Abstract
Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) has found increasing applications in infrastructure as a rising candidate among civil engineering materials. In most of its service environments, EPC is inevitably exposed to severe weather conditions, e.g., violent changes in temperature, rain, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In this paper, we designed an accelerated aging test for EPC, which includes periodic variation of temperature and water spray, as well as intensive UV-light irradiation, imitating the outdoor environment in South China. The experimental results show that the flexural performance of EPC is found deteriorate with the aging time. An aging process equivalent to four years (UV radiation dose) results in up to 8.4% reduction of flexural strength. To explore the mechanisms of observed performance degradation, the EPC specimen in the four-point-bending test is considered as a layered beam. The analysis indicates that the loss of flexural load-carrying capacity of an aged EPC beam is dominated by the reduction of mechanical properties of the surface layer. The mechanical properties of the surface layer are closely associated with the aging of epoxy mortar, which can be approximated as a reciprocal function of the aging time. By introducing damage to the surface layer into the layered beam, the proposed model demonstrates a good ability to predict the residual flexural strength of EPC during the aging process
Highlights
Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) is an increasingly popular type of concrete made by mixing epoxy resin, crushed stone, and other fillers in a certain proportion, where resin acts as binder for the other components [1]
The advantages of EPC include high strength, good fracture resistance and short curing time [2,3,4]. These excellent properties promote its wide applications in civil engineering, where it serves as bridge-deck overlays [5,6], machine tool beds [7,8], repair material [9,10], railway slabs [11] and space applications [12,13], etc
In tropical and subtropical regions, EPC is exposed to strong UV light and high temperatures and humidity, which cause a great challenge to the weatherability of EPC
Summary
Epoxy polymer concrete (EPC) is an increasingly popular type of concrete made by mixing epoxy resin, crushed stone, and other fillers in a certain proportion, where resin acts as binder for the other components [1]. The advantages of EPC include high strength, good fracture resistance and short curing time [2,3,4]. These excellent properties promote its wide applications in civil engineering, where it serves as bridge-deck overlays [5,6], machine tool beds [7,8], repair material [9,10], railway slabs [11] and space applications [12,13], etc. The capability of the model to predict the residual flexural strength of EPC is verified by the experimental results
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