Effect of Olive Biomass Ash (OBA) as Cement Replacement in Performance of Polyvinyl Alcohol Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC- PVA)

Abstract

Engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) are a breed of high performance polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber with significant strain-hardening behavior under tension. In this paper, the mechanical performance of ECCs incorporating of olive biomass ash (OBA) is reported. Different ECC-PVA mixes with varying of OBA were used.  Emphasis is placed on the influence of OBA content on the key mechanics properties relevant to composite ductility.  In the material development, compression stress and single fiber pullout and matrix were performed, followed by fracture analyses to properly select the range of mixture proportion. Subsequent direct tensile tests were employed to assess the strain-hardening behavior of the composite, which exhibited high ductility and strength with the addition of OBA. High ductility is most likely due to enhanced workability and fiber dispersion performance which is attributed to the oxidized grain surface of OBA, as verified by fiber dispersion tests. These results suggest that, the OBA dosage employed in the present study, the contribution of OBA to fiber dispersion outweighs the side-effect of decreased potential for saturated multiple cracking, including a slight increase in matrix fracture toughness and fiber/matrix bond strength.

Keywords: Engineered cementitious composites; polyvinyl alcohol fiber; olive biomass ash

DOI: 10.7176/JEES/10-2-07

Publication date: February 29^th 2020