Characteristics of polymer concrete produced from wasted construction materials

The recycling of materials to produce useful materials is very important subject for scientific research in our world now, because the diminution natural resources make a hole or risk in future of the world. The aim of our research is to produce polymer concrete (PC) has high mechanical and physical characteristics. This PC was prepared by using the waste of aggregates from demolitions and construction materials with low cost as compared as cement concrete. These types of construction and demolition waste were used as aggregates replacement (i.e. waste of cement/concrete debris, waste of ceramic tiles and the waste of building blocks) as well as natural and river sand. Unsaturated polyester resin was used as cement replacement. The weight percentages of resin were changed within (20, 25 and 30) % to manufacture this polymer concrete. Physical test such as density and mechanical tests such as compressive strength, flexural strength, Splitting tensile strength and Schmidt hammer were performed. The results proved that all the mechanical properties of all prepared mortars were increased with increasing the weight percentage of polymer added while the density was decreased. This encourages us to us to use this type of polymer mortar in different applications as precast or partitions with high toughness.