Abstract
In order to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and produce an eco-friendly construction material, a type of concrete that uses a minimal amount of cement, yet still retains equivalent properties to ordinary cement concrete, has been developed and studied all over the world. Hwangtoh, a type of red clay broadly deposited around the world, has traditionally been considered an eco-friendly construction material, with bonus advantages of having health and cost benefits. Presently, Hwangtoh is not commonly used as a modern construction material due to properties such as low strength and high rates of shrinkage cracking. Recent studies, however, have shown that Hwangtoh can be used as a mineral admixture to improve the strength of concrete. In addition, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers recycled from PET bottle waste can be used to control shrinkage cracks in Hwangtoh concrete. Therefore, in this study, performance verification is conducted on newly developed Hwangtoh concrete mixed with short recycled PET fibers. The results show that Hwangtoh concrete has compressive strength, elastic modulus, and pH properties that are similar to these features in ordinary cement concrete. The properties of carbonation depth and creep strain of Hwangtoh concrete, however, are larger and smaller, respectively, than in ordinary cement concrete. According to flexural tests, reinforced concrete (RC) specimens cast with Hwangtoh admixtures (with and without PET fibers) possess similar or better capacities than ordinary RC specimens. The addition of PET fibers significantly improves the structural ductility of RC specimens under normal environmental conditions. However, the implementations of the concrete in aggressive environment must be carefully considered, since a previous study result indicates degradation of its durability performance in aggressive environments, such as seawater [1]. The results of this study validate the possibility of using eco-friendly Hwangtoh concrete reinforced with recycled PET fibers as a structural material for modern construction.
Highlights
Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world due to its low cost, high availability, and simple constructability
Our experiments aimed to reduce the use of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) in concrete mixes as much as possible by replacing OPC with Hwangtoh and blast furnace slag powders
Control and slag concrete (SC) specimens were cast with plain OPC and slag cement concrete, respectively
Summary
Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world due to its low cost, high availability, and simple constructability. Many technologically advanced countries such as the United States and Japan are trying to reduce the use of cement and concrete while searching for alternative structural materials for housing construction [3,4,5,6,7]. As a result of the Kyoto Protocol for regulating CO2 emissions and energy consumption in the international community, construction industries all over the world are trying to reduce cement usage, find alternative materials, and use recycled materials for future construction projects [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
