On the mechanical behavior of a hybrid reinforced concrete for industrial floors

Abstract

Civil construction is an industry sector that has been used as an outlet for the reuse of industrial waste. The present work aims to use the residue of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) from the footwear industry as a partial substitute for a granulometric range of aggregates, aiming at the production of structural concrete and application to industrial floors. The proposed mixing ratios were evaluated from uniaxial compression, three-point bending, and drying shrinkage tests. The results of the uniaxial compression tests showed that the concrete with EVA addition still has enough strength to be considered structural concrete. In addition, the EVA and polypropylene fiber particles act as stress transfer bridges in the cracked zone, resulting in an increase in residual stresses and, consequently, in the toughness of the concrete in the three-point bending test. Finally, Technical Report 34 was used as a procedure to design an industrial floor based on the compressive strength, Young's modulus, and flexural behavior of the tested composites. The final result showed that even with lower compressive strength, fiber-reinforced concrete with EVA achieves greater structural efficiency for an industrial floor with the same cross-sectional height as ordinary fiber-reinforced concrete.