Evaluación de Prototipo de Concreto a Partir del Aprovechamiento de Fibra de Vidrio Residual Proveniente de la Industria de Carrocerías

Abstract

The present project is developed around some of the most relevant problems in the automotive industry regarding one of its base manufacturing materials, fiberglass. This material has been presenting a higher consumption parallel to the generation of waste from its use, resulting in environmental and health repercussions caused by the waste. On the other hand, another of the problems that the project intends to solve is focused on concrete cracking, which besides being an undesirable condition in the material, exposes its resistance limits, for this reason, the tests that evaluate the tensile forces to which concrete can be subjected have been implemented as a quality and value parameter in the industry. This gives sense to the generation of a new construction material based on residual E-glass fiber from the production process of the auto body industries, specifically a 4000psi concrete reinforced with recycled glass fibers. In this way, an added value is given to one of the inert wastes generated, while its addition to the concrete provides the material with more crack-resistant properties. After the bibliographic research that frames the limitations presented in projects that use fiberglass type E, as well as the series of problems derived from concrete cracking, the main guidelines were established to determine the quality of the proposed prototype in order to obtain an optimal physical-mechanical response. The project estimated the most relevant and measurable control properties for the comparison of three types of concrete; conventional concrete, commercial glass fiber reinforced concrete type AR and recycled glass fiber reinforced concrete type E; which, after performing the mix design, were subjected to the corresponding tests for the determination of compressive strength, flexural strength, indirect tensile strength and modulus of elasticity; these tests were performed by subjecting the prototypes to the different forces to which the concretes are subjected during their useful life and were failed at different ages in order to estimate their behavior over time. Based on the results, it was determined that the designed prototype is a flexural resistant concrete that exceeds the estimates given in terms of its performance with respect to the specimens corresponding to conventional concrete and commercial glass fiber reinforced concrete, standing out mainly in its performance in indirect tension. After the estimates consequent to the comparison of results for the specimens, the main advantages and disadvantages presented by the residual fiber reinforced concrete were established, as well as the general challenges that the new material must face in order to competitively enter the green market where it could have future opportunities.