Properties of fabric-cement composites made by pultrusion

Practical manufacturing and use of thin cement-based elements composites require an industrial cost-effective production process in addition to proper reinforcement materials to improve the tensile and flexural performance. Reinforcement by means of fabric materials is an alternative to the use of short fibers. The objective of this study was to investigate use of pultrusion technique as a cost-effective method for the production of thin-sheet fabric-reinforced cement composites. Woven fabrics made from low modulus polypropylene (PP) and glass meshes were used to produce the pultruded cement composites. The influence of fabric type, PP and glass, processing method, pultrusion vs. cast and cement-based matrix modification were examined. Tensile and pullout tests as well as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations were used to examine the mechanical, bonding and microstructure properties of the different composites. The rheology of the mix was correlated with the mechanical behavior of the pultruded composites. The tensile behavior of the pultruded fabric-cement components exhibited strain hardening behavior. The best performance was achieved for the PP pultruded composites.