Use of wastes in concrete technology

Abstract

Permanently increasing amounts of rubble materials from industry, households, and from the demolition of disused buildings significantly burden economies, human health and the environment. This is accompanied by the decrease of land for landfills, resulting in increasing disposal costs. High amounts of rubble also mean a high consumption of natural resources. Especially against the background of increasing environmental awareness and stricter environmental laws, the requests for resource-saving actions in the building industry have accumulated. Building materials may no longer be regarded as waste to be disposed. Used materials and building components are to be considered over the whole entire life cycle. In a continuous process, civil engineers have to develop permanently new strategies to fed back straight rubble into the material cycle. In the presented dissertation, up-to-date scientific knowledge gained from civil engineering research about alternative techniques of rubble recycling in the building industry were collected, analyzed, evaluated and summarized. Based on these data, new applications of reuse of rubble - processed or unprocessed - especially for use of fibre concrete, made of concrete and masonry material, in earth structures are offered. In addition, the problems of reuse of dismantled large-sized concrete components, gained from residential buildings, which have come to the end of their life, were investigated under technical, economical and ecological aspects.

Permanently increasing amounts of rubble materials from industry, households, and from the demolition of disused buildings significantly burden economies, human health and the environment. This is accompanied by the decrease of land for landfills, resulting in increasing disposal costs. High amounts of rubble also mean a high consumption of natural resources. Especially against the background of increasing environmental awareness and stricter environmental laws, the requests for resource-saving actions in the building industry have accumulated. Building materials may no longer be regarded as waste to be disposed. Used materials and building components are to be considered over the whole entire life cycle. In a continuous process, civil engineers have to develop permanently new strategies to fed back straight rubble into the material cycle. In the presented dissertation, up-to-date scientific knowledge gained from civil engineering research about alternative techniques of rubble recycling in the building industry were collected, analyzed, evaluated and summarized. Based on these data, new applications of reuse of rubble - processed or unprocessed - especially for use of fibre concrete, made of concrete and masonry material, in earth structures are offered. In addition, the problems of reuse of dismantled large-sized concrete components, gained from residential buildings, which have come to the end of their life, were investigated under technical, economical and ecological aspects.