Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Use of polymer fibres recovered from waste car timing

belts in high performance concrete
Ali Reza Khaloo, Amin Esrafili ⇑, Masoud Kalani, Mohammad Hosein Mobini
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

h i g h l i g h t s

 We applied strands recovered from waste car timing belts into HPC.
 Adding waste fibre improved the modulus of rupture and flexural toughness.
 High volume of recycled fibre can cause adverse effects on concrete.
 The experimental results confirmed promising applications of recycled fibre in HPC.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present paper discusses the possibility of adding recycled polymer fibres to high performance
Received 17 July 2014 concrete (HPC). Fibres used in this study were recovered from discarded car timing belts. To investigate
Received in revised form 10 December 2014 different characteristics of the concrete specimens several destructive and non-destructive tests, such as
Accepted 2 January 2015
compressive strength, modulus of rupture, flexural toughness, ultrasonic velocity and electrical resis-
tance tests were carried out. In addition, slump flow tests were conducted on the fresh concrete.
Experimental results from the study showed that the use of low percentages (up to 0.5%) of waste fibres
Keywords:
improved the modulus of rupture and flexural toughness. Based on ultrasonic and electrical resistance
Recycled fibre
High performance concrete
test results, an increase in fibre percentage also increased the pore volume and electrical resistance of
Car timing belt the fibre reinforced concretes with respect to a control mixture.
Modulus of rupture Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Flexural toughness

1. Introduction of timing belts are discarded annually and as of yet no specific

Nowadays sustainable development is a major global concern.
Finding new applications for waste material can help us to move
toward sustainable development. Re-utilisation of waste material
in concrete has positive environmental effects as well as reduces
the costs of projects [1]. Despite these positive points, use of waste
material in concrete may reduce its mechanical performance.
According to statistics provided by the international organisa-
tion of motor vehicle manufacturers, it was estimated that in
2002 over 58 million cars and commercial vehicles were produced
worldwide and this number increased to 84 million by 2012. Based
on these statistics the number of cars produced increased by 45
percent during those ten years and it is believed that this rising
trend will continue in the coming years.
A timing belt is used in most modern cars and must typically be
replaced every 60,000 to 100,000 miles. Therefore, a large number
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9192111047.
E-mail address: Mr.Esrafili@gmail.com (A. Esrafili).
application for these waste belts has been offered. Some of these
timing belts are reinforced with polymer strands which improves
their behaviour in tension. Timing belt strands are thermoset.
Recycling thermoset strands is difficult because it is not possible
to heat solid thermoset material and reform it into new shapes.
In addition, because of thermoset’s very long decomposition period
disposing of it in landfills is not recommended.
High performance concrete (HPC) properties have been devel-
oped for specific applications. Due to the low water–binder ratio
of HPC, superplasticizers must be used to improve the workability
of the concrete [2]. High strength and good workability are com-
mon characteristics in HPC. Low absorption and high durability
are additional reasons to use HPC.
The last three decades have seen a growing interest in the use of
fibres in cementitious materials [2,3]. The goal of this study was to
find a new application for discarded car timing belts and to
improve the characteristics of HPC with waste fibre reinforcement.
Several studies have been carried out to examine the use of differ-
ent types of waste particles in concrete such as PET from waste

