Cyclic pull-out test of single PVA fibers in cementitious matrix

Abstract

Recently, many studies have been conducted to examine the behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) subjected to cyclic loading. However, cyclic and fatigue behavior is so complex that the mechanism of degradation cannot be cleared just by simple mechanical tests such as flexural and tensile tests of FRC specimens that measure typical overall behavior of the material. Besides these kinds of investigations, the individual behavior of the constituents and the interaction between them need to be investigated to reveal the cyclic degradation and fatigue mechanism of FRC detail. So far, only a few experiments have been devoted to the cyclic degradation of fibers in FRC. Therefore, cyclic pull-out behavior of single fiber is investigated in this study. A main objective of this article is to propose a test method for a cyclic pull-out test of a single fiber and to investigate the degradation behavior of single PVA fibers under cyclic loading conditions. Single PVA fibers were tested using quasi-static and cyclic loading methods, and the test results revealed the bridging load of PVA fibers decreases continuously and it become less than half the initial load during the cyclic loading process.