Effects of waste PET as coarse aggregate on the fresh and harden properties of concrete

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of plastic as an alternative coarse aggregate on various fresh and harden properties of concrete. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer, is considered as an alternative aggregate and replaced with natural coarse aggregate, such as brick chips. The PET aggregate is obtained by shredding, melting and crushing the collected waste PET bottles. The primary focus of the work is to observe compressive strength and unit weight of PET aggregate concrete (PAC) along with their workability in comparison with the natural aggregate concrete (NAC). With the increase in PET replacement ratio and w/c ratio lower unit weights and compressive strengths are observed for PAC compare to NAC. Compressive strength for 20% PET replaced PAC at 0.42w/c ratio is 30.3MPa which is only 9% less than the NAC. However, PAC has significantly high workability as 1.8cm slump value is observed for 20% PET replaced PAC at 0.42w/c ratio. Therefore, PET replaced concrete with low w/c ratio and high workability can be used for structural concrete member.