Thermo-mechanical efficiency of fibre-reinforced structural lightweight aggregate concrete

• Main Authors: Shafigh, Payam, Che Muda, Zakaria, Beddu, Salmia, Zakaria, As'ad, Almkahal, Zaher
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2022
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); TH Building construction; TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/41120/

The construction industry must consider not only the mechanical performances of structural materials but also their thermal performances for energy-efficient buildings. There exist conflicting thermal and mechanical properties between normal weight concrete (NWC) and light-weight aggregate concrete (LWAC). NWC with high mechanical strength exhibits poor thermal efficiency but LWAC possesses low mechanical strengths but high thermal efficiency. The inclusion of fibres in the mixture of LWAC could provide a solution to its weaknesses in mechanical properties however its thermal performance was not well fully understood. To produce an energy -efficient building material, this study was conducted to determine thermo-mechanical performances of steel (ST) and polypropylene (PP) fibre-reinforced LWACs that meet the structural code requirements with good thermal properties. Lightweight expanded clay aggregate was used to make a structural LWAC and polypropylene and steel fibres were used as the reinforcement. Test results revealed that structural LWAC reinforced ST fibre with 1.0% dosage has the best mechanical and thermo-mechanical efficiency whilst PP fibre with 0.3% dosage has the best thermal performance. The ST fibre has a positive influence on the compressive and tensile strength than PP fibre. In terms of overall thermal performance and cost, LWAC containing 0.3% PP fibre was the most desirable. The PP fibre has a more positive influence on thermal properties than ST fibre. The equations had been proposed with a good correlation of R2 > 0.7979 to predict the thermal properties against density for ST and PP fibres. The new merit Mo equation provides a novel way to measure the thermo-mechanical efficiency of the building materials for the construction industry. ST fibre is better than PP fibre in enhancing the mechanical efficiency but PP fibre is more efficient than ST in enhancing the thermal efficiency of fibre-reinforced LWAC.