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.01.011
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
32 A.R. Khaloo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37
bottles and rubber and steel from tires [1,4–12]; but the applica-
tion of car timing belt strands in concrete is new. In this study,
polymer strands of discarded car timing belts were extracted and
used instead of conventional fibres in HPC. Tests for compressive
strength, modulus of rupture, and flexural toughness were per-
formed in order to determine the mechanical properties of hard-
ened concrete. In addition, ultrasonic and electrical resistance
tests were carried out at different concrete ages. Fresh concrete
properties were measured by a slump flow diameter test. To con-
sider the effect of length, fibres of two different lengths, 2 and
4 cm, were examined. Fibres were added to concrete in 0.2, 0.5,
1, and 1.5 percentages of the total volume of concrete. A total of
eight series of the fibre reinforced concrete with different volume
and lengths of fibre were prepared. In addition, a plain mix served
as a control mixture.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Raw materials and specimen preparations
Type II cement conforming to ASTM C150 [13] specifications
and with a specific gravity of 3.12 g/cm3 was used in this study,
along with a 10% substitution of silica fume by weight. The chem-
ical compositions of cement and silica fume are shown in Table 1.
The coarse aggregates were made up of crushed limestone with a
specific gravity of 2.63 g/cm3 and a maximum size of 16 mm. For
the fine aggregate natural river sand having a specific gravity of
2.60 g/cm3 and a fineness modulus of 3 was used. Both the coarse
and fine aggregates met the requirements of ASTM C33 [14].
To improve the workability of the fresh concrete a commercial
high performance superplasticizer meeting ASTM C1017 specifica-
tions [15] was used. The superplasticizer had a base of poly-car-
boxylic with a density of 1.12 g/cm3.
In this study fibres are obtained from polymer strands used in
car timing belts. In order to extract the polymer strands, car timing
belts were cut into a straight shape. Afterward polymer strands
were pulled out by hand. Obtained polymer strands were chopped
into 2 and 4 cm lengths; however, due to the curvature of the fibres
there were minor variations in their lengths. The cross section of
these polymer strands were semi-circular with an average diame-
ter of 0.6 mm. Chemical properties of the fibres were tested at the
Zamzam plastic laboratory (Mashhad, Iran) and the Differential
Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) test indicated that the fibres were
made of polyester with the surface covered with a resin (see Fig. 1).
The fibre reinforced concrete mixtures were designed with the
following code: HL-V. The first letter in this code stands for high
performance concrete and is followed by a number (L): 2 or 4,
which represents the length of fibre in cm. The last letter (V) rep-
resents the dosage of the fibre. For example, H2-1.5 represents a
high performance concrete reinforced with 2 cm fibres where the
fibre volume fraction is 1.5 percent. In addition, H0 represents a
control mixture without any fibre. The control mixture (H0) was
found in some initial tests to develop into plain concrete with a
compressive strength of 70 MPa at the age of 28 days and a slump
flow diameter in the range of 40–60 cm.
Table 2 gives the details of the mixture proportions and proper-
ties of the fresh concrete. A constant water–binder ratio (W/B) of
0.35 was kept for all mixtures. The amount of superplasticizer
Table 1
Chemical analysis of cement and silica fume (values are in percentages).
Chemical analysis SiO2 Fe2O3 CaO Al2O3 MgO SO3
Cement 21.4 3.9 62.8 5.4 1.7 2.5
Silica fume 94.1 1.8 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.1
Fig. 1. Recycled fibres.
needed to keep the slump flow diameter in the range of 40–
60 cm was found by trial and error.
2.2. Experiment
For compressive strength tests, concrete cubes of 100  100 
100 mm were cast, and prismatic specimens of 100  100 
500 mm [16,17] were prepared from the same batch to conduct
flexural tests. For each mix design nine cubic and three prismatic
specimens were tested. Fig. 2 shows specimens during casting.
One day after casting, the specimens were demolded and placed
in a lime-saturated water tank at a temperature of 20 ± 2 °C and a
relative humidity (RH) of 100% until the day of testing.
Prismatic specimens were tested with a three-point bending
machine under displacement control at a gradient of 0.01 mm/s.
The mid-point deflections at load point were measured. The spec-
imens were tested at the structural dynamic strong floor lab at
Sharif University of Technology.
An AC-Impedance spectroscopy was used to measure the elec-
trical resistivity of the specimens. Ultrasonic tests were performed
according to ASTM C597 [18]. The compressive strength, ultra-
sonic, and electric resistivity tests were performed on 100 
100  100 mm cubic specimens at the age of 7, 28, and 91 days.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Experiments on fresh concrete
The results of previous studies demonstrated that increasing
the fibre volume percentage decreases the workability of concrete
and mortar [8,19–22]; similar results were obtained in this study.
As shown in Table 2, the amount of superplasticizer required to
keep the slump flow diameter in the range of 40–60 cm increased
as the fibre volume percentage increased. The increment of slump
flow in fresh concrete is favourable if the consistency of the con-
crete is maintained and no segregation or bleeding occurs. Higher
slump flow makes placing and compaction of concrete easier [2].
Visual inspection did not prove any segregation or bleeding of
the fresh concrete.
3.2. Experiments on hardened concrete
3.2.1. Compressive strength
Fibres in concrete have two different effects on compressive
strength. Firstly, fibres knit micro cracks together and help prevent
crack propagation [1,23]. Limiting crack propagation increases
Na2Oeq
compressive strength. On the other hand, adding fibre increases
0.6
the porosity in fibre reinforced concretes as compared to plain con-
1.1
cretes [1]. This increase of pore volume has a negative effect on
 A.R. Khaloo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37 33

Table 2
Mixture proportions and fresh concrete properties.

