Subhani Karamat, Prasad Krishnamurthy, Hameed Nishar, Nikzad Mostafa, Salim Nisa V
School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia.
Polymers (Basel). 2024 Nov 19;16(22):3207. doi: 10.3390/polym16223207.
A composite material comprising expanded polystyrene (EPS), granulated tyre rubber (GTR), and a compatibilizer is demonstrated as a possible replacement for fine and coarse agglomerates in mortar and concrete systems, respectively. Two different polymer blending processes (solvent/low shear blending and melt/high shear blending) are used, and the resulting composite material utilized as aggregate to replace sand and cement for mortar and concrete block development. Critical properties such as workability, compressive and flexural strengths, water absorption, bulk density, and porosity are measured before and after aggregate replacement. The novel composite material led to significant improvements, boosting compressive strength by 7.6% and flexural strength by 18% when sand was replaced and further increasing compressive strength by 22.2% and flexural strength by 5.26% with cement replacement. However, a decrease in compressive and flexural strength was observed when plain EPS and plain GTR were used separately as aggregate replacements. This work proposes a pathway for the successful reincorporation of difficult-to-recycle materials such as EPS and GTR, otherwise destined for landfill, back into the supply chain for the construction industry. Moreover, this research represents the first reported work where the overall properties of mortar have surpassed those of standard mortar when substituted with recycled EPS or GTR.
一种由膨胀聚苯乙烯（EPS）、粒状轮胎橡胶（GTR）和增容剂组成的复合材料，分别被证明可作为砂浆和混凝土体系中细集料和粗集料的替代品。采用了两种不同的聚合物共混工艺（溶剂/低剪切共混和熔体/高剪切共混），并将所得复合材料用作集料，以替代用于砂浆和混凝土砌块生产的沙子和水泥。在集料替代前后，对诸如工作性、抗压强度和抗弯强度、吸水率、堆积密度和孔隙率等关键性能进行了测量。这种新型复合材料带来了显著的改善，当替代沙子时，抗压强度提高了7.6%，抗弯强度提高了18%；当替代水泥时，抗压强度进一步提高了22.2%，抗弯强度提高了5.26%。然而，当单独使用普通EPS和普通GTR作为集料替代品时，观察到抗压强度和抗弯强度有所下降。这项工作为成功重新利用诸如EPS和GTR等难以回收的材料（否则将被运往垃圾填埋场）提供了一条途径，使其重新回到建筑行业的供应链中。此外，这项研究是首次报道的用回收的EPS或GTR替代时砂浆的整体性能超过标准砂浆的工作。
