Building elements made with glass fibre reinforced concrete: Fid-Bau Portal

Building elements made with glass fibre reinforced concrete

Pachow, U.

The wish to improve the properties of building materials has been with us since ancient times. Replacement materials for asbestos are AR-glass fibres. The load can increased and the material shows a plastic deformation until the rupture of the material occurs. Glass fibre reinforced concrete is a fibrous composite consisting of a cement bound matrix and alkali resistant glass fibres. The matrix has the task of taking over the forces acting from the outside on the building elements to ensure the required transmission to the glass fibres and to reduce the forces within the compound. AR-glass fibres have to ensure the required transmission of the forces. The effect of the glass fibre reinforcement is an essential improvement of the tensile and bending strength, the impact strength as well as the ultimate strain of the cement bound matrix. For the reinforcement of cement bound materials only alkali resistant glass fibres with tensile strength which is comparable with that of steel can be used. Using the example of a corrugated sheet, the application of uncut glass fibre rovings is shown for a product set up industrially. Chopped strands with a length of less than 24 mm are concentrated in the outer zones. These strands are the supporting reinforcement in the cross direction. Corrugated sheets are produced by forming a thin matrix of 3.25 mm, that is half the material thickness of the final product on a plastic film. Chopped strands are distributed in such a way on the matrix that nearly 75 % are crosswise oriented to the production direction. By means of a special tool, the short fibres are pressed into the matrix. On this layer, continuos AR-glass fibres are positioned. The DURAPAC process technology and production line for the production of glass fibre reinforced concrete is explained in detail.