Mixture Fibre (%) W/B ratio Cement Silica fume Water Gravel Sand Superplasticizer Slump flow
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) diameter (mm)
H0 0 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 3.75 514
H2-0.2 0.2 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 5 532
H2-0.5 0.5 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 5 440
H2-1.0 1 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 6.5 435
H2-1.5 1.5 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 9 416
H4-0.2 0.2 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 5 579
H4-0.5 0.5 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 5 445
H4-1.0 1 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 6.5 451
H4-1.5 1.5 0.35 450 50 175 777 933 9 407

a 90
80

Compressive strength(MPa)
70
60
H0
50
H 2-0.2
40
H 2-0.5
30
H 2-1.0
20
H 2-1.5
10
0
7day 28day 91day
Age(days)

b 80
Fig. 2. Specimens during casting.
70
Compressive strength(MPa)

60
compressive strength. Because of these two opposing effects on
50 H0
compressive strength, fibre reinforced concrete can have either a
higher or lower compressive strength than plain concrete. 40 H4-0.2
Fig. 3a and b shows the compressive strength of the fibre rein- 30 H4-0.5
forced and control mixture specimens at the age of 7, 28, and H 4-1.0
20
91 days. Mix designs with 0.2% fibre (H2-0.2 and H4-0.2) had a
H 4-1.5
higher compressive strength than the control mixture. These 10
results are in accordance with previous results [23–25] which con- 0
firm that low volume of polymer fibre can increase compressive 7day 28day 91day
strength. However, compressive strength decreased for the other Age(days)
mix designs when more fibre volume fractions were added. Our
Fig. 3. (a) Compressive strength of 2 cm-fibre reinforced concrete and control
results showed that for specimens with a low volume of fibre,
mixture. (b) Compressive strength of 4 cm-fibre reinforced concrete and control
the crack restriction effect of fibre overcame the negative effect mixture.
of fibre. However, when the volume of fibre increased the porosity
also increased and this led to a decrease of compressive strength in
comparison with the reference concrete.
As can be seen in Fig. 3a the gap between H2-0.5 and H2-1.0
curves is larger than the gap between H2-1.0 and H2-1.5 curves 8
despite that the difference in fibres volume being the same and 7
Modulus of rupture (MPa)

equal to 0.5%. This means that an increase of fibre in concrete will

6
increase the amount of porosity; however, the rate of increase of
porosity is not constant for all fibre volumes. This is in accordance 5
with the ultrasonic test results which proved a variable rate of 4 2cm fiber
porosity increase.
3 4cm fiber

2 0%fiber
3.2.2. Modulus of rupture
Using the results of a three point bending test, the modulus of 1
rupture of the prismatic beams at 28 days was calculated accord-
0
ing to ASTM C293 [26] and is shown in Fig. 4. According to this 0% 0.2% 0.5% 1% 1.5%
figure, for 2 cm-fibre reinforced concretes, introducing waste fibre
Fiber Percent
at 0.2% and 0.5% by volume fractions caused the modulus of
rupture to increase by 10.8% and 16.6%, respectively, with respect Fig. 4. Modulus of rupture of beams at 28 days.
34 A.R. Khaloo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37

qffiffiffiffi
10 0
f r ¼ 0:9 f c MPa ð1Þ
9
8
fr: modulus of rupture
fc0 : compressive strength
Modulus of rupture (MPa)

