Coal Derived Fiber Reinforced Fly Ash Carbon

The proposed project "Coal derived pitch fiber reinforced fly ash concrete" is the integration of two developing areas of value-added products derived from coal. The first area is the production of low cost discontinuous carbon fiber from coal derived pitch. The second is the utilization of coal combustion fly ash in concrete. In this project, pitch derived from two different sources will be fabricated into discontinuous carbon fiber and used as reinforcement in fly ash concrete. The addition of pitch derived fiber in fly ash concrete should maintain stress transfer capability across a matrix crack to improve toughness, impact resistance and fatigue endurance in fly ash concrete. Pitch fiber fly ash concrete composites will be fabricated. The physical properties of the composites will be measured and compared to fly ash concrete. The effect of pitch fiber type, fiber loading, fiber length and mixing technique will be investigated to determine their effect on composite properties. Upon completion of laboratory testing, a full scale field test (2 m3 pour) of a pitch fiber reinforced fly ash concrete will be performed. This project will demonstrate that coal derived materials can be performance and cost competitive alternatives to traditional concrete reinforcements and may demonstrate another market for coal derived materials. This project involves the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research as lead contractor with in-kind (gratis) contributions from Koppers Industries Inc.