Experimental Study on Self Compacting Fibrous Concrete Comprising Magnesium Sulphate Solution Treated Recycled Aggregates

Enhancing durability and sustainability of industrial floors: A comparative analysis of dry-shake surface hardeners

This study investigates the development of a cost-effective and sustainable dry-shake surface hardener for enhancing the durability of industrial concrete floors. Utilizing locally sourced materials, the research aimed at not only ensuring the hardener's strength and finish but also its economic viability and environmental friendliness. Fourteen unique mixtures were formulated by altering the sand ratios and incorporating superplasticizers to optimize the composition. These mixtures underwent rigorous testing over 7, 14, and 28 days, evaluating their compressive and flexural strengths, flowability, water absorption, and impact resistance. The findings revealed that the modified floor hardener, specifically the FH-12 mixture, exhibited superior performance across all tested parameters. It showed higher compressive and flexural strengths, enhanced impact resistance, and reduced water absorption compared to other variants and commercially available hardeners. Notably, the use of finer coarse sand and the adjustment of superplasticizer quantities significantly contributed to these outcomes. This breakthrough demonstrates the potential of employing locally available materials to create a durable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly solution for industrial flooring. The study underscores the importance of material characterization and methodical formulation in developing construction materials that meet the dual criteria of performance and sustainability. This option is preferred for its lower environmental impact and compatibility with sustainable practices, contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure. It highlights the role of floor hardeners in global sustainability efforts.

Effect of Walnut-Shell Additive on the Structure and Characteristics of Concrete

The partial replacement of the mineral components of concrete with natural renewable analogues in full possession of the performance characteristics of the final material, allows not only the concrete-production process to be made more environmentally friendly and inexpensive, but also to solve an important task for the agricultural industry, which is that associated with waste disposal. The scientific novelty of the work is in the obtaining of new concrete compositions by the partial replacement of coarse aggregate with a natural analogue in the form of a walnut shell, which has the maximum ratio of the strength of the composite to its density, as well as in identifying new dependencies of strength and density and their ratio on the amount of replacement of mineral coarse-aggregate walnut shell. The main goal of this article was to analyze the effect of composition factors on characteristics of concrete with partial replacement of large aggregates with walnut shells and to search for the optimal compound that would make it possible to obtain concrete with a minimum decrease in strength characteristics with a maximum decrease in concrete density. Cubes and prism laboratory samples were made from concrete of normal density with the replacement of coarse aggregate by 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30%, by volume. The main mechanical properties, such as density, strength (compressive, tensile, tensile strength in bending) of the concrete samples were studied. The investigation used standard methods and scanning electron microscopy. An increase into strength characteristics up to 3.5%, as well as the maximum ratio of strength to density of concrete, was observed at a walnut-shell dosage of 5%. Effective partial replacement of coarse aggregate with walnut shells leads to a reduction in the consumption of crushed stone by up to 10% and a decrease in the mass of concrete by up to 6%.

Repeated Impact Response of Normal- and High-Strength Concrete Subjected to Temperatures up to 600 °C

With the aim of investigating the response of concrete to the dual effect of accidental fire high temperatures and possible induced impacts due to falling fragmented or burst parts or objects, an experimental work is conducted in this study to explore the influence of exposure to temperatures of 200, 400 and 600 °C on the responses of concrete specimens subjected to impact loads. Cylindrical specimens are tested using the recommended repeated impact procedure of the ACI 544-2R test. Three concrete mixtures with concrete nominal design strengths of 20, 40 and 80 MPa are introduced to represent different levels of concrete strength. From each concrete mixture, 24 cylinders and 12 cubes are prepared to evaluate the residual impact resistance and compressive strength. Six cylindrical specimens and three cubes from each concrete mixture are heated to each of the three levels of high temperatures, while the other six cylinders and three cubes are tested without heating as reference specimens. The test results show that the behavior of impact resistance is completely different from that of compressive strength after exposure to high temperatures; the cylindrical specimens lose more than 80% of the cracking and failure impact resistance after exposure to 200 °C, while impact resistance almost vanishes after exposure to 400 and 600 °C. Concrete compressive strength is found to be effective on the unheated impact specimens, where the higher-strength cylinders retain significantly higher impact numbers. This effect noticeably decreases after exposure to 200 and 400 °C, and vanishes after exposure to 600 °C.

