Fracture toughness of aggregate blend of polymer mortars: Hysteresis loop and strain energy density considerations

The sustainable management of solid wastes stimulates metallurgic and metal mechanics industries to look for safety applications for their wastes. The present paper examines the fracture behavior of polymer mortars (PMs) manufactured with 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of spent foundry sand in substitution of fresh one. The foundry sand is contaminated with polymer resin from the mold making process from foundry industry. The fracture results are analyzed by fracture energy, Gf and fracture toughness, KIc. It is found that the spent foundry sand in substitution of fresh one influences significantly the fracture properties of PM. The strain energy density approach revealed that the hysteresis loop provides a measure of the energy dissipation characteristics of adding the polymer mortars (PMs) to the mixture. The unsaturated PM dissipated more energy.