Experimental and numerical investigations on the flexural performance of geopolymers reinforced with short hybrid polymeric fibres

Geopolymers have much higher drying shrinkage than Portland cement based composites Shrinkage performance is an important property for reinforced concrete composites just because a high shrinkage performance is associated to cracking tendency that leads to future durability problems. This paper provides results experimental and numerical investigations of fly ash based geopolymeric mortars reinforced with short hybrid polymeric fibres (SHPF). The results show that SHPF improved the flexural performance, while reducing the compressive strength and flexural stiffness of geopolymeric mortars. The addition of 0.8% SHPF increased about two times the fracture energy and about 50% the tensile strength. The adopted constitutive model well-captured the flexural performance of the tested beams.