Applicability of composite Charpy impact method for strain hardening textile reinforced cementitious composites

Since most test methods, used for strain hardening cementitious composites, are adopted from polymer composites test standards, this paper investigates the applicability of a standard impact test (ISO 179-1:2000), which is used in the polymer composites world, on a specific textile reinforced cementitious composite using an inorganic phosphate cement (IPC) as a matrix material. The aim is to provide a test method to investigate the local impact behaviour of textile reinforced cementitious composites. It was found within this work that this method is applicable to cementitious composites provided some adaptations to the specimens' dimensions. The Charpy impact strength of an IPC matrix reinforced with different kinds of fibre types is successfully investigated. This test method can be used to qualitatively rank different cementitious composite materials.