A Critical Review of Research on Reuse of Mechanically Recycled FRP Production and End-of-Life Waste for Construction

Abstract

For the last three decades, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials have been widely used in major engineering industries. Managing FRP waste is becoming an important issue due to the growth in the production of FRP composite materials. In this article, the issue of FRP waste management is discussed and the commonly used methods for the handling of FRP waste are reviewed. One potentially viable use of FRP waste is in the partial replacement of fillers or aggregates in cementitious materials (particularly portland cement mortar and concrete). A number of important prior investigations performed on the use of FRP waste in concrete and mortar are reviewed. The results from most of those investigations suggest that FRP aggregates significantly reduce the strength of cementitious materials with little significant effect on durability. Recommendations for future research in this area are provided for producing stronger mortars and concretes incorporating FRP production and end-of-life waste.

Mechanical and thermal performance of concrete and mortar cellular materials containing plastic waste

“…There exists a vast literature on the issue of recycling plastic waste [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] being that the addition of polymeric waste materials to cementitious matrix has been studied from late 90s [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The commercial application of recycled polymer concrete is relatively new in the world of civil engineering [20][21][22][23].…”

Use of recycled FRP reinforcing bar in concrete as coarse aggregate and its impact on the mechanical properties of concrete

“…The increased production of FRP materials has led to a significant increase in FRP scrap from production and end-of-life waste. Several methods exist for recycling FRP waste [2]. High-tech users of FRP materials, particularly aircraft manufacturers, have been investigating and implementing new recycling techniques [3].…”

Mechanical Recycling: Solutions for Glass Fibre Reinforced Composites

“…The process typically starts by reducing the particle size of waste through mechanical operations such as shredding, crushing or milling. The resulting scrap pieces can then be separated by using sieves and cyclones into powdered products (rich in resin) and fibrous products (rich in fibers) (Yazdanbakhsh & Bank 2014). (Ribeiro et al 2014).…”

“…consistency, strength, stiffness, the filler-matrix interface bond strength, etc.) and to negatively impact the cost balance (as operational costs with mechanical recycling and sorting outweigh the market value of the virgin products chopped glass fibre and calcium carbonate) (Yazdanbakhsh & Bank 2014). Due to lower mechanical properties powder recyclates have limited potential for reuse back into the thermoset compounds from which they originated (closed loop recycling).…”