Recyclability process of gypsum reinforced with hemp fabrics: Impact and flexural behaviour

Abstract

Gypsum is an ancient material, still widely used and suitable for many applications in the constructions due to its low cost, availability, lightweight, good thermal and sound isolating behaviour, fire resistance and low energy consumption. One of the most established application is its use as building walls and as pointed out in authors previous research works, it can be very useful and interesting to reinforce the gypsum with vegetable fibres like hemp. This aspect is in line with the current world situation where every industrial company needs to decrease the materials waste, increase recyclability and use more eco-friendly materials. Therefore, this work aims at designing, manufacturing, and testing of both commercial and recycled gypsum specimens reinforced with hemp fabrics, in order to improve impact and flexural resistance of traditional gypsum boards. The recycling process was carefully studied to detect the best grinding time, temperature and time of the heat treatment required to allow the reutilization of gypsum powders. Three point bending and impact tests at different energy levels were carried out in order to understand how the presence of the hemp fabrics within the gypsum matrix and how the recycling process affect the mechanical response of reinforced gypsum.