numerical and experimental study of in-situ methods to evaluate the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced mortars

Nowadays, it is significantly important to perform in situ methods to evaluate the quality of cement materials. the present study tried to use semi destructive friction transfer and pull-off methods to evaluate the compressive and flexural strength of polypropylene fiber-reinforced cement mortars at different ages. therefore, the relationship between compressive and flexural strength of fiber-reinforced mortars and readings of friction transfer and pull-off tests is presented here. results of these tests were extracted at ages of 3, 7, 28, 42, and 90 days and compared with the compressive and flexural strengths of the fiber-reinforced mortars. the calibration curve graphs were presented by linear and power regression analysis. a total of 120 cubic specimens with a size of 50 mm, 60 prismatic specimens with a size of 40*40*160 mm, and 80 cubic specimens with a size of 150 mm were fabricated for compressive, flexural, and in-situ tests, respectively. also, the distribution of stresses and the propagation of crack were studied through the abovementioned tests using the finite element method and modeling with the abaqus software, and compared with the experimental results. the results showed that there was a high correlation between the readings of the friction transfer and pull-off tests, and between the compressive and flexural strengths of the fiber-reinforced cement mortars. moreover, the addition of fibers improved the behavior of cement mortars subjected to compression, and the finite element method was highly consistent with the experimental results.