Uniaxial Tensile Experiment on PVA Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is a representative of the new generation of high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites. To reveal the influence of mineral admixtures on the tensile mechanical characteristics of polyvinyl alcohol fiber reinforced engineered cementitious composites (PVA-ECC), the tensile properties of PVA-ECC with replacing cement by a significant amount of fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF) and metakaolin (MK) was experimentally investigated. Uniaxial tensile experiment was carried out using rectangular thin plate with sizes of 400×100×15mm3. Results from uniaxial tensile tests show that these mineral admixtures can improve the properties of PVA-ECC. The composite can achieve an ultimate strain of 2.0%, as well as an ultimate strength of 4.0MPa, with a moderate fiber volume fraction of 2.0%. In addition, the composites with FA, SF and MK show saturated multiple cracking characteristics with crack width at ultimate strain limited to below 175μm.

Superplastic Behaviors of Casting AZ31 Magnesium Alloy

The superplasticity of magnesium alloy is important in industrial application. However the superplastic deformation of casting magnesium alloy is hard to be realized. In this paper, the stress–strain behaviors of casting AZ31 magnesium alloy with various strain rates at different deformation temperatures were investigated. The alloy was tested in the tensile condition with initial grain size of 25μm. It was found that the elongation of the alloy at 400°C with ε& = 4.25×10-4 s-1 is almost 200%. According to the results of uniaxial tensile experiment, the alloy exhibited superplastic deformation behavior with the slow stain rate in a temperature range of 350 to 450°C. The microstructures deformed and undeformed samples were observed with aid of optical microscope.