Efficient Recycling of Waste Rubber in a Sustainable Fiber-Reinforced Mortar and its Damping and Energy Dissipation Capacity

A Great Number of Waste Tires Are Discarded in Landfills, Occupying Land Resources, and Severely Endangering the Ecosystem. Upcycling These Wastes as Aggregates to Partially Substitute Natural Sand and Develop Structure-Function Integration in Concrete Structures is a Desirable Solution. in This Study, a Sustainable Fiber-Reinforced Rubberized Mortar with Superior Material Damping and Moderate Strength is Developed by Combined Use of Waste Crumb Rubber (WCR) Incorporated at 0, 30%, and 60%, by Volume of Sand, and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Fiber Added at 0, 0.5%, and 1%, by Volume, in a High-Volume Fly Ash Binder System. Low-Temperature Plasma (LTP) Pre-Treatment of the WCR Was Applied to Compensate for Strength Loss Resulting from the Incorporation of a Large Portion of the WCR, Which Increases the Recycling Efficiency of the WCR. the Macro Tests of Static and Dynamic Mechanical Properties Were Used to Characterize the Material Damping and Energy Dissipation Capacity, Followed by Microstructural Tests to Evaluate the Enhanced Damping Mechanisms. Test Results Show that the Combination of 60% LTP Pre-Treated WCR and 1% PVA Fiber Can Secure the Highest Damping Capacity and Energy Dissipation Ratio Without a Significant Strength Drop. the Use of Discarded WCR is Therefore Promising to Substitute Conventional Sand and Design Functionalized Intrinsic Viscoelastic Cement Composites that Can Be Adopted in Anti-Vibrational Technology Applications

Quantifying the Difference of Uniformly Dispersed and Re-agglomerated Graphene Oxide-Based Cement Pastes on Rheological and Mechanical Properties

The state of GO dispersion is closely related to the properties of graphene oxide (GO)-based cement paste. This paper presents the effect of uniformly dispersed and re-agglomerated GO on the rheological and mechanical properties. The results showed that, compared to re-agglomerated GO cement paste, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of uniformly dispersed GO cement paste were higher. Moreover, the compressive and flexural strengths of uniformly dispersed GO pastes were higher than those of re-agglomerated GO pastes. Porosity analysis using mercury intrusion porosimetry showed that the well-dispersed GO can inhibit the formation of large-diameter pores and optimize the pore size distribution better than the re-agglomerated GO