Structural performance of plastic block masonry unit

Abstract

The use of innovative materials with a sustainable application can have important benefits. Plastic bottles are increasingly becoming a menace to the environment due to their improper disposal. In this work, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles of 500 ml volume were used and filled with different types of soil: Red Coffee Soil (RCS), Murram Soil (MS) and Black Cotton Soil (BCS). The objective of this work was to investigate the structural performance of plastic bottles filled with soil inserted into cement mortar as a walling material. The compressive strength of Inserted Bottle Block (IBB) and Inserted Bottle Wall (IBW) has been tested and results have been discussed. At 28 days, compressive strength test results show that, Inserted Bottle filled with Red Coffee Soil Block (IBB-RCS) and Inserted Bottle filled with Murram Soil Block (IBB-MS) had a compressive strength of 2.7 MPa and 2.8 MPa, respectively. These values were higher than the minimum requirement for masonry units specified by the Kenya standard, which is 2.5 MPa, while the compressive strength of the Inserted Bottle filled with Black Cotton Soil Block (IBB-BCS) was 1.8MPa. A compressive strength test on Inserted Bottle Walls (IBW) shows that Inserted Bottle filled with Murram Soil wall (IBW-MS) has a compressive strength of 1.2 MPa while Inserted Bottle filled with Red Coffee Soil wall (IBW-RCS) and Inserted Bottle filled with Black Cotton Soil wall (IBW-BCS) have a compressive strength of 1.4 MPa and 0.8 MPa respectively. This study revealed that Inserted bottle filled with soil blocks could be used as construction materials.