Investigation of Mechanical and Electromagnetic Properties of Cement Composites with High-Volume Fly Ash and Reinforced with Basalt Fibers

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of basalt fibers and fly ash on cement composites’ mechanical and electromagnetic properties. High-volume fly ash and 0–2 vol% basalt fibers are considered to analyze the variations of mechanical and electromagnetic properties. In addition, flexural and compressive strengths, reflection loss, electromagnetic parameters, and microstructures of the cement composites are analyzed. The relationships between strengths and pore structures, dielectric properties and pore structures, magnetic properties and magnetic particle size, as well as magnetic properties and dielectric properties are found. Also, possible explanations about the strength variation are presented. It is proved that the Debye exists in cement composites and plays a vital role in the dielectric loss. It was found that the natural resonance and the eddy current effect dominate the magnetic loss. In addition, for the cement composites, both impedance matching and dielectric loss should be considered.

Keywords: Electromagnetic wave absorption, Cement mortar, Impedance matching, Basalt fiber, Fly ash.