7
test result The values reported in the literature [27–30] and Standards
6 codes [31–34] for the modulus of rupture of high strength un-
fr=0.9 f'c
qffiffiffiffi
5 0
reinforced concrete falls in the range of 0.6 to 1 f c . Corresponding
4
fr=1.0 f'c (maximum diagrams for minimum and maximum recommended values
3 recommended)
qffiffiffiffi
0
(f r ¼ 0:6 and 1 f c , respectively) are illustrated in Fig. 5. As can
2 fr=0.6 f'c (minimum
recommended) be seen in this figure, the modulus of rupture of waste fibre rein-
1 forced concrete is closer to the maximum recommended value.
0 This is due to the presence of fibres that help increase the modulus
0 2 4 6 8 10 of rupture by limiting crack initiation and propagation.
f'c ( )
qffiffiffiffi
0
Fig. 5. Modulus of rupture versus f c.
3.2.3. Load–deflection relationships
For each composite, three prismatic beams were tested under
flexural load and Fig. 6(a–d) indicates the mean values of the
to the reference concrete. However, addition of fibre volume frac-
load–deflection curves. As expected, increasing the fibre volume
tions at 1% and 1.5% decreased the modulus of rupture by 2.7% and
fraction improved post peak (after the first-peak) behaviour in
40.4%, respectively. A low volume of fibre improved the modulus of
fibre reinforced specimens. For H2-0.5, H2-1.5, and H4-1.5 speci-
rupture by knitting micro cracks together; however, for specimens
mens, the first peak was followed by a drop in the load and then
with a high volume of fibre the increased porosity of concrete
a second peak. The second peak and the increment of the plot after
caused a decrement in the modulus of rupture. Similar results were
the rupture is due to the recovery capacity of the fibres to mend
obtained for 4 cm-fibre reinforced concretes, and addition of fibre
the cracks. Displacement corresponding to the maximum load
volume fractions at 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1% led to a rise in the modulus
was approximately equal and unaffected by the fibre content.
of rupture by 12.8%, 18.1%, and 0.5%. Although, the modulus of rup-
ture was 18.3% lower than the control mixture for the specimen
that contained 1.5% fibre. The results showed that 4 cm-fibre 3.2.4. Flexural toughness
reinforced concrete performed slightly better than 2 cm-fibres Flexural toughness or the ability of concrete to absorb energy is
reinforced concrete in the modulus of rupture test. one of the fundamental parameters for fibre reinforced concretes
Fig. 5 illustrates the modulus of rupture versus the square root [1,19]. Flexural toughness is the area under the load–deflection
of compressive strength at 28 days. Eq. (1) shows the relationship curve of concrete in flexure up until a deflection of 1/150 times
between the modulus of rupture and compressive strength for the span, which corresponded to 3 mm for our specimens
waste fibre reinforced HPC. This equation was developed by linear [19,35]. Increasing flexural toughness leads to improvement in
regression analysis of test results from this study. the fracture, impact and fatigue performance of concrete [36].

14
a 14 b
12
12
10
10
Load(KN)

8
Load(KN)

8 H2-0.5
H2-0.2
6
6 H4-0.5
H4-0.2
4 H0
4 H0
2
2

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Deflecon(mm) Deflecon(mm)

c 14 d 14

12
12
10
10
Load(KN)

8
Load(KN)

8 H2-1.5
H2-1.0
6
6
H4-1.0 H4-1.5
4 H0
4 H0

2 2

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Deflecon(mm) Deflecon(mm)

Fig. 6. (a) Load–deflection diagram for reinforced beams with 0.2% fibre volume and control mixture. (b) Load–deflection diagram for reinforced beams with 0.5% fibre
volume and control mixture. (c) Load–deflection diagram for reinforced beams with 1.0% fibre volume and control mixture. (d) Load–deflection diagram for reinforced beams
with 1.5% fibre volume and control mixture.
 A.R. Khaloo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37 35

18
a 4900
16
4700
Flexural toughness (N.m)

14

UT pulse velocity (m/s)

12 4500
10 H0
2cm fiber 4300
8 H 2-0.2
4cm fiber 4100
6 H 2-0.5
0%fiber 3900
4 H 2-1.0

2 3700 H 2-1.5
0
3500
0% 0.2% 0.5% 1% 1.5%
7 28 91
Fiber Percent
Age(days)
Fig. 7. Flexural toughness of beams at 28 days. b 4900
4700
Flexural toughness is influenced in different ways by the

