Abstract
This paper presents the results of investigations into the effect of freeze–thaw cycling on the failure of fibre-cement boards and on the changes taking place in their structure. Fibre-cement board specimens were subjected to one and ten freeze–thaw cycles and then investigated under three-point bending by means of the acoustic emission method. An artificial neural network was employed to analyse the results yielded by the acoustic emission method. The investigations conclusively proved that freeze–thaw cycling had an effect on the failure of fibre-cement boards, as indicated mainly by the fall in the number of acoustic emission (AE) events recognized as accompanying the breaking of fibres during the three-point bending of the specimens. SEM examinations were carried out to gain better insight into the changes taking place in the structure of the tested boards. Interesting results with significance for building practice were obtained.
Highlights
Fibre-cement boards have been used in construction since the beginning of the last century
The additional components and fillers of fibre-cement boards are lime powder, mica, perlite, kaolin, microspheres and recycled materials [3,4], whereby fibre-cement boards can be regarded as an innovative product which fits into the sustainable development strategy
The degree of resistance to this impact is measured by the number of freeze–thaw cycles after which such products retain the properties specified by the standards
Summary
Fibre-cement boards have been used in construction since the beginning of the last century. Studies by the authors [11,12,14,15] presented the assessment of the effect of freeze–thaw cycling using acoustic emission technique and analysing the degradation ofusing the specimens, the authors basedthe solely on bending strength to be inadequate. In order toasverify the results gradually degraded, as more a fall in the number of events accompanying and gain better insight into the changes taking place in the structure of the fibre-cement boards, they the breaking of fibres. This is described in more detail later in this paper. The structure of the fibre-cement boards, they were examined under a scanning electron microscope (SEM)
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