2023-11-06
2023-08-09
2023-04-26
Manuscript received June 21, 2021; revised July 28, 2021; accepted September 5, 2021; issue published January 7, 2022.
Abstract—Portland cement reinforced mortars were manufactured by mixing type I cement, fine sand, alpaca wool (in variable percentages) and water, it was possible to verify the influence of the addition of alpaca wool fibers on the mechanical response in uniaxial compression of the mortars studied. The mechanical results found revealed a systematic reduction of the maximum mechanical resistance when increasing the volume of alpaca wool fibers added in the mortar mixtures studied, on the other hand, a higher degree of deformation was evidenced in mortar mixtures with a greater amount of alpaca wool fibers added, reaching deformation values of up to 18%. The maximum strength values found at 7 days of curing were 1.5 to 5.6 MPa for samples with 20 and 4 Vol.% of alpaca wool added, respectively. The microstructure of the mortars studied consisted of a continuous cement binder phase with sand particles and short alpaca wool fibers dispersed within the binder phase. The actual density and average porosity of the alpaca wool reinforced mortars were 2.49 g/cm3 and 45%, respectively.