Experimental and Statistical Investigation to Evaluate Impact Strength Variability and Reliability of Preplaced Aggregate Concrete Containing Crumped Rubber and Fibres

The proper disposal of used rubber tires has emerged as a primary concern for the environment all over the globe. Millions of tires are thrown away, buried and discarded every year, posing a major environmental concern owing to their slow decomposition. As a result, it is advantageous to use recycled waste rubber aggregates as an additional building resource. Recycling crushed rubber would lead to a long-term solution to the problem of decreasing natural aggregate resources while conserving the environment. This study examines the impact strength variability and reliability of preplaced aggregate concrete containing crumped rubber and fibres. Ten different mixtures were prepared by replacing natural aggregate with crumped rubber (5, 10, 15 and 20%). The crumped rubber was pretreated by the water with sodium hydroxide dilution for 30 min before usage. Hooked-end steel fibres were used at a dosage of 1.5%. The compressive strength, impact strength, impact ductility index and failure pattern were examined and discussed. In addition, a statistical method called Weibull distribution is used to analyze the scattered experimental results. The results showed that when the crumb rubber content was raised, the retained first cracking and failure impact numbers increased. As a result of substituting crumb rubber for 20% of the coarse aggregate in plain and fibrous mixes, the percentage development in first crack and failure was between 33% and 76% and 75% to 129%, respectively.

Repeated Drop-Weight Impact Testing of Fibrous Concrete: State-Of-The-Art Literature Review, Analysis of Results Variation and Test Improvement Suggestions

The ACI 544-2R introduced a qualitative test to compare the impact resistance of fibrous concretes under repeated falling-mass impact loads, which is considered to be a low-cost, quick solution for material-scale impact tests owing to the simplified apparatus, test setup and procedure, where none of the usual sophisticated sensors and data acquisition systems are required. However, previous studies showed that the test results are highly scattered with noticeably unacceptable variations, which encouraged researchers to try to use statistical tools to analyze the scattering of results and suggest modifications to reduce this unfavorable disadvantage. The current article introduces a state-of-the-art literature review on the previous and recent research on repeated impact testing of different types of fibrous concrete using the ACI 544-2R test, while focusing on the scattering of results and highlighting the adopted statistical distributions to analyze this scattering. The influence of different mixture parameters on the variation of the cracking and failure impact results is also investigated based on data from the literature. Finally, the article highlights and discusses the literature suggestions to modify the test specimen, apparatus and procedure to reduce the scattering of results in the ACI 544-2R repeated impact test. The conducted analyses showed that material parameters such as binder, aggregate and water contents in addition to the maximum size of aggregate have no effect on the variation of test results, while increasing the fiber content was found to have some positive influence on decreasing this variation. The survey conducted in this study also showed that the test can be modified to lower the unfavorable variations of impact and failure results.

Assessment of Strength and Durability Properties of Self-Compacting Concrete Comprising Alccofine

Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC), a high-performance concrete with exceptional fluidity and cohesiveness, has gained popularity recently. The consolidation qualities and durability demands of this material require the application of Supplemental Cementitious Materials (SCMs). Alccofine is a type of additive material that has the potential to increase SCC characteristics while lowering the environmental effect of Portland cement manufacturing. In light of these facts, this study focused on the fresh, strength, and durability properties of SCC by partially replacing cement with varying percentages of alccofine such as 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60%. The fresh properties are examined using slump flow, T50, V-funnel, and L-box as per ISO 1920-13. The mechanical and durability properties were investigated, such as compressive strength test, modulus of rupture, Young’s modulus of concrete and water absorption, sorptivity, sulphate resistance, and acid resistance, and were compared with conventional SCC. Results indicated that the replacement of 30% alccofine exhibited superior performance in both the strength and durability properties compared to other mixes.

