Adamopoulos, Stergios
- Department of Forest Bioeconomy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
This study investigated the incorporation of various waste materials including wastepaper, Tetra Pak, wood chips and scrap tire fluff into flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum and cement mortar matrices to produce sustainable composite materials. Four distinct composite types based on the waste materials were developed and evaluated for selected properties including thermal and acoustic insulation. The proportion of the waste materials was varied between 10 and 40 vol% of the base matrix. The compressive strength of the filled gypsum composites was in the range of 4.17-10.39 N/mm(2) while the pure gypsum was 11.38 N/mm(2). The addition of the wastes in gypsum composites reduced compressive strength by about 10% for the best recipe and as large as 60% for the worst combination. However, the measured strength still exceeds the strength of typical gypsum wallboard with a compressive strength of about 3-4 N/mm(2) for whole-board crushing tests and it is much lower for point loads. The normal-incidence sound absorption coefficient indicated that the waste-filled samples absorbed around 80% of the incident sound energy between 2000 and 3000 Hz, comparable to some commercial acoustic foams. The results highlight the potential of utilising these waste-based composites in environmentally friendly construction applications. Depending on the waste type and matrix used, the results revealed trade-offs between multi-functional performance and sustainability benefits.
Keywords
Recycling; Sustainability; Tetra pak; Tire fluff; Wastepaper; Wood chips
Published in
Discover Applied Sciences
2026, volume: 8, number: 2, article number: 196
Publisher: SPRINGER
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Composite Science and Engineering
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-025-08217-1
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/146164