Engineers in 2022, tested a cement based composite reinforced with flax and recycled fabric waste, containing 30% silica fume, and found that it kept its pre-aging flexural performance after aging. The treated composite recorded between 14.3 and 15.4 MPa in flexural strength, while its toughness ranged from 8.1 to 8.7 kJ/m². The study, titled “Microstructural Properties of Hybrid Textile Waste-Flax Fabric-Reinforced Cement Composites,” explored whether the integration of recycled textile fibers into cement-based materials could solve durability issues found in natural fibers. The researchers produced a nonwoven fabric consisting of 65% recycled textile-waste fibers and 35% flax fibers.
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