The mechanical properties of fibre glass reinforced mortar

The demand for stronger, stiffer and tougher materials has stimulated the development of composite materials wherethe addition of different fibres; such as glass, asbestos,steel etc, to concrete (or mortar) improve itsproperties. In the present work, attention is concentrated onthe mechanical properties of the glass fibre reinforcedmortar.The strengths of random shortconcrete (GRC) composites in tension,impact as well as fracture toughnesshave been examined experimentally andwater curing.glass fibre reinforcedcompression, flexure andand abrasion hardnesstheoretically in air andThe effect of fibre length and fibre volume fraction onthe tensile, compressive, flexural and impact strengths, andon the fracture toughness and abrasion resistance of GRCcomposites have been studied. It was found that the increasein fibre length and fibre volume fraction up to certain limitsincreased the properties of GRC composites. The optimumproperties of these composites were found for specimens with40 mm fibre length and 2.45% fibre volume fraction.Two empirical relationships between the fracturetoughness, K , and both tensile and flexural strengths of GRCcomposites h~ve been derived. A straight line relationship wasalso found to correlate between the tensile and flexuralstrengths of these composites.The experimental results of the tensile and flexuralstrengths of GRC composite specimens were compared with thoseof theoretical values (using two methods). The differencebetween the theoretical and experimental results occurredbecause some factors which affect the properties of GRCcomposites could not be taken into consideration in thetheory.The specimens were manufactured by premix technique to arequired fibre volume fraction and with acceptable uniformityof fibre distribution.