Characterization of a textile waste nonwoven fabric reinforced cement composite for non-structural building components

Large amounts of nonrenewable resources are depleted by the construction industry in addition to the generation of million tons of mineral waste and carbon dioxide gas every year. For the sake of a more sustainable consumption pattern of building materials, as well as for reducing the waste flux to landfills, the use of recycled materials and wastes should be researched and motivated. In this sense, textile waste (TW) nonwoven fabric from residues of the garments and textile industries are investigated as internal reinforcement for cement-based matrices to enhance ductility and cracking control. To this end, an extensive experimental program was carried out to characterize both the mechanical and durability properties of the composite. The results were compared with those obtained from flax nonwoven fabric, taken as a reference (FNH and FH composites). All the composites showed a remarkable improvement in terms of toughness and post-cracking stress-bearing capacity, six being the optimum number of TW reinforcing layers. Through the analysis of the results obtained, the feasibility of using TW composite as a potential construction material in non-structural applications was confirmed. The extension to structural applications of low-medium responsibility is still required further research; nonetheless, the results are promising to this respect.