Fracture mechanics of polymer mortar made with recycled raw materials

Abstract

The aim of this work is to show that industrial residues could be used in construction applications so that production costs as well as environmental protection can be improved. The fracture properties of polymer mortar manufactured with recycled materials are investigated to evaluate the materials behaviour to crack propagation. The residues used in this work were spent sand from foundry industry as aggregate, unsaturated polyester resin from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as matrix and polyester textile fibres from garment industry, producing an unique composite material fully from recycled components with low cost. The substitution of fresh by used foundry sand and the insertions of textile fibres contribute to a less brittle behaviour of polymer mortar.

Characterization of composite tiles fabricated from poly(ethylene terephthalate) and micromarble particles reinforced by glass fiber mats

“…In addition to its cost-effective nature, PCT presents an environmentally friendly way to utilize light weight polymer composites. As demonstrated by Tawfik and Eskander and others [3,7,[10][11][12][13][14][15], polyester can be synthesized from recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate). It is shown that polyester resins produced from recycled PET have similar properties with commercial polyester resin [3,16,17].…”

Potential use of waste cotton in production of biomass composites

“…Some researchers have also used carpet waste to prepare carpet-polymer resin composite sheets through surface treatment methods or other chemical means to enhance the mechanical properties of the composite (Bateman and Wu 2001;Lin et al 2007;Jain et al 2010). In addition, other researchers have examined the preparation of textile waste in unsaturated polyester resin (Jurumenha and Dos Reis 2010;Rimdusit et al 2011).…”

Mechanical Properties of Lightweight Concrete Partition with a Core of Textile Waste

“…Using these textile wastes in concrete lead to a smoother failure, unlike brittleness failure behavior of unreinforced polymer concrete. Furthermore, the usage of textile waste may solve the problems like environmental pollution and provision of an alternative material for the construction industry [11,12]. Previous research studies on random distribution of fibers in concrete have been done mainly to prevent the concrete from cracking in the early hours or to improve the mechanical properties of concrete.…”

“…Previous research studies on random distribution of fibers in concrete have been done mainly to prevent the concrete from cracking in the early hours or to improve the mechanical properties of concrete. Moreover, the percentage of fibers used in the concrete has been insignificant (about 1 to 5 percent of volume) [8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, the present study aims at widespread usage of textile waste as the fiber core in central part of panels, which resulted in more environmental friendliness and more light weighting in nonstructural elements of the buildings.…”