Effect of fly ash and metakaolin on the properties of fiber-reinforced cementitious composites: A factorial design approach

Fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) have emerged as a response to the calls for strong, ductile and sustainable concrete mixes. FRCC has shown outstanding mechanical properties and ductility where special fibres are used in the mixes to give it the strength and the ability to exhibit strain hardening. With the possibility of designing the FRCC mixes to include sustainable constituents and by-products materials such as fly ash, FRCC started to emerge as a green alternative as well. To be able to design mixes that achieve these conflicting properties in concrete, there is a need to understand the composition effect on FRCC and optimize these compositions. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the influence of FRCC compositions on the properties of fresh and hardened of FRCC and then to optimize these mix compositions using factorial design approach. Three factors, water-to-binder ratio (w/b), mineral admixtures (total of fly ash and metakaolin by cement content (MAR)), and metakaolin content (MK), were investigated to determine their effects on the properties of fresh and hardened FRCC. The results show the importance of combining both FA and MK in obtaining a satisfactory fresh and mechanical properties of FRCC. Models were suggested to elucidate the role of the studied factors and a method for optimization was proposed.