PVA fiber reinforced cement composites with calcined cutter soil mixing residue as a partial cement replacement

Abstract

In this paper, a cutter soil mixing residue (CSMR), which is a soil–cement solid waste, was calcined and then used as a partial cement replacement in polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced cement composites (PVA-FRCCs). The binder chemistry was characterized using XRD, TGA and FTIR. The fiber–matrix interfacial properties were examined with SEM. The composite mechanical properties, including compressive strength, flexural properties and tensile behaviors and fiber bridging stress-crack opening relationships, were investigated. Results showed that the calcined CSMR can produce additional hydrates to aid the strength gain and densify the fiber–matrix interface. With a cement replacement level up to 40%, the tensile strength was not compromised, while the tensile strain capacity significantly increased to a maximum value of 3.2%. The micromechanical analysis revealed that the improved strain capacity is mainly attributed to the optimized fiber–matrix interface yielding enhanced pseudo strain-hardening indices. The results obtained in this study indicate that calcined CSMR is an attractive novel supplementary cementitious material for developing greener strain-hardening cementitious composites.