete, thus improving the impact resistance of concrete.