Long-Term Investigation on the Compressive Strength of Polymer Concrete with Fly Ash

Abstract

For the past years, a lot was said about the great potential of reuse of the fly ashes in the building materials industry. Fly ashes have gained recognition as a good addition to various concretes, including ordinary concrete, polymer cement concrete, and polymer concrete. Many research was conducted on the positive effect of fly ash on the technological and technical properties; however, most of them included tests performed after several days or weeks. Not much published data concerned tests conducted after a longer period of time, confirming the durability of polymer composites with fly ashes. The paper presents the results of compressive strength of polymer concretes with fly ashes tested after longer time. Composites with vinyl ester resin, standard sand, and fluidized fly ash were tested after 18 months, and composites with the same resin, river sand, and fluidized or siliceous fly ash were tested after 7 years. The results were compared with the results of the respective specimens tested after 14 days. Research results indicated that there was no reduction in compressive strength. Moreover, in all cases, a significant improvement of strength was noted. The research has demonstrated the usefulness of fly ash as a component for the production of durable polymer concrete.