Fracture and tensile properties of polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced cementitous composites.

Experiments were carried out to design polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber reinforced cementitous composites (PVA-FRCCs) holding high ductility and energy consumption ability. Besides, the properties of each ingredients in composites, mixing method and technology for fresh mixture were described in detail. Then, the pseudo-strain-hardening (PSH) behavior was investigated in uniaxial tension test. As a result, the maximum ultimate tensile strain can reach 0.7 percent. On the other hand, the single edge notch (SEN) thin sheet specimens were employed to gain the normal tensile load via crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD) curves, which can show obvious PSH behavior. In addition, the curves can be divided into four zones whose fracture toughness calculation methods were discussed. The wedge splitting (WS) test method can be applied to discuss the fracture toughness. Moreover, fracture energy of SEN and WS specimens were both approximately evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]