Workability, strength, and durability of concrete containing recycled plastic fibers and styrene-butadiene rubber latex

Abstract

The conventional concrete in the fresh and hardened state was evaluated for obtaining the effect of the combined addition of recycled plastic fiber (RPF) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) latex. Though the conventional concrete containing recycled plastics and polymer modifiers such as SBR latex has been explored up to an extent; the effects of blending of RPF and SBR latex on concrete is rarely explored. The objective was to evaluate the properties of concrete due to the addition of RPF and SBR latex blending and obtaining the optimum dosages of RPW and SBR latex. The tests for workability, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, impact strength, flexure strength, chloride ingress, acid and sulfate resistance and water sorptivity were carried out. The concrete was modified with the SBR latex dosage range of 0%–20% by weight of cement. The RPF was added in the range of 0%–2% by volume of the mix at the average length of the 20 mm and 0.4 mm diameter. The results exhibited improvement in fresh and hardened properties of modified concrete due to the combined addition of RPF and SBR latex namely improved cracking resistance, flexure resistance and reduced rate of chemical and water ingress into the specimens. The combination of 1% RPF by unit volume of concrete and 15% SBR latex by weight of cement showed improvement of all the properties of the concrete mixes. The study also demonstrated an effective way of preparing sustainable concrete from the hazardous plastic waste with enhanced properties.