A study of engineering and electricity properties of cement mortar added with fly ashes and piezoelectric materials

Taiwan, which is located on a plate junction, experiences frequent earthquakes, abundant rainfall during the typhoon season, and frequent natural disasters. Improvements in the intelligent disaster prevention functions of the buildings are imperative. The cement mortar materials prepared by replacing the cement component with varying amounts of fly ash 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, respectively (comparison group). The piezoelectric materials were prepared by replacing the 5% fine aggregate with piezoelectric powder (PZT group). The engineering and electricity properties were tested to assess the correlations among flow, compressive strength, water absorption, and electricity at 50 V and 100 V. The correlations between these properties were also investigated. At the curing age of 28 days, the compressive strength of the comparison group was in the range of 31.0-20.4 MPa, whereas, the compressive strength of PZT group was in the range of 29.0-19.0 MPa. The comparison group exhibited higher results (1870-1588 Omega) in the electricity property test under 50 V, whereas PZT group exhibited lower results (1419-1286 Omega). The compressive strength and results of the electricity property tests demonstrated that the compressive strength and electrical resistance decreased as the replacement of the fly ash increased. The strength of the comparison group was higher than the strength of PZT group because 5% of the fine aggregates were replaced by the piezoelectric material and the piezoelectric material was water-resistant. However, this study was just 5% of the fine aggregates replaced by the piezoelectric materials that, to the compressive strength, these effects are small.