Abstract
One of the major environmental threat in the world today is the increased production of plastic and its usage. The inept plastic waste management system with regard to its recycling and energy recovery in the developing countries creates a global threat as a major land and water body pollutant. However, its durability, thermal properties, and chemical resistance make plastics an alternate choice as a building material. This study investigates the use of plastic in concrete mixture with an objective to improve the thermal performance of the building. The shredded plastic fibers from plastic bottles (polyethylene terephthalate, PET) were used as a partial weight replacement (2.5%, 5%, and 7.5%) of coarse aggregate in concrete blocks. The cubes were cast using the Indian standards (IS 456) and the essential tests were performed. Additionally, experiments were designed to investigate the change in the thermal conductivity of the concrete block due to the varying amount of plastic. It was found that the use of PETs affected the compressive strength and also decreased the thermal conductivity of the concrete blocks. The experimental results suggest that PETs can be used in the construction of energy-efficient building to handle the environmental concerns because of its abundance.
Highlights
The building sector has major impact on the quality of environment, as it consumes 40% of the total energy, 50% of the total extracted materials and 36% of the total CO2 emissions globally [1]
In order to investigate the one-dimensional heat flow in concrete blocks with varying Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) percentage the following arrangement was made: A heat generating coil was sandwiched between the two similar concrete block such that one face of each block was heated using the coil and the rise in temperature of the other face was recorded as shown in figure1.The blocks used for the experiment were cured for 7 days and were weighed before testing to understand the effect the volumetric density on thermal conductivity
The Fourier equation of one dimensional conduction was used for the calculation of thermal conductivity mentioned in equation 2
Summary
The building sector has major impact on the quality of environment, as it consumes 40% of the total energy, 50% of the total extracted materials and 36% of the total CO2 emissions globally [1]. In order to integrate sustainable development with building sector several attempts have been made to use natural or recycled materials having insulation properties in the construction of energy efficient building envelope [3]. In this regard plastic wastes makes an excellent choice as it decreases. The obtained results show that it has the potential to reduce the energy required for heating and cooling of the buildings It can help in mitigating the environmental impacts due to inadequate disposal and recycling of plastics in the developing countries. The section of the paper presents the methodology followed to conduct the study
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