Abstract
In this paper an analysis of the influence of polymer concrete sample shape and dimensions on ultrasonic wave propagation is carried out. Compositions of tested fly ash polymer concretes were determined using a material optimization approach. The tests were carried out on the samples of three shapes: cubes, beams, and plates. The ultrasonic testing was done by a direct method (transmission method) using a digital ultrasonic flow detector and piezoelectric transducers of 100 kHz central frequency. Propagation of the ultrasonic wave was characterized by pulse velocity. Frequency spectra and time-frequency spectrograms obtained using Fourier transform and Fourier-based synchrosqueezing transform were also presented. The correlation analysis showed that neither the path length nor the lateral dimension to the direction of wave propagation are not statistically significant for the UPV variability. However, a general trend of decrease in the UPV with increasing the path length was noticed. The analysis of the signal in time-frequency domain seemed to be useful in the analysis of particulate composites properties, especially when UPV changes are not clear enough, since it revealed greater differences in relation to changes in sample geometry than frequency spectra analysis.
Highlights
Polymer concrete (PC) belongs to the group of building particulate composites, where a cement paste was totally replaced with a resin binder [1].It is obtained by mixing the synthetic resins, pre-polymers or monomers with suitably selected aggregate, followed by hardening of the resin binder
The ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) was measured at frequencies of 50 and 150 kHz
The outcome of the study is that the UPV is independent of sample shape and sizes, regardless of frequency used
Summary
Polymer concrete (PC) belongs to the group of building particulate composites (i.e., concrete-like composites), where a cement paste was totally replaced with a resin binder [1]. It is obtained by mixing the synthetic resins, pre-polymers or monomers with suitably selected aggregate, followed by hardening of the resin binder. The PC binders are usually two-component sets, the setting and hardening of which is the result of the reaction between resin and hardener. PC may contain a binder hardened by polycondensation (e.g., phenol-formaldehyde resins), accompanied by release of the by-product (e.g., water), or by polymerization-without by-products (e.g., polyester or epoxy resin). The main fields of PC applications are [2]:
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