Laboratory and industrial investigations on hybrid of acrylic and glass short bers

as an alternative for substituting asbestos in Hatschek process

M. Jamshidi
a,
*
, A.A. Ramezanianpour
b
a
Department of Polymer, Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC), Tehran, Iran
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 5 January 2008
Received in revised form 24 April 2010
Accepted 7 June 2010
Available online 3 July 2010
Keywords:
Hatschek process
Fibercement sheet
Reinforcement
Asbestos
Acrylic ber
Glass ber
a b s t r a c t
Asbestos bers have been used in cement based materials to improve tensile strength and controlling
crack formation and propagation. Asbestoscement sheets are produced by the Hatschek technique in
a number of developing countries.
Due to the health and safety issues in the asbestos products, attempts have been made to substitute
other bers using the Hatschek system for cement sheets. The quality and homogeneity of the products
depend on the type of bers and varies substantially in the Hatschek system during production.
In this investigation acrylic and glass bers in separate and hybrid forms were used for manufacture of
at and corrugated sheets. Higher strength and ductility were obtained for the sheets containing glass
bers. Performance was even better when hybrid system of acrylic and glass bers was used. The hybrid
system was used for production of bercement sheets in factory. This system is proposed as an appro-
priate alternative for substituting asbestos in the Hatschek process.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The use of bers to reinforce cement based materials which are
much weaker in tension than in compression has been investigated
in some research works [1,2]. They can be used as;
Primary reinforcement; reinforcement materials which are
used to improve tensile and exural strengths of cement base
materials such as steel bars in concrete and high volume con-
centrations of bers in thin sheet cement materials.
Secondary reinforcement; bers in low volume concentra-
tions are used in cement based materials to inhibit crack for-
mation or crack propagation.
Therefore, using bers will lead to inhibition of crack growth
and transformation a rapid, brittle type of failure into a slow, stable
fracture with ductility and increased energy absorption capacity
prior to failure [3].
The most widely used manufactured composite in modern time
was asbestos cement, which was developed in the early 20th cen-
tury with the invention of the Hatschek process. The main use of
this process was in production of corrugated and at sheets for
cladding of various buildings and water and wastewater pipes
[1,4].
Asbestoscement sheets are made in the Hatschek process by
dewatering of dilute suspension of cementber mixture. Asbestos
had many applications in different industries before, but their
usages were limited due to health and safety problems. Attempts
have been made to replace asbestos in different applications for
the last 30 years [5].
The Hatschek system is a sensitive process and especial require-
ments must be met in its applications. One of the most important
requirements is ber characteristics. Fibers which are used in the
Hatschek process must be similar to asbestos in physical/mechan-
ical properties. Thus, these requirements limit the application of
many bers such as steel ones.
There have been several investigations on other processes to
substitute the Hatschek process [68], however because of excel-
lent homogeneity and high quality of cement sheets produced by
the Hatschek process; it is still being used as a major system for
production of bercement sheets in many countries.
Many synthetic and natural bers have already been investi-
gated as asbestos substitutes but only a few some of them exhib-
ited satisfactory performance [924].
In this work chopped glass and acrylic bers were used sepa-
rately as asbestos replacements in laboratory experiments for pro-
duction of cement sheets. In addition, they were used together as
hybrid system for cement sheets manufacturing in different mix
designs. The performance of sheets was examined by three point
exural strength test method.
Finally optimized and proposed mix design was used to produce
sheets in an industrial scale in a factory by the Hatschek machine.
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.06.026
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 88255942; fax: +98 21 88255941.
E-mail address: jamshidi@bhrc.ac.ir (M. Jamshidi).
Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 298302
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Flexural strength of specimens was measured and compared with
those made with asbestos cement composites.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Cement
ASTM type II Portland cement was used in this investigation.
The chemical composition and physical properties of cement are
shown in Table 1.
2.1.2. Acrylic ber(Ac)
This type of bers was poly-acrylonitrile (PAN). They were tex-
tile grade with denier of 4(per lament). Apart from other bers,
the acrylic ber was in bean shape. The dimension of the bers
