Behaviour of concrete with oil contamination and reinforced with fibres

Since the World has seen a continual rise in the use of fossil fuels there has been a consequential rise in environmental pollution. As such this leads to the pollution of sands and soils. If the use of contaminated soils and sands is deemed viable in the mixture of concrete this will result in a cleaner environment and also provide a cost effective construction material. The research conducted is aimed at investigating what fibres best improve the physical and mechanical properties of concrete that contains sand contaminated at a dosage of 6% (by volume of sand). Furthermore the investigation aims to determine the optimum dosage of a short fibre, in order to analyse its effects on the remediation of the contaminated concrete. The project was split into two stages: 1. Programme 1: Investigation of the effects of short fibres on 6% oil contaminated concrete, particularly the effects on the compressive and flexural behaviour. 2. Programme 2: Investigation of optimum fibre dosage and its effects on the compressive and flexural behaviour of 6% contaminated concrete. The investigation of programme 1 concluded that the incorporation 0.1%, by concrete volume, of Porta Ferro, Steel and Reoshore45 fibres had mixed results on the Physical and mechanical properties of the contaminated concrete. Firstly results proved that the addition of the three fibres had insignificant effects on the compressive strength of the concrete, however increased the contaminated concretes ductile behaviour. Results also found that the flexural strength of the contaminated concrete was significantly increased due to the addition of the fibres. Since the Reoshore45 fibres increased the flexural strength of the contaminated concrete the most, it was chosen as the best performing fibre. The Reoshore45 fibres added to the oil contaminated concrete, at dosages of 0.1%,-0.4% by concrete volume, had significant effects on the flexural strength of the concrete. A trend was found which indicated that, increased fibre dosage resulted in increased flexural strength. Therefore a dosage rate of 0.4% improved the concrete compressive strength the most whilst minimally effecting the compressive strength. The results of the study indicate that there is the potential for significant recovery of 6% contaminated concretes flexural strength, whilst there is minimal recovery for the contaminated concretes compressive strength. The flexural strength increase is attributed to the ability of the fibres and concrete to form an efficient fibre-concrete matrix. Further research should be conducted to present potential remedial actions for the improvement of contaminated concretes compressive strength