ABSTRACT
By using a novel fiber-reinforced cement paste in a 3D-printing process, a material with vastly improved flexural and tensile strength can be created. The extrusion-based process leads to a high degree of fiber orientation. A fiber content of 3 vol. % results in static flexural strengths of above 100 MPa. High-strength fiber-reinforced materials have potential to be used in lightweight construction. Due to the susceptibility of lightweight structural members to oscillating dynamic loads, cyclic flexural and tensile tests with up to 10 million cycles are carried out. To characterize the complex (micro-)cracking behavior of the material, the tests are augmented by external deformation sensors (strain gauges, fiber-optic sensors, photogrammetry) and microstructural analysis (X-ray CT, acoustic emission sensors, coda-wave interferometry). The experimental data will serve as the basis for multiscale-modelling approach which uses representative volume elements created from high-resolution CT scans.
