A Feasible Reuse of Waste Surgical Face Mask Fibers in Reinforcement of Wide-Range Cemented Sand with Various Porosities

Abstract

The introduction of face masks as a precautionary method to slow down the infectious rate of Coronavirus (Covid-19) has resulted in environmental challenges in the last two years. Since most of these masks are made up of polymeric materials, their extensive usage has produced millions of tons of waste materials in a short period of time, leading to the disposal load increase on the waste management systems around the globe. Hence, the present investigation aimed to evaluate the possibility of randomly distributing the shredded surgical face mask (SFM) fiber in the soil as a reinforcement element and its influence on the mechanical properties of sandy soil stabilized with cement from macro and microstructural aspects. To that end, a series of laboratory investigations, including unconfined compression test, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were conducted on soil specimens with five different amounts of cement (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10% soil dry weight) and four percent of SFM (0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75%). Additionally, the influence of four various relative densities (Dr = 35%, 50%, 70%, and 85% sand) on specimens' mechanical properties after 7 days of curing time has been investigated. The experimental results indicated that adding cement to the soil specimens caused an increase in unconfined compressive strength (UCS), secant modulus (E50), and absorbed energy (AE) of blended specimens. The mentioned parameters of the cemented specimens reinforced with 0.25% SFM fibers remarkably improved the strength 26%–59% for 2%–10% cemented samples. Moreover, up to 0.25%-SFM fiber addition to the mixture eventuated in a more ductile specimen. Through the SEM pictures, the proper inter-lock of the fibers, sand and the cementitious materials were demonstrated. In the end, a novel key parameter was defined, and several relationships were suggested to estimate the mechanical properties of the improved sand.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Cement; Sand; SEM; Soil improvement; Surgical face mask; Unconfined compressive strength

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2199-9279; 2199-9260

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2024

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