Tensile Behavior of Fabric Cement-Based Composites: Pultruded and Cast

There is a growing interest in the use of fabrics as reinforcements for cement composites due to their superior performance in comparison to other cementitious composites. This paper compares the effects of two processing methods, casting and pultrusion, on the tensile properties of fabric-cement composites. Four fabric types were used, including bonded glass mesh, woven polyvinylalcohol, woven polyethylene, and warp knitted weft insertion polypropylene. The evolution of crack spacing and crack width as a function of applied strain as well as stiffness degradation were correlated with tensile responses of various composites. Pullout tests and microstructural analysis were conducted to better understand the tensile behavior. The advantages of using pultrusion are clear. Pultruded fabric-cement composites exhibited improved mechanical performance, especially those that incorporated knitted fabrics made from multifilament yarns with an open junction point. This improved performance is due to the improved bonding by the impregnation of cement paste during pultrusion, which helped fill the spaces between the filaments of the bundled yarns.