Pull-out performance of plastic and steel fibers recycled from waste

Abstract

Recycled fibers are of interest to produce fiber reinforced cement composites while reducing some environmental impacts such as waste disposal and raw materials consumption. In this paper, four plastic and three steel fibers obtained from waste were studied. The aim of this article was to characterize their pull-out response. Recycled steel fibers were recovered from tires, while one plastic fiber was produced from straps and three fibers were fabricated from PET bottles with different shapes to compare the effects of geometry. Recycled steel fibers showed higher adhesion and strain energy density than plastic ones. The adhesion and elastic modulus of these recycled steel fibers are of interest for fiber reinforced mortar and concrete applications, while plastic fibers could contribute to improve cohesion and to mitigate shrinkage cracking at early ages.