The Role of Animal Fibers on the Pore Structure of One-Year-Age Concrete

The construction industry is considered one of the industries that pollute the most worldwide, since it contributes to pollution directly and indirectly, each of its steps can be classified as harmful to the environment. At the same time, 900,000 million metric tons of pig waste are produced per year in Europe with a management cost of 20 million euros per year. This work aims to quantify the fiber-size pore structure of a concrete matrix when randomly distributed valorized animal fibers are added to the mixture. One-year-age concrete specimens plain and reinforced with 8 kg/m³ of animal fibers were tested following an experimental multiscale approach. The pore structure of concrete between 60 and 180 microns was addressed using mercury intrusion porosimetry. The electrical resistivity and flexural strength of all concrete samples were also measured to address the tortuosity and mechanical strength of one-year-age reinforced concrete subject to the different curing conditions. Two curing conditions were considered for concrete samples: 1) 22 ℃ and 50% relative humidity, and 2) water saturated at 22 ℃. Our results show that the external curing conditions influence the fiber-size pore structure of one-year-age reinforced concrete. While reviewing the reinforced samples at an age of one year, traces of degraded hair were found.