amount and type of fibre in the concrete matrix [37], and in most
cases incorporation of fibres in plain concrete will increase the
flexural toughness of the concrete [36]. As expected, in this study
the flexural toughness of the fibre reinforced specimens are higher
than plain concrete. In most cases an increase in fibre percentage
increases the flexural toughness, the only exception was the H2-
1.5 specimen. The higher matrix porosity of this specimen caused
this decrement of toughness with respect to the H2-1.0 specimen.
According to Fig. 7, for 2 cm-fibre reinforced concretes, the
addition of fibre volume fractions at 0.2%, 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% caused
flexural toughness to increase by 3%, 63%, 64%, and 54%, respec-
tively, in comparison with the control mixture. Flexural toughness
of 4 cm-fibre reinforced concretes were higher than 2 cm-fibre
reinforced specimens in accordance with previous study results
[1,38,39]. Introducing 4 cm-fibre at 0.2%, 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% by vol-
ume fraction led to a rise in flexural toughness of 25%, 72%, 80%, and
125%. Although the incorporation of waste fibres caused an incre-
ment in flexural toughness, this increment is low in comparison
with other regular types of fibre. For example, Khaloo et al. [19]
observed that the addition of regular steel fibre at 1.5% by volume
fraction caused flexural toughness to increase by 450%. The reasons
for our low improvement of flexural toughness are the increased
porosity of concrete, explained in Section 3.2.1, and the smooth sur-
face of the waste fibre. The surface of the waste fibre was covered
with resin. The resin improved the tensile strength of the fibre,
but on the other hand it made the surface of fibre smoother
compared to regular fibres. The smooth surface of the fibres caused
lower bonding and lesser involvement in mechanical strengths
development. In other words, the efficiency of fibres with smoother
surfaces is lower than fibres with rough surfaces, such as corru-
gated steel fibres.
3.2.5. Ultrasonic pulse velocity
For decades, ultrasonic tests have been used as a non-destructive
testing technique [40]. In general, higher pore volume and water
inside concrete leads to a decrease of ultrasonic pulse velocity [41].
In ultrasonic tests an appropriate coupling agent is necessary. A
coupling agent is a viscous material that ensures the efficient
transfer of energy between transducers of the ultrasonic testing
apparatus and the concrete. The function of the coupling agent is
to eliminate air between the contact surfaces of the concrete and
the transducers [18]. In this study petroleum jelly was used as a
coupling agent.
The pulse velocity is independent of the dimensions of the test
object and in this study ultrasonic tests were performed on
100  100  100 mm cubic specimens. During the ultrasonic test
the cubic specimens were saturated. Because of the lower sensitiv-
ity of pulse velocity in saturated concrete it is suggested to perform
ultrasonic tests on saturated specimens [18].
UT pulse velocity(m/s)
4500
H0
4300
H4-0.2
4100
H4-0.5
3900 H 4-1.0
3700 H 4-1.5
3500
7 28 91
Age(days)
Fig. 8. (a) UT pulse velocity of 2 cm-fibre reinforced and control mixture. (b) UT
pulse velocity of 4 cm-fibre reinforced and control mixture.
Fig. 8a and b shows that the ultrasonic pulse velocity of the
2 cm-fibre reinforced concrete was within the range of 3636–
4329, 3683–4566, and 3714–4737 m/s at 7, 28, and 91 days,
respectively. For the 4 cm-fibre reinforced concrete ultrasonic
pulse velocity was within the range of 3643–4384, 3706–4546,
and 3761–4669 m/s at the corresponding ages, and all were lower
than values of the control mixture. The maximum reduction of
ultrasonic velocity was observed in the H2-1.5 specimen with a
22% reduction with respect to the reference concrete. The reduc-
tion of ultrasonic pulse velocity makes it clear that adding fibre
increases pore volume in concrete with respect to plain concrete.
The volume fraction of fibres and the aspect ratio are the most
important parameters affecting the ultrasonic pulse velocity. The
variation of the aspect ratio below 20 has a considerable influence
on the ultrasonic pulse velocity, while the pulse velocity is almost
constant at higher values [42]. In this study the aspect ratios of
fibre were above 20 (33 and 66 for 2 and 4 cm fibre, respectively),
and as can be seen in Fig. 8a and b, the effect of length of fibre is not
considerable.
The rate of reduction in pulse velocity is not constant for all
fibre volumes. For example, the gap between H2-0.5 and H2-1.0
curves is larger than the gap between H2-1.0 and H2-1.5 curves
despite that the difference in fibres volume being the same and
equal to 0.5%. This variable rate of reduction for pulse velocity con-
firms that the rate of increase in porosity is not constant and varies
depending on the volume of fibre.
3.2.6. Electrical resistance
The electrolytes in the pores and the conductivity of the fibre
have a strong influence on the electrical resistance of concrete.
Increased pore volume or adding conductive material, like steel
fibre, can reduce the electrical resistance of concrete [43]. To mea-
sure electrical resistance the AC-Impedance spectroscopy using two
electrodes method was used. In this study, two copper electrodes
36 A.R. Khaloo et al. / Construction and Building Materials 80 (2015) 31–37

