• Advances in materials Research
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.119-131
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• 2023

The development of sustainable composites materials, from recycled polymeric materials and waste from the wood industry and stone processing, allows reducing the volume of these by-products, minimizing impacts on health and the environment. Nowadays, Polypropylene (PP) is the most recycled polymer in industry, while the furniture industry has increasingly used timber felled from sustainable forest plantations as a eucalypt. The powder tailing from the ornamental stone extraction and processing industry is commonly disposed of in the environment without previous treatment. Thus, the technological option for the development of composite materials presents itself as a sustainable alternative for processing and manufacturing industries, enabling the development of new materials with special technical features. The results showed that powder granite particles may be incorporated into the polypropylene matrix associated with short eucalyptus fibres forming green hybrid composites with potential application in structural engineering, such as transport and civil construction industries.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.171-183
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• 2020

The main objective of this study is the assessment of the ability of limestone mortars to resist to different chemical attacks. The ability of polypropylene (PP) fibres waste used as reinforcement of these concrete materials to enhance their durability is also studied. Crushed sand 0/2 mm which is a fine limestone residue obtained by the crushing of natural rocks in aggregates industry is used for the fabrication of the mortar. The fibres used, which are obtained from the waste of domestic plastic sweeps' fabrication, have a length of 20 mm and a diameter ranging between 0.38 and 0.51 mm. Two weight fibres contents are used, 0.5 and 1%. The durability tests carried out in this investigation included the water absorption by capillarity, the mass variation, the flexural and the compressive strengths of the mortar specimens immersed for 366 days in 5% sodium chloride, 5% magnesium sulphate and 5% sulphuric acid solutions. A mineralogical analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a visual inspection are used for a better examination of the quality of tested mortars and for better interpretation of their behaviour in different solutions. The results indicate that the reinforcement of limestone mortar by PP fibres waste is an excellent solution to improve its chemical resistance and durability. Moreover, the presence of PP fibres waste does not affect significantly the water absorption by capillarity of mortar nether its mass variation, when exposed to chloride and sulphate solutions. While in sulphuric acid, the mass loss is higher with the presence of PP fibres waste, especially after an exposure of 180 days. The results reveal that these fibres have a considerable effect of the flexural and the compressive behaviour of mortar especially in acid solution, where a reduction of strength loss is observed. The mineralogical analysis confirms the good behaviour of mortar immersed in sulphate and chloride solutions; and shows that more gypsum is formed in mortar exposed to acid environment causing its rapid degradation. The visual observation reveals that only samples exposed to acid attack during 366 days have showed a surface damage extending over a depth of approximately 300 ㎛.