A novel energy-absorbing composite structure with layers of basalt fiber fabric constraining waste brick particles and foam concrete

To seek a new way of recycling the waste brick, a novel energy-absorbing composite structure, consisting of the top layer of basalt fiber fabric constrained waste brick particles (BFCBP) and the bottom layer of foam concrete, is proposed to realize the purpose of the multi-level protection. First of all, the quasi-static compressive test is conducted on the BFCBP specimens with three different height-to-diameter ratios and the foam concrete specimens with four different densities and three height-to-diameter ratios, and their energy absorption performance is evaluated by the test data. The results show that the height-to-diameter ratio of the BFCBP specimen as well as the density and height-to-diameter ratio of the foam concrete specimen have a significant influence on their failure mode and energy absorption. Then after a reasonable combination of the two layers of BFCBP with a height-to-diameter ratio of 1.0 and foam concrete with a density of 700 kg/m³ and a height-to-diameter ratio of 0.5, the quasi-static and dynamic compressive tests are conducted on the energy-absorbing composite structure, and its deformation process, energy absorption, and load transfer under different compressive velocities are experimentally investigated. The test results show that the composite structure subjected to quasi-static and dynamic compressive loading demonstrates layered compression deformation and two-phase energy absorption characteristics, which implies that the proposed composite structure could provide multi-level protection by its staged energy absorption.