Effect of Strapping Straps Waste Fibers on Fresh and Hardened Properties of Concrete

Faced with the increasingly growing need for construction material resources and the strict requirements and conditions for preserving the environment, it has become necessary and relevant to study all possibilities and opportunities for the recycling and valorization of industrial waste and by-products in the construction field. Strapping straps is a product used to bundle and transport goods and construction materials. After its use, it is considered as waste. The objective of this experimental work is to study the possibility of reusing the strapping strap waste as fibers in the production of fiber-reinforced concrete. For this purpose, three families of concrete were composed using strapping strap fibers, steel fibers, and polypropylene fibers, which were introduced into a concrete composition by volumetric substitution (0.4%, 0.8% and 1.2%) of aggregates. The fresh properties were evaluated through slump, density and air content tests. Hardened properties were investigated using the compressive and flexural strengths, pulse velocity, dynamic elastic modulus, and water absorption tests. The results obtained showed that strapping strap waste fibers significantly improve the mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced concrete and have a behavior similar to that of steel fibers. The optimum rates of strapping strap fibers were 0.4% and 1.2% for compressive and flexural strengths respectively. Compared to polypropylene fibers, the strapping strap fibers were found to be more efficient and led to a gradual increase in flexural strength with an increase in the strapping strap fibers. The results obtained also showed that the increase in strapping strap fiber content gradually increased the water absorption of fiber-reinforced concrete.