Development and thermo-mechanical analysis of high-performance hybrid fibre engineered cementitious composites with microencapsulated phase change materials

Abstract

This experimental study aims to investigate the hypothesis that a microencapsulated phase change material can be incorporated into a hybrid fibre (0.5% steel fiber and 1.5% Polyvinyl Alcohol fibre) Engineered Cementitious Composite mix developing in a new structural material. Five different mixes were prepared replacing phase change materials by micro silica sand in different percentages. The basic mechanical and thermal properties of the mixes were determined. It was deduced that the hybrid fibres confined the matrix materials around the particle at the micro-scale, and thus a state of triaxial compression developed. As a result of this mechanism, the compressive strength loss when adding phase change materials were significantly compensated, and an increase in the flexural strengths for some mixes were occurred. The specific heat capacity results showed that the addition of more phase change materials into the mix would increase thermal mass storage ability significantly.