Mechanical characterization of a self-compacting polymer concrete called isobeton

This paper illustrates an experimental study on a self compacting polymer concrete called isobeton made of polyurethane foam and expanded clay. Several experiments were conducted to characterize the physic-mechanical properties of the considered material. Application of the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) and determining the toughness of two isobetons based on Belgian and Italian clay, was conducted to determine the stress intensity factor $K_{IC}$ and the rate of releasing energy $G_{IC}$. The material considered was tested under static and dynamic loadings for two different samples with $10{\times}10{\times}40$ and $10{\times}15{\times}40cm$ dimensions. The result obtained by the application of the Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM) shows that is optimistic and fulfilled the physic-mechanical requirement of the study.