The prestress generated by the fiber shrinkage has some influence on the microstructure of the cement-based composites, but how to characterize this effect is a key question. Because the differences in the microstructure of the materials significantly affect the electrical properties, AC impedance spectroscopy was used to study the effect of fiber prestressing on the cement matrix in this study. The results revealed that compared with the control group, the resistance of the pore solution and the cement matrix ( R s ) and the resistance of solid-liquid interface ( R ct ) of the specimens with wrapped low-temperature shrinkage fibers (LTSFs) increase with the extension of prestress time, indicating that the tightening effect of fiber prestressing helps to form a more compact microstructure of cement matrix. To further verify the reinforcing effect of fiber prestressing on cement-based composites, this study also employed ANSYS finite element simulation and tensile tests to investigate mechanical properties of cement-based composites. The results indicate that the stress caused by fiber shrinkage can be effectively transferred into the cement matrix, thereby enhancing the overall performance of the cement-based composites. This research establishes thermally-activated prestressing as an innovative methodology for developing high-performance cement-based composites through simultaneous microstructural refinement and mechanical property optimization.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.