Micromechanical Modeling of Flexural Strength for Epoxy Polymer Concrete

Abstract

Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) has been widely used in civil engineering nowadays due to its excellent mechanical properties and advantages in processing. In this paper, a modeling study has been carried out on the flexural performance of EPC. Two classic micromechanics models, i.e. rule of mixture and Mori-Tanaka method, are introduced to predict the flexural strength of EPC with various epoxy resin contents. The comparison shows that the parallel model based on the rule of mixture attains a good agreement with the measured results when the epoxy resin content is sufficiently high to achieve strong adhesion between the aggregate and the epoxy resin. In contrast, the Mori–Tanaka method with the failure criterion dominated by the weakest phase fails to give acceptable prediction due to the unsuitability of its basic assumptions to EPC, particularly when the epoxy resin content is at relatively high levels.

Residual Flexural Performance of Epoxy Polymer Concrete under Hygrothermal Conditions and Ultraviolet Aging

“…Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) is an increasingly popular type of concrete made by mixing epoxy resin, crushed stone, and other fillers in a certain proportion, where resin acts as binder for the other components [1]. Compared to cement concrete, the advantages of EPC include high strength, good fracture resistance and short curing time [2,3,4]. These excellent properties promote its wide applications in civil engineering, where it serves as bridge-deck overlays [5,6], machine tool beds [7,8], repair material [9,10], railway slabs [11] and space applications [12,13], etc.…”

Prediction of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Strength Properties by Micromechanics Method

“…The rule of mixtures achieves better approximation with results obtained by experimental investigation. Knowing the properties of steel fiber and the matrix (mixture of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and admixture) properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete can be predicted [1]. Micromechanical model presents overall idea about the behavior of the concrete which help to reduce time required for casting and such model become cost beneficial [2].…”