PERFORMANCE OF CEMENT COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH SURFACE-MODIFIED POLYPROPYLENE MICRO- AND MACRO-FIBERS

This paper focuses on the mechanical properties investigation of cement pastes reinforced with surface treated polymer fibers. The cement matrix was composed of Portland cement (CEM I 42.5 R, w/c ratio equal to 0.4). Two polypropylene fiber types (micro- and macro-fibers) were used as randomly distributed and oriented reinforcement in volume amount of 2 %. The fibers were modified in the low-pressure inductively coupled cold oxygen plasma in order to enhance their surface interaction with the cement matrix. The investigated composite mechanical properties (load bearing capacity and response during loading) were examined indirectly by means of four-point bending mechanical destructive tests. A response of loaded samples containing treated fibers were compared to samples with reference fibers. Moreover, cracking behavior development was monitored using digital image correlation (DIC). This method enabled to record the micro-cracks system evaluation of both fiber reinforced samples.