Shear Strength of Headed Stud Connectors in Self-Compacting Concrete with Recycled Coarse Aggregate

This study investigated the use of self-compacting concrete (SCC) made with recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs), which represents a trend of producing environment-friendly concrete, integrated with hot-rolled steel sections by means of headed stud shear connectors in composite structures. Therefore, thirty-six push-out test specimens were examined to assess the shear strength and behavior of the headed stud connectors embedded in RCA-SCC, with the concrete compressive strength, stud diameter, and RCA ratio as the main variables. Four ratios of RCAs ranging from 0 to 60% were used to produce concrete with three different compressive strengths (25, 33, and 40 MPa) for each one. It was found that the use of SCC with RCAs had a negative effect on the shear strength of headed stud connectors. This negative effect could be reduced by increasing the concrete compressive strength and/or the stud diameter. Similarly, a reduction in the shear stiffness of the tested specimens was inversely proportional to the RCA ratio, while the ultimate slip was directly proportional to the RCA ratio. An evaluation of the test results was made by comparing them with those determined by Eurocode 4 and AASHTO LRFD.

Development of High-Tech Self-Compacting Concrete Mixtures Based on Nano-Modifiers of Various Types

Promising areas of concrete material science are maximum greening, reducing the carbon footprint, and, at the same time, solving the problems of increasing the cost of raw materials using industrial waste as modifiers for self-compacting concrete mixtures. This study aimed to review, investigate and test from the point of view of theory and practice the possibility of using various industrial types as a nano-modifier in self-compacting concrete with improved performance. The possibility of nano-modification of self-compacting concrete with a complex modifier based on industrial waste has been proved and substantiated theoretically and experimentally. The possibility of improving the technological properties of concrete mixtures using such nanomodifiers was confirmed. The recipe and technological parameters of the process were revealed and their influence on the characteristics of concrete mixes and concretes were expressed and determined. Experimental technological and mathematical dependencies between the characteristics of the technological process and raw materials and the characteristics of concrete mixtures and concretes were determined. The optimization of these parameters was carried out, a theoretical substantiation of the obtained results was proposed, and a quantitative picture was presented, expressed in the increment of the properties of self-compacting concrete mixtures using nano-modifiers from industrial waste concretes based on them. The mobility of the concrete mixture increased by 12%, and the fluidity of the mixture increased by 83%. In relation to the control composition, the concrete strength increased by 19%, and the water resistance of concrete increased by 22%. The ultimate strains decreased by 14%, and elastic modulus increased by 11%.

Enhancing the Impact Strength of Prepacked Aggregate Fibrous Concrete Using Asphalt-Coated Aggregates

The brittleness of plain concrete represents a significant issue to the integrity of concrete structures when subjected to impact loading. Recent rapid industrialization has attracted researchers to find a solution for concrete brittleness and enhance its ductility. In light of this, the prepacked aggregate fibrous concrete (PAFC) with single and double precoated coarse aggregates using asphalt is proposed and examined. Nine different mixtures were designed using polypropylene and steel fibre of 3% dosage with single and double asphalt-coated aggregates. Specimens were prepared with natural aggregate and 100% C-graded asphalt-coated aggregate to evaluate their impact strength. The ACI Committee 544 drop-weight impact standard was followed in the testing of all specimens. Results indicated that using asphalt-coated aggregate can improve the impact energies of concrete. The impact energy at cracking and failure of the single asphalt-coated aggregate specimen was 1.55 and 2.11 times higher, while the double-coated aggregate specimens exhibited 1.73 and 2.56 times greater than the natural aggregate specimen, respectively. The contribution of fibres in enhancing the impact resistance is remarkable compared to the single- and double-coated aggregates used in PAFC.