Experiments and performances of strain-hardening fiber low cementitious composites

The ordinary Portland cement is a main binding material in normal concrete or high-performance fiber cementitious composites. However, the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission during the ordinary Portland cement manufacturing process is up to about 7.0% of global manmade CO₂. The ordinary Portland cement is also known to have toxic substances. The purpose of current research is to develop a near-environmental and strain-hardening fiber low cementitious composite in which the binder is mixed by replacing 60% of the amount of cement with ground granulated blast-furnace slag with or without using alkali activators, or replacing with fly ash. Five mixture proportions with proper fluidity and viscosity of the composites in order to easily mix fibers and to uniformly disperse fibers were determined according to reducing the amount of cement and replacing it with ground granulated blast-furnace slag with or without alkali activators, or replacing with fly ash. The mechanical characteristics of the strain-hardening fiber low cementitious composite were evaluated experimentally by the slump flow, compression, and direct tension tests. The strain-hardening fiber low cementitious composite exhibited the slump flow of 520-670 mm and the tensile strain capacity of 2.3%-4.8% with multiple micro-cracks.