Flexural and impact performance of functionally graded reinforced cementitious composite (FGRCC) panels

• Published in: Structures (Oxford) 2021-02, Vol.29, p.1723-1733
• Main Authors: Sahraei Moghadam, Amirhosein, Omidinasab, Fereydoon, Dalvand, Ahmad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: FGRCC panel; Flexural behavior; Hybrid steel/nylon fiber; Impact behavior
• ISSN: 2352-0124; 2352-0124
• DOI: 10.1016/j.istruc.2020.12.042

•Effect of steel and nylon fibers to improve flexural and impact performance of panels.•Effect of non-uniform distribution of fibers on flexural and impact performance of panels.•Comparison between the behavior of RCC and FGRCC panels under flexural and impact tests. The purpose of this study was to investigate the flexural and impact behavior of functionally graded reinforced cementitious composite (FGRCC) panels. For this reason, steel and nylon fibers were used for panel reinforcement. Although, all the panels had a fixed volume of 1% fibers, they were different in the manner of fibers distribution. The panels developed in this study include 3 models: plain cementitious composite (PCC) panels, uniformly distributed fiber reinforced cementitious composite (RCC) panels, and non-uniformly distributed fiber reinforced cementitious composite (FGRCC) panels. In FGRCC panels, fibers were placed such that inner layer has less fibers compared to the surrounding layers. The results of this research indicates the beneficial effect of the steel fibers to improve flexural and impact performance of panels, in comparison with the nylon fibers. Moreover, the non-uniform distribution of fibers in the FGRCC panels outperformed RCC panels, in both flexural and impact tests. Flexural and impact energy absorption of fiber reinforced panels showed that the effect of fibers on improvement of the impact performance was more considerable compared to their effect on the flexural performance enhancement.