Studying the properties of epoxy polymer concrete reinforced with steel and glass fibers subjected to cycles of petroleum products

Abstract

Petroleum products, which are widely used in technological processes, fall on concrete and reinforced concrete elements of structures and gradually impregnate them. This can have a negative impact on their reliability and mechanical safety. This paper investigates the effect of petroleum products on fiber reinforced polymer concrete (FRPC). Two types of petroleum, gasoline and gas oil, have been used. In the current work four polymer concrete mixes were used with incorporation of steel fibers (SF), glass fibers (GF), and mix of (ST+GF), in addition to polymer concrete without fibers. The polymer concrete was prepared by using epoxy resin as a binder. After 28 days of air curing, the prepared concrete was submerged in gasoline and gas oil at different periods of exposure cycles at 60, 90, 120 and 150 days. Each cycle includes two weeks of submerging and then two weeks of drying to evaluate its properties including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, dynamic elastic modulus and total absorption, and comparing the results with the reference samples. The results indicated that using FRPC with a mix of ST and GF gave the highest properties in comparison with other mixes. The mechanical properties improved by 15 % in comparison with the reference mix. Also, gas oil has a greater adverse effect than gasoline on FRPC. For all mixes, the gas oil led to a decrease in the compressive strength by 3 % lower than gasoline. Furthermore, most of the tested properties decreased after four exposure cycles, but despite that, the FRPC achieved higher properties in comparison with the reference mixture.