ABSTRACT
The Super Crete (Icon) is one of the polymer concrete types that was developed recently in many countries and still considered as a new material especially in Egypt. It is a concrete without coarse aggregate that consists of powder material (which contains high percentage of calcium silicate) and polymer liquid. So it looks like a mortar paste more than a concrete. The use of powder material and polymer liquid for the production of new type of concrete is one common means for achieving a more environment-friendly concrete. Icon has shown superior high performance in compressive strength, durability, very fast curing time and very low permeability that breaks the current known limitations. It has been used widely in the architectural applications like decorative features, facade and cladding. Due to the newness of Icon and the lack of information about the materials and manufacturing process of this type in the Egyptian market, this research was carried out to investigate the shear behavior of polymer concrete beams under different conditions. The shear strength is one of the important properties of concrete polymers when used in structural elements subjected to shear like slender beams and columns. Fifteen beams were cast to investigate the effect of the shear span to depth ratios, different locations and different reinforcement of openings on the shear behavior of the tested specimens. All these beams were designed to fail in shear. The test results showed that, the absence of coarse aggregates reduced the ultimate shear strength of the fine aggregate polymer concrete. This may be attributed that, the rougher crack surfaces are better able to transfer shear due to aggregate interlock. The validity of both the Egyptian Code for the design and implementation of Concrete Structures (ECCS) 203-2007 and American Concrete Institute (ACI) 318-2011Codes for estimating the shear strength of the tested Super Crete beams was investigated. The research described in this paper provides additional experimental information on the shear behavior of polymer concrete beams. Different conclusions and recommendations are introduced.
