Post cracking behaviour of fibre reinforced concrete with mineral wool fibers

Abstract

The research concerns the feasibility of recycling fibers from mineral wool residues from construction and demolition waste, by incorporating them into a fine grained concrete. All the specimens of concrete with various types of fibers have been subjected to the mechanical tests of flexural and compressive strength. Also the pre-cracking and post-cracking softening behaviour of concrete with fiber residues has been investigated. The flexural load-CMOD and load-deflection relationships, obtained in three-point bending test, have been used to determine the fracture parameters: fracture energy, critical stress intensity factor, critical crack tip opening displacement, critical effective crack length. It was verified that the incorporation of mineral residues to a cement concrete is a viable alternative for their recycling; the new composites analyzed maintain adequate mechanical properties for different application.