Influence of Artificial Waste Modification on Strength of Cementitious Composite

Abstract

High development of civilisation leads to incremental growth of produced municipal wastes. Despite of introducing restrictions related to municipal selective waste management still great amount of wastes is being landfilled. In countries like India or Philippines engineers started to utilize plastic wastes in extraordinary way using it as an alternative aggregate in cementitious composites. Many researchers tried to improve properties of concrete containing artificial aggregate. This paper analyses various treatment of PET flakes before adding to the mortar mix. Main aim was to modify the surface of PET flakes in order to obtain improved adhesion between artificial aggregate and cement matrix. Mortar mixes contained boiled, stored in alkali and acid solutions and regular plastic particles. This paper presents the results of flexural and compressive strength after 28 days and SEM analysis. Replacing natural aggregate in mortars with 5% PET flakes resulted in decreasing the compressive strength by 7%. Although the surface of PET flakes modified by alkali and acid solutions appeared to become rougher there was no improvement in compressive strength, moreover decreased in comparison to control sample.