Investigation of pull-out behavior of fiber in fiber reinforced cement based composites

Paste, mortar, concrete etc. where cement is used as binder, are brittle materials. In order to increase the ductility of cement-based materials, different types and quantities of steel, plastic, glass, etc. based short-cut fibers are added in to the mixture. The ductility, toughness and strength increases provided by the fibers to these materials are related to the pull-out behavior of the fibers from the cement-based matrix. An experimental study was conducted within the scope of the thesis. Samples were prepared by embedding fibers into cement-based mortars and pull-out behavior was examined by pulling fibers out of these samples. The effects of fiber properties and matrix properties on pull-out behavior were investigated using 10 different fibers, 3 different aggregates at 3 different cement/aggregates and 4 different water/cement ratios. Additionally, effect of the test parameters was investigated using different embedding length (20 mm, 30 mm) and different specimen sizes (4x4x4 cm, 5x5x5 cm). The pull-out performance of the fibers was determined according to the peak load and the area under the load vs pull-out curve, and the effective parameters on the pull-out behavior were revealed.