Safety Barriers Developed from Waste Material

Engineers in Malatya have developed durable security walls weighing several tons using waste materials and new cement-free mortars. Wall elements produced for defense industry applications can withstand pressure of up to 30 tons. Under the leadership of Associate Professor Müslüm Murat Maraş at İnönü University, with contributions from 5 graduate students, walls were developed using waste materials and cement-free mortars capable of withstanding several tons of weight. These walls, produced for use in the defense industry, can resist pressure of up to 30 tons. Produced for the first time in the world using cement-free mortars in Turkey, these walls are expected to make significant contributions to the national economy while also providing substantial benefits to border security, particularly through their use in border region walls.

We will make significant contributions to the national economy

Associate Professor Müslüm Murat Maraş from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at İnönü University, noting that they used three different types of synthetic fibers to give the structural elements produced from the mortars flexible properties, made the following statements:

In our research, we produced cement-free mortars for buildings. In these mortars, we particularly used fibers, materials used in recent years in fiber mills in textile production, and by adding them to the mortars, we ensured that the mortars exhibited flexible properties. Subsequently, we attempted to apply these mortars in walls. We subjected wall elements produced with normal mortars to fracturing during loading. Later, we attempted to apply these mortars, produced with waste materials and particularly low-cost, to structural elements. Our main objective in producing these walls was to target their use in the defense industry. Security walls have been constructed in recent years, particularly along our border lines. By producing new wall elements as an alternative to these security walls, we will make significant contributions both to the environmental economy with waste materials and to the national economy. In our research, I would like to thank our rector Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kızılay, who supported our project, the scientific research project unit, and my project team. I worked on the project with 5 graduate students along with myself. Maraş, noting that the walls they produced can resist loading of approximately 30 tons, continued as follows: In production using mortars used on the market, wall elements completely fractured under loading in the testing phase. In our produced mortar, however, it showed resistance of approximately 28 tons during loading. After demonstrating resistance, fine capillary cracks formed instead of large cracks. Particularly with the use of these mortars in security walls along border lines in the defense industry, the structural element cannot be repaired in any way. With the mortar we produced, capillary cracks are repaired quickly, ensuring security along border lines. In our cement-free mortars, we used blast furnace slag from steel mills, which we call waste material. This is a completely waste-based material. We used it as an alternative to cement. Subsequently, we prepared our solution in the bonding phase and used our fibers to give the mortar ductile properties. We used 3 different types of synthetic fibers. Our synthetic fibers are particularly used as raw materials in the fiber production stage. We also attempted to produce flexible mortars in this way in the construction sector among mortars.

10 times more durable

Merve Büyüktapu, a graduate student in the Department of Civil Engineering at İnönü University, noting that the developed mortar is 10 times more durable compared to normal cement samples, continued as follows: By using waste materials, we obtained approximately 150 samples. In these samples, we observed that while normal cement samples achieved maximum pressure of up to 3 megapascals. In the samples we produced from waste materials, we achieved up to 30 megapascals of pressure, which is 10 times more resistance. Additionally, when we used waste fibers from factories and mixed them, we found that we achieved pressure of up to 55 megapascals. This demonstrates that by using only waste materials, we achieved 10 times more pressure resistance compared to normal cement samples.