was 14 24 lm. They were cut in 34 mm length using a blade
in laboratory. Fig. 1 shows the longitudinal and cross section
images of the bers. The bean shape of the acrylic bers is evident
in the cross section image.
Table 2 shows the strength and elastic modulus of the bers.
2.1.3. Glass ber(GF)
These bers were ER type and were cut in 6 mm especially for
concrete application (see Fig. 2). The strength and elastic modulus
of the bers can be seen in Table 2.
2.2. Test apparatus
2.2.1. Flexural strength tester
Flexural strength of the bercement sheets was evaluated
using a HOUNSFIELD H5KS apparatus with a three point bearing
clamp. A schematic image of exural strength test apparatus is
shown in Fig. 3. The exural force (N) was measured continuously
at different deections (mm) and forcedeection curve was auto-
matically plotted.
Table 1
Chemical analysis of used cement.
Chemical composition Results (%)
SiO
2
19.72
Al
2
O
3
3.65
Fe
2
O
3
4.2
MgO 3.4
CaO 60.48
Loss on ignition 4.76
Non-soluble residue 0.46
C
3
S 59.71
C
2
S 11.49
C
3
A 2.57
C
4
AF + 2C
3
A or C
4
AF + C
2
A 17.91
Na
2
O + 0.0658 K
2
O 0.75
(a)
(b)
63x 40x
Fig. 1. Optical microscope image of acrylic ber (a) longitudinal view and (b) cross section.
Table 2
Strength and elastic modulus of bers.
Fiber type Strength (cN/dtex) Elastic modulus (cN/dtex)
Acrylic 2.88 50.45
Glass 6.49 288.45
Fig. 2. An image of used glass ber.
Fig. 3. Schematic image of exural strength test apparatus by three point bearing
method.
M. Jamshidi, A.A. Ramezanianpour / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 298302 299
2.2.2. Specimen preparation apparatus
This is a well-known apparatus for sample preparation in asbes-
tos cement sheet manufacturers. It works on the basis of dewater-
ing from a dilute suspension of bercement mix and then
pressing before removing sheet from die. Produced specimens
had dimensions of about 200 100 6(to 10) mm.
Curing regime was moist curing for 1 day followed by 13 days
in ambient condition before testing.
2.3. Sample preparation
Different mix designs were prepared with constant water/ce-
ment ratio and various amounts of bers. Therefore volume per-
centage of the bers varied in different mix designs. The used
mix design is shown in Table 3.
To prepare specimens, water was rst added to a laboratory
mixer having 1 kg capacity with three mixing speeds. Then cement
was added to it during a slow mixing speed and mixing continued
for 10 min. Finally, the bers were added to cement paste and mix-
ing continued for another 15 min. The composite slurry was
poured into the sample preparation unit and dewatering started
after 30 s using a vacuum pump. At the end of the dewatering pro-
cess a 10 kg weight was placed on the dewatered paste to remove
additional water and air pores from specimens. Finally, specimens
having thickness of 56 mm were removed from die and cured for
14 days. Three specimens were prepared and tested for each mix
design.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Flexural strength test results
3.1.1. Acrylic bercement sheets
Acrylic bercement sheets were prepared at ber volume frac-
tion of 1.5%. Results (average curves) are shown in Fig. 4. The con-
trol specimens (without ber) showed a brittle behavior. They
depicted lower load bearing values in comparison with the speci-
mens containing acrylic ber.
Although the acrylic containing cement sheets showed higher
load values but it is evident that the fracture occurs at maximum
load of 100 N. They still sustain lower load values (about 40 N)
after fracture. The mode of failure for these specimens was ber
pullout.
3.1.2. Glass bercement sheets
Glass bercement sheets were prepared at ber volume frac-
tion of 5%. The average curve of loaddeection for this sheet is
shown in Fig. 5. An improved load bearing, exural strength and
ductility were observed in these specimens. Glass ber is an inor-
ganic ber with high tenacity similar to asbestos bers having high
strength, high load bearing capacity and good adhesion to cement
matrix.
The failure mode for these specimens was ber rupture.
3.1.3. Hybrid of glass and acrylic bers
In order to investigate the effect of the hybrid bers (glass and
acrylic) on the exural strength of cement sheets, the hybrid bers
sheets were prepared. Results as average curves are shown in
Fig. 6.
It is evident that the hybrid bers showed synergistic effect and
better performance than that of each ber separately. In fact, there
is not any ber to perform exactly similar to asbestos. Thus, it was
decided to use hybrid of two bers with higher modulus to resist
higher loads and low or medium modulus to enhance ductility.
To compare effect of bers on exural strength of cement com-
posites, modulus of rupture (MOR) was calculated for all samples
as follows:
MOR 3FL=2bh
2
1
where, MOR, F, L, b and h are modulus of rupture (MPa) (the maxi-
mum exural stress which sheets undergo before fracture), the
maximum borne exural force, the distance between the supports
Table 3
Mix design of all laboratory produced sheets.
Components Weights(g)
Cement 180 g
Water 720 cc
Fiber Variable in each mix
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
L
o
a
d

