Federico C. Antico

Adolfo Ibáñez University · Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias

Addition of fibers to cement-based materials improve tensile and flexural strength, fracture toughness, abrasion resistance, delay cracking, and reduce crack widths. Natural fibers have recently become more popular in the construction materials community. This investigation addresses the characterization of a new animal fiber (pig hair), a massive...

This study addresses the use of a natural fiber (pig hair), a massive food-industry waste, as reinforcement in adobe mixes (a specific type of earthen material). The relevance of this work resides in the fact that earthen materials are still widely used worldwide because of their low cost, availability, and low environmental impact. Results show th...

We present a bottom-up experimental research to address evidence of internal curing of mortars using randomly distributed pig-hair as water reservoirs. Plain and reinforced mortars with pig hair ranging from 0 to 8 kg of fibers per cubic meter of mortar were prepared. The microstructures of plain and reinforced mortars were scanned using electron m...

Adobe is an earthen-based material that consists of the use of a clayey soil and, most of the times, straw fibres to manufacture blocks that are afterwards sundried. This study reviews the use of three types of fibres: vegetal, industrial and animal, for the manufacture of adobe blocks. Overall, all the fibres increase at least one order of magnitu...

Earthen construction represents almost 30% of the housing in developing countries, partially because of its low cost compared to steel and concrete construction, and also because the raw materials are available almost everywhere. One of the biggest disadvantages of earthen materials is the lack of information and variety on their constitutive mater...

Due to their sustainability as well as physical and mechanical performance, different natural fibers, both vegetal and animal fibers, have been successfully used in adobe mixtures (AMs) to enhance properties such as cracking control, flexural toughness and water erosion resistance, among others. However, the use of jute fibers (JFs), one of the mos...

Construction materials with additions of recycled or natural materials have become attractive to researchers as an option to enhance its damage-mechanical performance and extend its service life while mitigating the environmental impact caused mainly by its production and transportation [1]. The forecasted volumes of production of the two main cons...

The use of adobe blocks (sun dried bricks made with clayey soil) as construction material has been resurged in late years attracting the interest of the research community due to its thermal properties and, compared to concrete and steel, low CO2 emissions associated with the manufacturing process [1], [2]. Yet, earthen materials compressive and fl...

La incorporación de fibras de refuerzos en materiales cementicios puede mejorar las resistencias a tracción y flexión, la tenacidad flexural, la resistencia a la abrasión, y el control de la fisuración, entre otros efectos. Tradicionalmente, los materiales cementicios se han reforzado mediante fibras industrializadas de origen metálico o plástico,...

Commercial polypropylene fibers are incorporated as reinforcement of cement-based materials to improve their mechanical and damage performances related to properties such as tensile and flexural strength, toughness, spalling and impact resistance, delay formation of cracks and reducing crack widths. Yet, the production of these polypropylene fibers...

The addition of engineered polypropylene fibers to earthen materials offers new opportunities to control their damage evolution and mechanical properties that altogether provides more reliability and extends the life span of these materials. The latter is of special interest considering that earthen materials are still widely used in the form of ad...

Earth has been used as construction material for thousands of years and still at present earthen shelters are widely inhabited due to their comfort and low environmental impacts. Despite their advantages, earthen materials are brittle and their performance can be enhanced with the addition of fibers. This study addresses the use of different dosage...

Flexural toughness, impact resistance and shrinkage cracking performance of earthen materials can be improved with the addition of fibers. There are limited studies addressing these properties in fiber-mixed adobe. This study investigates the use of jute fibers, a natural one derived from plants, in adobe mixes, including a sensitivity analysis on...

El presente estudio experimental evalúa el uso de una fibra natural (pelo de cerdo), un desecho masivo generado por la industria alimentaria, como refuerzo de mezclas de tierra para construcción. Las mezclas de tierra fueron reforzadas con dos dosis de fibra (0,5% y 2% de peso de fibra seca con respecto a peso de suelo arcilloso seco) y tres largos...

Propiedades como tenacidad flexural, resistencia al impacto y fisuración por retracción por secado de materiales de construcción en base a tierra pueden ser mejoradas con la adición controlada de fibras. Sin embargo, existen escasos estudios que evalúen cuantitativamente el impacto del uso de fibras en estas propiedades de fractura en mezclas de ti...

