Behaviour of AR glass fibre for building structural applications

Abstract

The AR glass reinforcement fibres were designed to resist the alkalis from the concrete. This is the main reason for its utilisation as a short-fibre-reinforcement of mortar and concrete for the last decades. Originally, the AR glass fibre sizing was not compatible with synthetic resins, so that this type of reinforcement was applied exclusively to mortar and concrete matrices. Recently, due to the developments of sizing, which are compatible with synthetic resins, the AR- glass fibres may be used as reinforcement of organic matrix composite materials, broadening the range of structural applications. The mechanical properties of AR glass fibre and organic matrix composite materials will be studied in this paper. First, the behaviour of this material under stress corrosion will be analysed. Their mass loss will be compared to E, C, and boron free glass fibres. Second, an experimental study dealing with 3P test bending and short beam ofAR glass fibre/polyester will de described with the goal of obtaining their Young modulus and tensile and interlaminar shear strengths. Finally, these experimental results will be compared to E glass fibre/polyester and several conclusions about their structural applications will be drawn.