On the fracture behaviour of fibre-reinforced gypsum using micro and macro polymer fibres

Abstract Gypsum is the most widely used material as interior lining in buildings due to its low cost and good habitability conditions. The use of fibres as randomly distributed reinforcement of quasibrittle matrices, such as gypsum, remarkably improve the material behaviour under tensile stresses. In this work, the fracture behaviour of gypsum specimens reinforced with several types of polymer fibres was assessed, for one of them three fibre lengths were studied. Three types of polymer fibres were employed, with one of them being of microscopic scale and the other two of macroscopic scale. The mechanical behaviour of each mix was studied by means of three-point bending tests and compression tests that were analysed using a digital image correlation system. To study the influence of the fibre length, pull-out tests were also performed. The size, surface finishing and length of the fibres strongly affect the material properties and the way that the fracture mechanisms are developed.