Fire behaviour of biobased textile reinforced cement composites

Abstract

Our research group has recently developed a composite laminate reinforced with flax fibre nonwoven fabrics with a flexural strength of around 30 MPa and a toughness of around 13 kJ/m2, owing to the combination of a strong fibre-matrix bonding and the use of entangled fibres. The mechanical performance of the cement composites developed fulfils the requirements for applications in panels for ventilated fac¸ades, but the fire behaviour was not been yet studied. Hence, this work focuses on the analysis of the performance of these composites at high temperatures. For this purpose, flax nonwoven reinforced calcium aluminate cement (CAC) composites with variable metakaolin content (from 10 to 40%) have been prepared and characterized. In order to evaluate the effect of temperature on the mechanical properties, the different samples were exposed to temperatures of 250 oC, 450 oC and 950 oC, and were further subjected to bending tests. As a main conclusion, the presence of natural fibres do not seem to worsen the fire behaviour of the CAC/metakaolin composites.