Investigation of some engineering properties of waste polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) fiber reinforced concrete

In this study, a comparison was made between concrete with waste PTFE fiber and standard concrete. Both elastomeric and thermoplastic fluoropolymer find a wide use especially in automotive applications such as seals, pulley etc. A large amount of PTFE occurs during this applications production. PTFE fiber is not a conventional concrete additive. It is a waste material and it can be used as a concrete filler material. In order to investigate the behaviour of this waste material in the concrete, mixtures containing waste PTFE fiber in amounts of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%(by weight) in order to replace to the same amount of fine sand (0-1 mm) were prepared. The compressive strength, tensile strength, workability and unit weight of the waste PTFE fiber concrete investigated. It was observed that waste PTFE fiber concretes have sufficient strength to be used as semi structural concrete. The mechanical behaviours of waste PTFE fiber concrete and control concrete were very similar. Moreover, it was observed that the unit weight and workability of the waste PTFE fiber concretes were decreased. This study provides that reusing waste PTFE fiber as an artificial filler material in concrete gives a new approach to solve some of the solid waste problems by plastics.