Experimental Study on Flexural Strength of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites

Flexural strength of cementitious composites containing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber, fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) is studied in this paper. The parameters studied include volume fraction of fiber, the substitution ratio of cement by fly ash and the substitution ratio of cement by both silica fame and fly ash, which have an influence on the compressive strength and flexural strength of cementitious composites. The research findings show that with the increase of volume fraction of fiber, the flexural strength of cementitious composites are improved When the volume fraction of fiber rises from 0 to 2%,the flexural strength increases by 51.8%. When the volume fraction of fiber remains 2%, cement substitution with fly ash reduces the flexural strength of cementitious Composites, while which is improved by cement substitution with both silica fume and fly ash.