2026/01/01 by Bo Xie, Xingdong Hao, Liu X +3 · 1 voice
Engineering · Materials Science · #Concrete and Cement Materials Research #Innovative concrete reinforcement materials #Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites
paper · doi:10.1515/ntrev-2025-0335
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract To develop low-carbon and high-toughness civil engineering materials, this study systematically investigates the mechanical properties, tensile constitutive model, and sustainability of high-ductility engineered geopolymer composites (EGC). Through 11 sets of mix proportion tests, the effects of slag content, water-to-binder ratio, alkali-to-binder ratio, sand-to-binder ratio, and fiber volume fraction on the performance of EGC were quantitatively analyzed. The results indicate that EGC exhibits exceptionally high early strength, with its 3-day compressive strength reaching 81–96 % of its 28-day strength (up to 94.04 MPa). Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers effectively inhibit crack propagation, enabling the composite to achieve an ultimate tensile strain of 5.78 % and maintain crack widths below 100 μm under the optimal saturated fine cracking pattern. Furthermore, a bilinear tensile constitutive model incorporating the fiber characteristic parameter ( λ f ) was established, showing high agreement with experimental data. In addition, life-cycle assessment (LCA) and cost analysis demonstrate that EGC significantly reduces the carbon footprint compared to traditional cement-based ECC. By introducing the eco-strength index and eco-tensile strain index, this study confirms that EGC achieves a superior balance between remarkable mechanical ductility and environmental efficiency, providing a reliable theoretical and practical basis for sustainable structural engineering.