Performance Assessment of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Produced with Waste Lathe Fibers

The amount of steel waste produced is on the increase due to improvements in steel manufacturing industries. The increase in such wastes causes significant environmental problems and, furthermore, a large area is also required to store these waste products. Instead of disposing of these wastes, the reuse of them in different industries is an important success in terms of both reducing environmental pollution and providing low-cost products. From this motivation, the effect of lathe scrap fibers generated from Computer Numerical Control (CNC) lathe machine tools on concrete performance was investigated in this study. Pursuant to this aim and considering different fiber content, an experimental study was conducted on some test specimens. Workability and slump values of concrete produced with different lathe scrap fibers were determined, and these properties were compared with those of plain concrete. For the hardened concrete, 150 mm x 150 mm x 150 mm cubic specimens and cylindrical specimens with a diameter of 100 mm and a height of 200 mm were tested to identify compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of the concrete produced with different volume fracture of lathe waste scrap (0%, 1%, 2% and 3%). With the addition of the lathe scrap, the compressive and splitting tensile strength of fiber-reinforced concrete increases, but after a certain value of steel fiber content, there is a decrease in workability. Next, a three-point bending test was carried out on samples with dimensions of 100 x 100 x 400 mm and a span length of 300 mm to obtain the flexure behavior of different mixtures. It has been shown that the flexural strength of fiber-reinforced concrete increases with an increasing content of waste lathe. Furthermore, microstructural analysis was performed to observe the interaction between lathe scrap fiber and concrete. Good adhesion was observed between the steel fiber and cementitious concrete. According to the results obtained, waste lathe scrap fiber also worked as a good crack arrestor. Lastly, practical empirical equations were developed to calculate the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of fiber-reinforced concrete produced with waste lathe scrap.