Fly ash as replacement for cement in extruded fiber-reinforced cement composites

The objective of this work was to develop extrudable compositions of fiber-reinforced cement composites that contain high content of fly ash. For that purpose specimens containing different ratio of fly ash as replacement for cement were extruded, with different fiber types: acrylic, PVA, glass and cellulose. Composites produced with the conventional cast process were also examined for comparison. It was found that fly ash improves the flexural strength and ductility of the extruded composite compared to composites without fly ash, for all fiber types. In the cast composites fly ash improved the composite ductility but reduced the flexural strength of the composite. Differences in matrix properties and fiber-matrix interface between the cast and extrusion composites can explain the differences in the flexural performances.