Effect of PVC Dust on the Performance of Cement Concrete—A Sustainable Approach

Abstract

In a current scenario, about 2.7 billion tonnes of cement is produced every year, by this lot of CO2 is emitted to the environment, to overcome the environmental problems cementatious material (PVC DUST) is used as an alternate material in concrete. While manufacturing PVC pipes, lot of PVC dust is generated. PVC dust is a fine powder obtained while manufacturing PVC pipes, this waste will create landfilling and environmental problems; due to the contamination chlorinated chemicals in PVC dust the workers working in PVC industries are suffering from diseases like blood cancer, lung cancer and brain tumour, if it is exposed to environment, the people who stay in the surrounding they also get caused by these diseases. Chemical composition of PVC dust is having silica and other compounds so that effectively this is used in concrete as a mineral admixture to enhance the mechanical properties of cement concrete to overcome the above-mentioned serious diseases and environmental problems. Overall the main importance of proposed research is to overcome the environmental pollution problems by using PVC dust in cement concrete, to overcome the landfilling and disposal problems of PVC dust. As a sustainable approach, use of waste PVC dust in concrete will give optimum results. This paper reports on the investigation and implementation of PVC dust as a replacement of cement in concrete mixes for all types of constructions. In concrete, with a view to reduce the use of cement content in mortar and concrete without affecting their performance. For this it must be assured that concrete prepared with PVC dust has good mechanical strength. The characteristic properties of concrete were studied with controlled mix. Concrete mixes with 0 to 25% replacement of PVC dust and other waste materials in concrete. As a sustainable approach, this thesis will overcome environmental pollution, landfilling and disposal problems and economical viability.