La incoporación controlada de fibras de refuerzo industrializadas a materiales de construcción en base a tierra ofrece nuevas oportunidades para mejorar sus propiedades mecánicas y de fractura, y, en consecuencia, proveer mejor desempeño de estructural y durabilidad de estos materiales que aún son ampliamente usados alrededor del mundo. En la prese...

El cobre es actualmente, el producto más importante en la economía chilena, de hecho, su producción equivale al 20% del PIB total y al 60% de las exportaciones mineras chilenas. A nivel mundial, Chile lidera los rankings de producción de cobre, con un 31% del total mundial y sus reservas representan el 30% de las reservas mundiales. Sin embargo, la...

Flexural toughness, impact resistance and shrinkage cracking performance of earthen materials can be improved with the addition of fibers. There are limited studies addressing these properties in fiber mixed adobe. This study investigates the use of jute fibers, a natural one derived from plants, in adobe mixes, including a sensitivity analysis on...

Laboratory mortar samples and large structures of concrete under tension most likely behave as brittle. Contrary to what is expected from a brittle material, the previously mentioned structures could: 1) develop distributed damage, 2) relax tensile stresses and 3) reduce its macroscopic tensile strength when subject to time-dependent tensile stress...

Eco-bricks, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles filled with mixed inorganic waste, have become a low cost construction material and a valid recycling method to reduce waste disposal in regions where industrial recycling is not yet available. Because Eco-bricks are filled with mixed recovered materials, potential recycling of its constituents i...

Eco-bricks, PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles filled with inorganic waste materials, had become an accessible and low cost material for community development projects in regions where industrial recycling might not be yet available. Eco-brick proponents consider it is a valid recycling way to reduce waste disposal volumes. However, both the...

Waste valorization has entered the construction industry over the last decades, and the use of waste to replace components and/or improve properties of cement-based materials has been attracting research attention worldwide. Cement-based materials perform well under compression, but their tensile strength and post-cracking ductility in tension are...

Recycled fibers from food-industry could be added as reinforcement to cement-based materials. Cement-based materials perform well under compression, but tensile strength and post-cracking ductility in tension are poor. Fibers produced from steel, glass and synthetic materials, have been successfully used to overcome some of these shortcomings. Fibe...

The risk of cracking in a concrete pavement that is opened to traffic at early ages is related to the maximum tensile stress that develops in the pavement and its relationship to the measured, age dependent, flexural strength of a beam. The stress that develops in the pavement is due to several factors including traffic loading and restrained volum...

Internally cured (IC) concrete is frequently produced in North America using pre-wetted lightweight aggregate (LWA). One important aspect associated with the production of quality IC concrete is the accurate determination of the moisture content, including absorbed moisture and surface moisture of the LWA. Knowledge of the moisture content enables...

Internally cured (IC) concrete is frequently produced in North America using pre-wetted lightweight aggregate (LWA). One important aspect associated with the production of quality IC concrete is the accurate determination of the moisture content, including absorbed moisture and surface moisture of the LWA. Knowledge of the moisture content enables...

In this paper we discuss some of the recent progress in multiscale methods to predict material failure. In particular, we look at the so-called multiscale cohesive models to predict cracks in materials with hierarchical structure, such as concrete. Our interest lies in our ability to transfer the necessary information from the finer to the coarser...

A combined, numerical and experimental, study of a thermo-mechanical joint for satellite applications is presented. The joint was designed to provide high thermal insulation (160 K/W) for large mass equipment (70 kg) and satisfy, at the same time, NASA standards and mission requirements of a scientific satellite launched on July 2011. In general, m...

This work presents an experimental and theoretical study intended to obtain a better understanding of adhesion between NiTi Shape Memory Alloy wire and Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) matrix. NiTi wire surfaces were subject to different surface treatments (e.g. chemical, conversion coating and mechanical). Atomic force microscopy was employed to exa...

We present a combined experimental/theoretical study aimed at enhancing adhesion between a NiTi wire and a thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) matrix in which it is embedded. NiTi wire surfaces were subjected to the following surface treatments prior to pull-out tests: (i) treatment with an acid etch or chemical conversion coating and (ii) application o...

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor...

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor...

115 pages, 54 figures, 5 tables

The Cherenkov Telescope Array is the next generation ground-based instrument for the observation of veryhigh- energy gamma-rays. It will provide an order of magnitude more sensitivity and better angular and energy resolution than present systems as well as an increased energy range. For the high energy portion of this range, the construction of ~6m...