Abstract

Nowadays, greater respect for the environment is a widespread social demand. Since the cork industry generates vast amounts of waste of approximately 20 to 30%, the harvested cork ends up as cork dust with no industrial use. It is becoming necessary to find a way to reuse or recycle this kind of residue. This paper evaluates the mechanical behavior of several samples of concrete containing cork powder (8%) and different steel fibres proportions (20 to 40 kg/m³). The results indicated that, in spite of the positive effect of the fibres, the cork powder concrete reinforced with steel fibers did not possess enough compressive strength for structural purposes. However, other properties of the result material, like energy absorption and impact behavior seem interesting in terms of certain non-structural applications such as livestock pavements and a surface finish that is less damaging to farm animals.

Key words: Concrete, cork powder, steel fibre.