2. The highest modulus of rupture was achieved with a 0.5% fibre

a 600
volume fraction, which led to an approximately 17% increase
550
Electrical resisvity of concrete(ohm.m)

with respect to the control mixture. However, the test results

500
indicated that high volume fibre could have an adverse effect
450
on the modulus of rupture.
400
3. A low volume of fibre improved the compressive strength of the
350 H0
concrete. However, addition of fibre in a high volume fraction
300 H 2-0.2
led to a reduction of compressive strength. For specimens at
250 H 2-0.5 28 days, the addition of 1.5% fibre volume fraction caused a
200 H 2-1.0 74.1% and 55.6% decrease for 2 cm and 4 cm fibres, respectively,
150 H 2-1.5 with respect to the control mixture.
100 4. The addition of recycled timing belt fibre decreased the work-
50 ability of the concrete. Therefore, to maintain concrete work-
0 ability, the amount of superplasticizer should be increased by
0 20 40 60 80 100
increasing the fibre volume percent.
Age(days)
5. The results of the ultrasonic pulse velocity test confirmed that
b 600 the pore volume of fibre reinforced concretes is more than the
550 control mixture. Although, more pore volume decreases electri-
Electrical resisvity of concrete(ohm.m)

500 cal resistance due to the high electrical resistance of the waste
450 fibres, the electrical resistance of the fibre-reinforced specimens
400 was more than the reference concrete.
350 H0
300 H4-0.2 To summarise, the results in modulus of rupture, flexural
250 H4-0.5 toughness, and compressive strength tests on fibre reinforced
200 H 4-1.0 HPC confirm the promising application of waste fibre to reinforce
150
H 4-1.5 concrete. Moreover, the use of waste fibre will be beneficial by sav-
100 ing raw materials and minimising project costs. According to the
50 results of this study, the use of waste fibre within the range of
0 0.2–0.5% volume fraction are recommended. Although higher
0 20 40 60 80 100
waste fibre content can improve the post peak behaviour of con-
Age(days)
crete, careful consideration is necessary before adding waste fibre
Fig. 9. (a) Electrical resistance of concrete reinforced with 2 cm-fibre and control of more than 0.5% volume fraction due to its negative impact on
mixture. (b) Electrical resistance of concrete reinforced with 4 cm-fibre and control some mechanical characteristics of concrete.
mixture.

were used. The copper electrodes were placed on the bottom and
top surface of the 100 mm cubic samples; however, contact issues
with the samples and electrode existed. For this reason, a layer of
conductive gel [44] was placed between the samples and the
electrodes. The electrical resistance measurements were made over
a frequency of 1 kHz.
As indicated in Fig. 9a and b, the electrical resistance increased
only slightly with age and there was little difference between the
electrical resistance of specimens at the ages of 7 and 28 days.
The 91 day electrical resistance of the 2 cm and 4 cm fibre rein-
forced specimens were within the range of 485–570(ohm. m) and
455–565 (ohm m), respectively, whereas the electrical resistance
of the reference concrete was 395(ohm m). The results of the
ultra-sonic pulse test and the investigation of the compressive
strength and the modulus of rupture have revealed that the addi-
tion of fibre increased the pore volume. Increment of porosity leads
to a decrease in electrical resistance, but as can be seen in Fig. 9a
and b, the electrical resistance of all fibre reinforced specimens
was higher than plain concrete. The reason for this rise of electrical
resistance in fibre reinforced concrete, with respect to the control
mixture, is the higher electrical resistance of the waste fibre in
the concrete.
4. Conclusions
1. The presence of waste fibres caused an increase in the flexural
toughness of the specimens. Flexural toughness of concrete
specimens that contained 2 cm-fibres increased within the
range of 3–64% for a fibre content of 0.2–1.5%. This increase
was higher in 4 cm-fibre reinforced specimens within the range
of 25–125%.
Acknowledgement
Special thanks are extended to The Center of Excellence for
Structure and Earthquake Engineering for partial support of this
research study. The cooperation of the Strong Floor Laboratory
specialists is also greatly appreciated.
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