Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Mechanical Properties of a Fiber-Reinforced Geopolymer Mortar Blast Resistant Panel.

Geopolymer materials have excellent properties such as high strength, low thermal conductivity, fire resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and low carbon emissions. They can be used as protective engineering materials in places with explosion risks. At present, the common composite blast resistant panel is in the form of a sandwich: the outer layer isgalvanized steel plate, and fiber cement board or calcium carbonate board is used as the inner layer material, as these boards have the advantages of easy installation, good fire resistance, and explosion resistance. This study investigates the effect of adding different types of fibers to geopolymer mortar on the mortar's basic mechanical properties, such as compression strength, bending strength, and impact resistance. The explosive resistance of the fiber-reinforced geopolymer mortar blast resistant panels was evaluated through free-air explosion. In this paper, experimental procedures and numerical simulation have been performed to study the failure modes, maximum deflection, and dynamic response of the fiber-reinforced geopolymer mortar blast resistant panel under free-air explosion. The research results can provide a reference for the design and production of blast resistant panels.

A Study on Improving the Mechanical Performance of Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Cement.

This study investigated several approaches for silane-removal from the surface of short carbon fiber bundles, and short carbon fibers uniformly dispersed in cement to produce a novel compound of carbon-fiber-reinforced cement. In order to facilitate the uniform distribution of short carbon fibers in the carbon-fiber-reinforced cement, it is necessary to remove the silane from the carbon fiber's surface. Short carbon fiber bundles were submerged into a pure water, sodium hydroxide solution, and acetic acid solution, and placed in high-temperature furnace used to remove silane from the carbon fiber surface. The results were observed under a scanning electron microscope to determine the level of silane removal from the surface, and an effective method for removing the silane was developed from among the several approaches. This method employed a pneumatic dispersion device to disperse carbon fibers then mixed in a high-early-strength cement which led to an excellent compressive and impact-resistance performance of carbon-fiber-reinforced cement. Final testing showed that the compressive strength and impact energy increased by 14.1% and 145%, respectively.