A crack closure system for cementitious composite materials using knotted shape memory polymer (k-SMP) fibres

Maddalena, Riccardo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-3782, Bonanno, Lorenzo, Balzano, Brunella ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7868-8835, Sweeney, John and Mihai, Iulia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6725-2048 2020. A crack closure system for cementitious composite materials using knotted shape memory polymer (k-SMP) fibres. Cement and Concrete Composites 114 , 103757. 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2020.103757

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Abstract

Formation of cracks represents one of the major causes of concrete deterioration, which can lead to durability and safety issues. In this work, a novel crack closure system is developed, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer fibres embedded in a mortar mix. The PET polymer has shape memory properties and shrinks upon thermal activation, if free to do so, or otherwise exerts shrinkage restraint forces. A single knot was manufactured at each end of the PET fibres to provide mechanical anchorage into the mortar matrix. Mortar samples with embedded knotted fibres were pre-cracked and subsequently placed in an oven to thermally activate the polymers and induce the shrinkage mechanism into the fibres. Crack closure was measured in the range 45–100%, depending on the geometry, dimension and distribution of the fibres, and the size of the initial crack.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0958-9465
Funders:	EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 August 2020
Date of Acceptance:	20 July 2020
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2023 16:23
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/133953

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