Experimental Study of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Fiber Reinforced Concrete under Cyclic Loading

Resumo

Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) elements are widely used in applications subjected to cyclic loadings
such as pavements, wind towers and tunnel-linings. The FRC improves the behavior of structures subjected to
these loadings by controlling the crack opening and the damage propagation and thus can withstands thousands or
millions of cycles during their service life. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of
concrete reinforced with PVA fibers comparing to polypropylene fibers, quantifying the damage and the
development of cracks under three point bending cyclic and quasi-static tests. The quasi-static tests results indicate
that the addition of PVA fibers increases ductility and toughness, as it is already known for polypropylene macro
fibers. Moreover, for the cyclic tests, the fibers contribute to the stiffness maintenance reducing the damage in the
material and consequently reducing the crack width and propagation. Finally, when comparing the PVA-FRC with
the polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete (PP-FRC), it was found that the PVA sample presented lower damage
during the cycles and therefore resulting in a smaller CMOD variation.