(
N
)
Acrylic Control
Deflection (mm)
Fig. 4. Flexural forcedeection curve of Acrylic ber reinforced cement compos-
ites (AFRCC) at ber volume content of 1.5%.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
L
o
a
d

(
N
)
Deflection (mm)
Fig. 5. Flexural forcedeection curve of Glass ber reinforced cement composites
(GFRCC) at ber volume content of 5%.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
L
o
a
d

(
N
)
GF(Vf=5%)+Acrylic(Vf=1.5%) GF(Vf=5%) Acrylic(Vf=1.5%)
Deflection (mm)
Fig. 6. Flexural forcedeection curve of cement composites reinforced with Glass
and Acrylic hybrid bers (HFRCC).
300 M. Jamshidi, A.A. Ramezanianpour / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 298302
in exural xture, the width and the thickness of sheets (test
specimens).
Results are shown in Fig. 7.
3.1.4. Factory made specimens
Based on satisfactory performance of before mentioned the hy-
brid bers in the laboratory made cement sheets, they were used in
a factory which produces at and corrugated asbestos sheets using
Hatschek method to manufacture non-asbestos at sheets. Some of
the efforts which performed in the factory are shown in Figs. 811.
Fig. 8 shows the milling stage of glass ber. The acrylic bers
were added to the cement at the nal stage (see Fig. 9). As seen
in Fig. 10 the suspended bers and cement in water applied to
the felt and then dewatered by a suction pump. Finally, authors
were able to produce 8 mm thickness sheets with hybrid bers
(see Fig. 11).
Some specimens were cut from produced sheets and tested for
exural strength similar to laboratory made specimens. Flexural
strength of asbestos cement (traditional factory production) and
glassacrylic hybrid bercement sheets were measured and com-
pared. Average curves of loaddeection of the both specimens are
compared in Fig. 12. Results of MOR for different specimens can be
seen in Fig. 13. It is evident that factory made asbestos and hybrid
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Control AFRCC GFRCC HFRCC
Composite type
M
o
d
u
l
u
s

o
f

r
u
p
t
u
r
e

(
M
P
a
)
Fig. 7. Modulus of rupture (MOR) of laboratory made ber reinforced cement
composites.
Fig. 8. Milling stage of glass bers in Iranit Co.
Fig. 9. Mixing stage of bers with cement in continuous mixer.
Fig. 10. Application stage and dewatering of ber cement suspension on felt.
Fig. 11. Factory made sheet prepared of hybrid ber reinforced cement composite.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
F
o
r
c
e

(
N
)
Asbestos Hybrid(GF+Acrylic)
Deflection (mm)
Fig. 12. Flexural loaddeection curve of specimens made in factory.
0
5
10
15
20
25
Asbetos cement
composite
Factory made HFRCC Laboratory made
HFRCC
Composite type
M
o
d
u
l
u
s

o
f

r
u
p
t
u
r
e

(
M
P
a
)
Fig. 13. Comparative modulus of rupture of laboratory and factory made cement
specimens.
M. Jamshidi, A.A. Ramezanianpour / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 298302 301
ber reinforced cement sheets (F-HFRCC) have higher MOR than
laboratory made hybrid ber reinforced cement sheets (L-HFRCC).
Toughness of all prepared specimens was calculated which results
presented in Fig. 14. The MOR and toughness are lower for com-
posites containing the hybrid bers than asbestos composites
however it is acceptable for construction applications.
4. Conclusion
Flexural performance of cementitious composites reinforced by
acrylic ber, glass ber and hybrid of these bers was investigated
using a three point bearing exural strength test method. The fol-
lowing conclusions can be drawn from the test results;
(1) Composites containing chopped glass ber showed better
exural performance and higher modulus of rupture
(MOR) than acrylic ber reinforced composites.
(2) Composites containing hybrid of glass ber (5%) and acrylic
ber (1.5%) resulted in better exural behavior and higher
MOR. A synergistic effect was observed in application of high
modulus glass bers and low modulus acrylic bers. This
was attributed to matrix strengthening by glass bers and
control of crack creation and propagation by acrylic bers.
Also, it can be attributed to hybrid mode of failure of ber
pullout and ber rupture in composites containing hybrid
bers.
(3) The laboratory mix design was applied in a pilot scale for
factory production line. Better exural performance and
higher MOR was obtained when compared with laboratory
made specimens.
(4) Comparing the results of Hybrid ber and asbestos rein-
forced cement composites showed that although the asbes-
tos composites shows higher exural strength but due to its
health and environmental problems, the hybrid ber can be
replaced with asbestoscement sheets.
Finally, authors propose the hybrid ber system to be replaced
with asbestos ber in the production of at and corrugated sheets
in the Hatschek process.
Acknowledgment
We appreciate Tehran Iranit Co. for their helps and cooperation
and assistance in production of non-asbestos cement sheets in
their factory.
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
C
o
n
t
r
o
l
A
F
R
C
C
G
F
R
C
C
L
-
H
F
R
C
C
F
-
H
F
R
C
C
A
s
b
e
s
t
o
s

c
o
m
p
o
s
i
t
e
Composite type
T
o
u
g
h
n
e
s
s

*

1
0
-
3

(
J
o
u
l
e
/
m
3
)
Fig. 14. Comparative toughness of different cement composites.
302 M. Jamshidi, A.A. Ramezanianpour / Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 298302