Flexural fatigue behaviour of recycled tyre polymer fibre reinforced concrete

Abstract

The utilization of recycled tyre polymer fibre (RTPF) into concrete production is feasible to promote sustainable development and mitigate environmental pollution of global landfilled waste tyres. This paper for the first time presents an experimental study on flexural fatigue behaviour of concrete reinforced with RTPF considering different fibre dosages (i.e., 1.2, 2.4, 4.8 and 9.6 kg/m3). Results indicate that with the presence of RTPF, the flexural strength of concrete was increased by 3.6–9.6%. The fatigue life of all mixtures followed the two-parameter Weibull distribution and can be accurately predicted using the developed double-logarithm fatigue equations. Concrete reinforced with 4.8 kg/m3 of RTPF presented the longest fatigue life under different failure probabilities. RTPF and polypropylene fibre (PPF) reinforced concrete exhibited similar fatigue failure mechanisms. 0.2–0.4% Vf of RTPF could substitute around 0.1% Vf of PPF in concrete considering overall static, dynamic and fatigue performance.