Civil Engineering and Architecture Vol. 8(4), pp. 654 - 661
DOI: 10.13189/cea.2020.080429
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Experimental Research on the Performance of Polypropylene Fiber Foamed Ultra-lightweight Composites


Trong-Phuoc Huynh 1,*, Van-Hien Pham 1, Tri-Khang Lam 1, Nguyen-Trong Ho 2
1 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering Technology, Can Tho University, Vietnam
2 Faculty of Civil Engineering, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

This experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effect of polypropylene (PP) fibers added into pre-foamed ultra-lightweight composites (PULC) with a target dry density of 600 kg/m3. In this research, four PULC mixtures were designed with various PP fiber contents of 0, 0.4, 0.9, 1.4% by total weight of binder while other ingredients, including cement, fly ash (FA), slag, water, and stone powder, were kept constant. The dosage of foam and superplasticizer was adjustable to achieve the same target dry density and workability of the PULC mixtures. The PULC samples were prepared in the laboratory. After casting, these samples were stored at the room temperature condition until the required ages to implement to test. Engineering properties of the PULC samples, including compressive strength, the dry density, the water absorption, the drying shrinkage, the thermal conductivity, and the microstructure analysis, were tested to evaluate the performance as well as the potential application of such materials in reality. The experimental results show that for the specimen of 0.9% PP fiber content, the fiber addition helped to improve and enhance its compressive strength reaching the value within the range of 2.5÷3.2MPa. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity and the drying shrinkage decreased while the dry density gained a range of 639÷643 kg/m3. This research further indicated that 0.9% of PP fiber content was the optimal dosage and it also demonstrated a significant influence of the application PP fiber into the production of PULC.

KEYWORDS
Pre-foamed Ultra-lightweight Composite, Dry Density, Polypropylene Fiber, Drying Shrinkage, Compressive Strength, Thermal Conductivity

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Trong-Phuoc Huynh , Van-Hien Pham , Tri-Khang Lam , Nguyen-Trong Ho , "Experimental Research on the Performance of Polypropylene Fiber Foamed Ultra-lightweight Composites," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 654 - 661, 2020. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2020.080429.

(b). APA Format:
Trong-Phuoc Huynh , Van-Hien Pham , Tri-Khang Lam , Nguyen-Trong Ho (2020). Experimental Research on the Performance of Polypropylene Fiber Foamed Ultra-lightweight Composites. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 8(4), 654 - 661. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2020.080429.