Investigation of plastic carry bag waste-based fiber reinforced concrete

Abstract

Disposal of plastic waste is a major environmental concern. Researchers attempt to address this by reusing plastic waste. The earlier efforts made to reuse it for concrete construction have resulted in strength reduction. The present investigation attempts to reuse the plastic carry bag waste by converting them into threaded plastic fiber. The thickness of fiber is kept between 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm with a fiber length between 20 mm and 30 mm. Different percentages of plastic fiber are mixed with concrete and its influence on the strength characteristics of concrete was studied. Cube, cylinder and prism specimens are cast and experimentally investigated to arrive an optimal fiber percentage for disposing the plastic carry bag waste into concrete. The results show that the plastic fiber of up to 2% by weight of cement are not affecting the strength of concrete. Three under reinforced concrete beams with and without plastic fiber are cast and tested under two-point loading, for assessing the influence of plastic fiber in under reinforced concrete beams. From the results, it is observed that the reinforced concrete beams with plastic fiber have better performance compared to the control beam.