Abstract
The paper presents indentation studies on wollastonite fiber incorporated cementitious systems. The acicular nature of the fibers is poised to delay the coalescence of micro-cracks in such systems thus leading to tougher building materials. Towards that end, load-penetration depth results from the indentation studies are employed to ascertain elastic and fracture properties of wollastonite-incorporated cementitious composites. While up to 10% mass-based cement-replacement by wollastonite results in comparable elastic moduli as compared to conventional binders, the fracture toughness increases by as much as 33%. In order to gain insights into the toughening mechanisms brought about by the fine fibers, a microstructure-guided numerical simulation strategy is adopted towards effective fracture performance prediction. The performance enhancement of the wollastonite systems is corroborated by the finite element-based simulations carried out on the virtual microstructures that accurately capture the heterogeneity of such systems. Besides fracture performance enhancement, the wollastonite-incorporated cementitious systems also contribute towards development of sustainable cement replacing compositions. Moreover, the micromechanical predictive tool developed in this study facilitate efficient means to tune the materials structure for desired performance.
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