Technical Assessment of Green lightweight concrete containing manufactured plastic aggregates

Abstract

The disposal of plastic waste is a global problem and many solutions have already been proposed to lower the environmental impact. The utilization of manufactured plastic-based coarse aggregate in concrete is one of the possible alternatives. The current study focuses on evaluating the fresh and hardened properties of concrete incorporating the plastic based manufactured aggregates. The concrete mixes were prepared at a constant water to cement ratio of 0.5 and four replacement levels (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) of manufactured plastic-based aggregates along with two references mixes (Normal aggregate concrete and Lightweight aggregate concrete). The slump increased, while the fresh density, compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of manufactured aggregate concrete decreased with increased in the replacement ratio of manufactured aggregates. The percentage decrease for dry density, compressive strength and splitting tensile strength at 100% replacement of coarse aggregate in comparison to normal weight aggregate concrete was found to be 18.6%, 28% and 37% respectively. The Poisson ratio and abrasion values increased with increase in the replacement percentage. In addition, to predict the splitting tensile strength of concrete containing plastic-based aggregate, an equation was also proposed. Overall, the manufactured aggregates have displayed their ability to be used for construction purposes specifically where lightweight structural concrete is required as majority of properties satisfied the ASTMC330/C330M − 14 criteria.