Performance of polymer concrete incorporating waste marble and alfa fibers

Abstract

Polymer Concrete (PC), as the name suggests, is a composite material consisting essentially of a mixture of carefully graded aggregates and fine fillers bound together by means of an organic resin system. In the ordinary cement concrete, the gravel is the aggregate, sand is the filler and Portland Cement is used as the binder (Pratap 2002). Polymer concrete was first developed in the 1950s and then became widely known in the 1970s. Today, the PC is used very efficiently in precast components for buildings, bridge panels, hazardous waste containers, machine bases, industrial flooring, retouching of damaged concrete structures, underground pipes and in various utility and transportation components (Abdel-Fattah and El-Hawary 1999, Reis and Ferreira 2004). The use of polymer resins instead of Portland cement in the concrete mix improves the mechanical behavior in general and produces desirable properties for durability such as high abrasion resistance and impermeability to water and salts (Fontana and Bartholomew 1980).In