Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibers: Have You Heard the 4 Compulsive Facts?

1. What are Polyvinyl Alcohol Fibers (PVA) Fibers?

You should know China utilizes one-third of all available concrete on the global market, demonstrating the high need for fibers in building and civil engineering.  They already surpassed the United States as the world’s biggest producer of PVA fibers.

In recent years, high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (HPFRC) has received a lot of attention. Various materials and types of fibers in combination with the concrete matrix have been the subject of several studies. (find more fibertypes or concrete matrix by clicking links)

Fiber dosage boosts the energy absorption capacity of concrete and increases the robustness of concrete parts, according to experiments. Knowing which fibers are effective as primary reinforcement and why you should use them in a certain context will help you achieve a well-reinforced item. Polyvinyl Alcohol Fiber is referred to as PVA fiber.

PVA fiber is a high-performance reinforcement fiber that is for concrete and mortar. PVA fibers are a new type of high-performance concrete fiber.

Polyvinyl Alcohol Fiber

These fibers are manufactured from polyvinyl alcohol by wet spinning, heat treatment, and crimping-oiling in water at room temperature.
It has a good chemical resistance, great dimensional stability against heat and moisture, and significant corrosion resistance in harsh settings.
The more individual fibers per pound of fiber, the shorter the fiber.

Due to the higher number of fibers per pound, shorter fibers generate stronger impact resistance (micro reinforcement). The tensile strength of longer fibers is higher (macro reinforcement). For the time being, we’ll concentrate on the advantages of adopting PVA Fibers.

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber properties

Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber offers good qualities for increasing the strength of concrete. It possesses a high modulus of elasticity, durability, tensile strength, and bond strength. These characteristics are required to increase the ductility of concrete.

1. PVA is a flexible material with a high tensile strength.

2. It has no odor and is soluble in water.

3. High strength and low elongation

4. Inorganic solvents are insoluble, although ethanol is somewhat soluble.

What are Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber made of ?

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a resin, a non-crystalline or viscous chemical compound that might be natural or manufactured.

Preparing an aqueous solution of PVA including boric acid or a borate salt thereof (the spinning solution); and spinning in a coagulating bath containing a large amount of water, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, and sodium sulfate can be used to make the PVA fibers of the present invention.

Vinylon fibers are those in which the fiber-forming ingredient is any synthetic polymer containing at least 50% vinyl alcohol (PVA) by weight and in which the total vinyl alcohol units and any one or more acetal units are at least 85% by weight.

Vinylon’s other qualities, such as high strength, low elongation, high modulus, acid/alkali/weather resistance, and strong adhesiveness to rubbers, fulfill industrial needs.

2. What is Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber used for?

When a structural element is subjected to bending, the structural element has a very weak tensile force compared to compression, so reinforcement is required to withstand the tensile force.
PVA Fibers’ key advantage is their ‘invisibility.’ They may be cast all over the concrete with little to no visible effect on the completed surfaces.

PVA fiber is also in demand in a variety of industrial applications, including textiles, coatings, paper, ceramics, and wood, due to its diverse use and usage.
You can rest assured that PVA fiber can help to make its structures more resilient in any aspect.

Is PVA fiber good for concrete?

PVA fiber is good for concrete because of their strong crack-fighting qualities, high modulus of elasticity, excellent tensile and molecular bond strength, and great resistance to alkali, UV, chemicals, fatigue, and abrasion, Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibers are well-suited for a wide range of applications and environment-friendly.

Without PVA fibers, the density of the fiber cement products steadily decreases. Because of its numerous applications in the building industry, concrete has been in use for centuries.
Fibers in concrete have been used for decades to cure temperature and shrinkage fractures in concrete.

It is important for you to know that using PVA fiber helps to prevent damage and large cracks in structures.

Sometimes concrete addictions like celloluse ether, RDP  are also needed to maintain a long life time for a healthy concrete life.

Find out what else you can do to save your concrete here.

Why put PVA fibers in concrete?

Concrete is intrinsically a brittle, compressible material, but it is significantly less effective under tension. Reinforcement is used to absorb these tensile forces so that crack, inevitable in all high-strength concrete, does not weaken the structure.
The latest developments in concrete technology now include reinforcement in the form of fibers.

Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber can be added to a cement mortar mix to improve the mix’s waterproofing properties and adherence to the surface it’s applied on. The addition of PVA fiber reinforcement to concrete increases its quality by making it more fatigue and corrosion resistant.
It is very important to use PVA fiber as it helps to reduce the size of cracks in structures. It also keeps the concrete strong so that even if there are small cracks it does not grow bigger.

PVA fiber allows concrete to move and is able to be deform without losing toughness. It also absorbs more energy and can get rid of cracking that occurs over time.
Adding PVA fiber on concrete, it doesn’t add strength but the goal is to prevent the cracking from drying shrinkage or plastic shrinkage.

When you add a fiber on concrete, it gives a better impact resistance and tensile strength.
If you don’t want to see large cracks or cracks that keeps on growing, then it is recommended to use and to add fibers on concrete.
The addition of Poly Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber to the geopolymer mixture has a significant impact on the strength of geopolymer concrete.

PVA fiber as fiber reinforcement

The use of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fibers as a reinforcing material has several advantages. PVA fiber reinforcement increases the quality of concrete by making it more fatigue and corrosion resistant.
Steel fibers, glass fibers, synthetic fibers, and natural fibers are among the several types of fibers used in concrete, each with its own set of qualities.