Effect of test conditions on the bending strength of a geopolymer-reinforced composite

This paper presents the results obtained for the effects of the loading rate and of the testing temperature on the mechanical properties, particularly on the stiffness and on the ultimate tensile strength, of a geopolymer reinforced with glass or carbon fibres. HIGH-SILICA geopolymer powder from CLUZ- CYECH and two reinforcement fibres (glass fibres—type AR and carbon fibre - HTS 5631) were used. The displacement rate is varied from 0.02 until to 2 mm/s and the testing temperature is increased from the room temperature until the temperature of 300 °C. For the case of geopolymers reinforced with carbon fibres and glass fibres, the increase of the displacement rate from 0.002 to 2 mm/s led to an improvement on the ultimate flexure strength of about 33 and 31%, respectively. The same dependency was observed for the stiffness, with variations of loading rate of 39 and 53%, for carbon fibres and glass fibres, respectively. Increasing the room temperature until the temperature of 300 °C decreases significantly both the ultimate strength and the flexure stiffness for both reinforcements. However, a major drop on both the stiffness and the strength occurred up to 150 °C.