Adetiloye A Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Applications www.ijera.com ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 5, Issue 4, ( Part -1) April 2015, pp.40-46 www.ijera.com 40 | Page Structural Engineering Properties of Fibre Reinforced Concrete Based On Recycled Glass Fibre Polymer (GFRP) *Adetiloye A. and **Ephraim M. E. *Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta **Department of Civil Engineering, Rivers-State University of Science and Technology Port Harcourt. Abstract Glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) based on resin recovered from recycling plastic waste has been shown to possess mechanical properties satisfying normative requirements. This paper investigates the flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with GFRP produced from resin recovered from recycled plastic wastes. A total of twelve of beams of sizes 150 ×150 ×900mm and 100 × 100 × 500mm reinforced with GFRP made from recycled glass fibre reinforced polymer was tested. The flexural test results yielded lower ultimate load, lower stiffness and larger deflections at the same load when compared with the control steel reinforced beam. However, the ultimate flexural strength of beams, reinforced with GFRP from recycled resin was at least four times higher than that of the control unreinforced beam. This is in agreement, quantitatively and qualitatively, with the trend of these parameters in GFRP reinforced concrete based on virgin resins. The results therefore confirm the applicability for structural uses of GFRP reinforcement made from recycled plastic waste, with the accompanying benefits of wealth creation, value addition and environmental sustainability. Key Words: Concrete, Fibre reinforced plastics, composites I. Introduction Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcements has been in rapid use in concrete structures in the last decade because of it high strength, light weight, non magnetization, corrosion resistance and expected long-term durability. However, these structures are primarily based on virgin materials used as resin in the development and production of FRP reinforcements. The current spate of deterioration of the world‟s infrastructure continues to pose serious challenges to engineering. Structures suffer from distresses due to ageing, damages due to overloading, abuse of use, war, terror and various natural disasters. Under these circumstances, it becomes increasingly imperative to determine the feasibility of utilizing high performance polymer composite materials for fabrication of new structures as well as for retrofitting the existing ones as a novel paradigm. The various reports of the American and Canadian Societies of Civil Engineers and other international professional bodies offer important recommendations on the use of high performance materials and systems in construction, citing substantial cost savings due to lower volumes of materials needed, reduced maintenance and longer lifetimes. A comprehensive review of development, mechanical properties and application of fibre reinforced polymer can be found in the publications of Ashbee (1993), ACI Reports (1996), Bakht (2000), Bakis and Wang (2002). Investigations into the shear and flexural behavior of GFRP reinforced beams have been undertaken in several works, including those of Nawy and Neuwerth (1971), Faza and GangaRao (1992), Nanni et al. (1993), Bank and Ozel (1996), Wang and Bilarbi (2005), Al-Sunna et al (2006) and Arivalagan (2012) among others. However, these studies were all based on GFRP derived from virgin resins. There is practically no information in technical literature on the use of recycled plastic waste for structural applications. To bridge this gap, the authors undertook a detailed study on the mechanical properties of glass fibre reinforced plastic, based on recycled resin, to assess its potentials and suitability for application in civil engineering design and construction of concrete structures. The details of this study are reported in Ephraim and Adetiloye (2014). The results from the latter study showed that recycled GFRP has a density of about 0.91-1.2 gm/cm 3 within the range of fibre content of 35-50 percent. It exhibits a practically linear stress – strain relation almost to the ultimate tensile strength, averaging 43-57 MPa with a modulus of elasticity of 1.4 - 2.65 GPa. A fibre content of about 40 percent, at which the tensile strength, impact and hardness characteristics attained maximum values irrespective of laminate thickness, was established. These results confirm the applicability of GFRP from recycled resin for structural uses with the accompanying benefits of wealth creation, value addition and environmental sustainability. RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS