Flexure and shear behaviour of self-compacting reinforced concrete beams with polyethylene terephthalate fibres and strips

Abstract

One of the major environmental concerns is the disposal of the solid waste. The limited landfill sites intensify the issue and increase the need for alternative use of solid waste. Plastic drinking bottles made of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) are one of the major portions of solid waste. Beverage containers are made by PET and are intended for single use only. This study is focused on the use of PET as Fibres cut from waste drinking bottles in concrete. Long strips and Short PET fibres cut it from waste beverage bottles were used in self-compacting reinforced concrete (SCRC) beams as reinforcement. Together with the steel reinforcement in beams, the PET strips or fibres were used with, and without shear reinforcement. In SCRC beams detailed for the flexural and shear failure, the 1 percent volume fraction of short strips or fibres were used. Material properties such as compressive strength, elastic modulus were performed along with the beams tested under four-point bending. The results were analysed and compared with strips or fibres reinforced beams with a control beam. Based on the results, it was found that PET bottles as strips or fibres could be used as shear and flexural reinforcement in concrete as enhance in ductility, load capacity and shift of mode of failure were observed with strips and fibres.