Mechanical Properties of Polymer Concrete

Table 1

Fibre reinforcements and their effect on polymer concrete.

Author	Resin	Aggregate	Fibers addition	Properties evaluated	Brief findings
Broniewski et al. [55]	Epoxy resin	Sand	Steel fibers of 0.24 mm diameter and 15 mm length, added in 0 to 3.5% by weight	Flexural strength, creep	Addition of 3.5% steel fibers increases the flexural strength by 40%.
Valore and Naus [56]	Polyester, vinylester, epoxy	—	Nylon, glass, aramid, steel fibers of length 12.7 to 38.1 mm	Compressive strength, Young’s modulus, split tensile strength, and density	(i) Compressive strength increases as function of density.; (ii) Flexural strength is related to compressive strength (inPsi) as 𝑓𝑓=25𝑓𝑐 psi.; (iii) Fiber addition increases flexural strength and ductility.; (iv) Longer fibers have better effect on compressive strength.
Brockenbrough [57]	Methacrylate		(i) Steel fibres of 0.4 mm diameter, 1–3%; (ii) Glass fibres of 12.7 mm length, 1–3%	Compressive strength, flexural strength, and split tensile strength	(i) Addition of steel fibers increases the compressive strength, whereas the addition of glass fibers decreases the compressive strength.; (ii) Flexural strength of polymer concrete is observed to increase by addition of both steel and glass fibers.
Vipulanandan et al. [39]	(i) Epoxy; (ii) Polyester	Ottawa sand,; blasting sand	Glass fibres,; 0–4%	Compressive strength, flexural strength, and split tensile strength	(i) Maximum compressive and flexural strength are reported at 14% resin content.; (ii) Addition of glass fibers increases the flexural strength, compressive strength.; (iii) Silane treatment increases the flexural strength by 25%.
Vipulanandan and Mebarkia [58]	Polyester	Blasting sand	Glass fibres, 0–6%	Flexural strength	(i) Flexural strength increases with increase in resin content.; (ii) Addition of glass fibers is reported to enhance the strength and toughness of polymer concrete.; (iii) Silane treatment of aggregate and fibers also enhanced the flexural strength.
Mebarkia and Vipulanandan [59]	Polyester	Blasting sand	Glass fibers of 13 mm length, 0–6%	Compressive strength	(i) For 18% resin and 4% glass fiber content, an increase of 33% in compressive strength was reported over unreinforced polymer concrete.; (ii) Failure strain and toughness increase with addition of fibers.
Rebeiz [31]	Polyester	Gravel, dried sand	Steel fibers of 0.5 mm diameter and 30 mm length, 0–2% by weight	Compressive strength	(i) An optimum mix having 10% resin, 45% gravel, 32% dried sand, and 13% fly ash was reported.; (ii) Polymer concrete achieves around 80% of the 28-day strength in one day.; (iii) Addition of steel fibers beyond 1.3% increases the compressive strength of the specimens from 80 MPa to 100 MPa.; (iv) Steel fibers also increase the ductility of the polymer concrete which results in a better postpeak behavior.
Sett and Vipulanandan [60]	Polyester	Blasting sand	Glass fibers and carbon fibers, 0–6% by weight	Compressive strength, tensile strength, and damping ratio	(i) Compressive strength and the failure strain are reported to increase by 40% by addition of 6% of glass fibers.; (ii) Carbon fibers do not have any significant effect on the compressive properties.; (iii) It was further observed that damping ratio of polymer concrete increased with addition of glass fibers and carbon fibers.
Laredo Dos Reis [32]	Epoxy	Foundry sand	Glass fibers & carbon fibers, 0–2% by weight	Compressive strength	(i) Addition of fibers increases the compressive strength by 27–45% for glass fibers and 36–55% increase for carbon fibers.; (ii) Ductility of polymer concrete improved with addition of fibers.
Jo et al. [43]	Polyester	Pea gravel and siliceous river sand	Nano-MMT particles	Flexural strength, split tensile strength	(i) Polymer concrete mix was obtained using 11% resin content, 45% coarse aggregates, 35% fine aggregates, and 11% CaCO3.; (ii) It was found that flexural strength and split tensile strength increase with addition of nanoparticles.
Xu and Yu [61]	Polyester	Granite	Copper coated stainless steel fibers, 𝐿/𝑑 ratio of 70	Compressive strength	(i) Addition of steel fibers improves the properties of polymer concrete.; (ii) Compressive strength of steel fiber reinforced polymer concrete is higher than that of plain polymer concrete.
Bai et al. [38]	Epoxy resin	Granite	Glass fibers of 5–25 mm length, added 1 to 5% by weight	Damping	(i) Granite mix is the most important parameter controlling the damping.; (ii) Highest damping is reported for mix containing 16% epoxy resin, 5% glass fibers, and granite mix having high proportion of fine aggregate.