Effect of partial replacement of E-waste as a fine aggregate on compressive behavior of concrete specimens having different geometry with and without CFRP confinement

Abstract

Nowadays, the improper disposal of electronic waste (E-waste) is leading to environmental pollution and health problems majorly in developing countries. The current research examines the behavior of shredded E-waste fine aggregate concrete strengthened by the use of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) confinement under axial compressive load. The main objective of this study is to investigate the structural behavior of circular and non-circular concrete specimens by partial replacement of E-waste as fine aggregates and confined with CFRP sheets. Tests were performed on a total of 36 concrete specimens. The parameters considered were cross-sectional geometry of circular, rectangular and square concrete specimens, 20% partial replacement of fine aggregates by E-waste, the effect of the corner in case of non-circular specimens, and the number of CFRP sheets. These tests portrayed that the partial replacement of fine aggregates by E-waste aggregates results in decreasing axial compressive strength of concrete specimens. However, the external CFRP confinement increases the axial strength of specimens (a maximum of 71% for circular specimens, 33% for square specimens, and 25% for rectangular specimens). It was also observed that partial replacement of natural fine aggregates by E-waste increased the failure time. For the case of square and rectangular concrete specimens, the ultimate strength was lower than circular specimens for both (with and without CFRP confinement) specimens. Finally, existing strength and strain models developed for FRP-confined concrete were used for theoretical calculations. The theoretical declaration of the existing models indicates that a few of the ultimate strain models lie on the high side and few of the ultimate strain models on the low side in comparison with the experimental findings.