CHARACTERIZATION OF CEMENT-BASED MORTAR REINFORCED WITH CHOPPED STEEL WOOL AND POLYPROPYLENE FIBERS

Abstract

Appropriate cement based mortar design plays an important role in building construction. The cement based mortar designed with suitable reinforcement materials shall significantly help to improve the properties of resulted mix. A cement based mortars incorporating chopped steel wool and polypropylene fibers addition of up to 2.5% of the cement mass was used. Various test methods in terms of flow ability, wet density, air content, flexural and compressive strength were used to evaluate its performance and possible applications in civil engineering. The results indicated that the addition of chopped steel wool and polypropylene fibers had affected the fresh and hardened properties. Increased fiber content in the cement mortar was found to reduce the flow whereas there was increase in the air content irrespective of the type of fiber used. The wet density results showed that the two fibers showed contrasting impacts. Incorporating chopped steel wool fiber increased the wet density whereas polypropylene fiber was found to decrease the wet density. Furthermore, it was observed that flexural and compressive strength proportionally increased with the chopped steel wool and polypropylene fibers addition. The improved performance of the chopped steel wool and polypropylene fibers reinforced mortar not only signifies its potential use for the application, but also is helpful to standardize the process of reinforced mortar design