Influence of polyvinyl alcohol powder on the mechanical performance and volume stability of sulfoaluminate–portland cement composite

Abstract

Cement quick repair materials generally have the defects of brittleness and early shrinkage. The modification of composite cement mortar by water-soluble glue powder—polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)—was studied in the condition of settled water cement ratio. At 90 days, the maximum flexural strength of mortar was 15.4 MPa, which was 1.3 times of the group without PVA and there was no strength shrinkage phenomenon. Through the analysis of the porosity, PVA improved the total porosity; high porosity could play a better role of buffering and absorbing the impact stress, effectively improving the toughness of mortar. At 28 days, the maximum impact resistance was 1.72 J/cm2, which was 1.75 times of the group without PVA. In addition, the increased total porosity also greatly absorbed the shrinkage stress at the early stage, and reduced the mortar self-shrinkage. When the PVA content was 1%, the volume self-shrinkage of mortar decreased from the initial 3360 µm·m−1 to 700 µm·m−1 . According to the analysis of hydration heat, the addition of PVA effectively reduced the early hydration heat release rate and alleviated the concentrated heat release phenomenon to a certain extent. In this paper, the hydration reaction of composite cement and the action mechanism of PVA in composite cement were studied by means of X-ray diffraction, infrared spectrum and hydration heat analysis.