Luffa fibers and gamma radiation as improvement tools of polymer concrete

This work presents a study on the effects of luffa fibers and gamma radiation as tools for mechanical improvement of polymer concrete based on a polyester resin/foundry sand mixture. Different concentrations of irradiated and non-irradiated fibers (0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 wt%) and higher irradiation doses were used. The results show that the compressive strength and flexural strength values decrease gradually when increasing irradiated-fiber concentration, respect to plain concrete (without fibers and non-irradiated). Conversely an opposite effect occurs when polymer concrete is gamma irradiated, i.e. both the degree of polymerization and cross-linking of the polymeric resin are increasing. Moreover, the values for compressive and flexural strain as well as dynamic elasticity modulus increase when increasing irradiatedfiber concentration. The highest bending deformation is obtained with 0.9 wt% of fibers and 100 kGy of