Fresh and Hardened Properties of Self-Compacting Concrete Reinforced with Recycled Steel Fibers from Mechanical Parts Turning Waste

The main reason for using fibers is to control cracking of concrete members due to plastic shrinkage and drying of concrete and to delay crack propagation. The use of fibers such as steel fibers improves the flexural strength and ductility of concrete. The main objective of this work is to study the effects of adding fibers resulting from the turning operation of mechanical parts on the behavior of self-compacting concrete. Fresh properties such as slump flow, passing ability and segregation rate and hardened properties such as compressive strength and flexural strength were analyzed. The obtained results have shown that all produced self-compacting concretes are homogeneous, stable and their mobility in confined environment is ensured. Furthermore, incorporation of fibers in the self-compacting concretes allowed to increase its flexural strength, also to have a gain of ductility witch can avoid sudden failure of the specimens. In conclusion, the turning waste can offer a new source of fiber supply and can replace steel fibers.