Development and characterization of concretes produced by replacing fine aggregate with residues from oil rig mooring cables

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the high consumption of non-renewable natural resources and energy associated with the generation of solid waste has encouraged the development of sustainable materials for civil construction. In this context, some studies on the use of polymeric residues in the formulation of concrete-based materials have been published. These residues can minimize the use of mineral aggregates, in addition to providing some desired properties to the materials obtained. Porosity is one of the most important parameters of the concrete microstructure, as it is intrinsically related to some properties of this material, such as compressive strength. The objective of this work is to evaluate the properties and porosity of a concrete formulated with different contents of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) obtained from mooring cables of discarded oil platforms. The characterization of the polyester waste by different techniques showed that residue from mooringropes is comprised of PET. The mechanical evaluation of the concretes was performed by compression strength tests. The results showed that the addition of 5 % PET to the concrete formulations has a tendency to improve the mechanical strength of the materials. The porosity of each concrete sample was determined from images acquired from commercial scanner. Empirical equations were applied to relate the porosity data obtained to the compressive strength of the samples. The curves obtained matching with the inverse relationship between these two parameters.

Keywords
Concrete; Residues; Porosity; Image processing; Compressive strength