Experimental and numerical analysis of new bricks made up of polymer modified-cement using expanded vermiculite

Abstract

In this paper, the properties of the cement mortar modified with styrene acrylic ester copolymer were investigated. Expanded vermiculite as lightweight aggregate was used for making the polymer modified mortar test specimens. To study the effect of polymer-cement ratio and vermiculite-cement ratio on various properties, specimens were prepared by varying the polymer-cement and vermiculite-cement ratios. Tests of physical properties such as density, water absorption, thermal conductivity, three-point flexure and compressive tests were made on the specimens. Furthermore, a coupled thermal-structural finite element model of an entire corner wall was modelled in order to study the best material configuration. The wall is composed by a total of 132 bricks of 120 x 242 x 54 size, joined by means of a contact-bonded model. The use of advanced numerical methods allows us to obtain the optimum material properties. Finally, comparisons of polymer-cement and vermiculite-cement ratios on physical properties are given and the most important conclusions are exposed.