Abstract :
The basic mechanical and chemical properties
of fly-ash-based inorganic polymer concretes (IPC)
have been studied widely, but, key engineering and
structural properties of the material for instance
modulus of elasticity, compressive, tensile, flexural
strengths and bonding strength of the material to
reinforcement have received little attention. Structural
applications of reinforced IPC depend on the bond
performance of the material to the reinforcement. Due
to their difference with ordinary Portland cement
(OPC) based concrete in terms of chemical reaction
and matrix formation it is not known whether IPC
exhibit different bonding performance with the reinforcement.
Simply relying on compressive strength of
the material and extrapolating models and equations
meant for OPC based concrete may lead to unsafe
design of structural members. To that end, 27 beamend
specimens, 58 cubic direct pullout type specimens
and number of laboratory test specimens were tested to
evaluate bonding performance of IPC with reinforcement.
The results of beam-end specimens and direct
pullout type specimens correlate favourably, although
the results of direct pullout tests are in general more
conservative than those of beam-end specimens. Overall,
it can be concluded that bond performance of IPC
mixes are comparable to OPC based concrete and
therefore IPC and steel can be used as a composite
material to resist tension in addition to compression.
