%0 Journal Article
%T Effect of Mix Parameters on the Strength Performance of Waste Plastics Incorporated Concrete Mixes
%A Santhosh M. Malkapur
%A Ashish Anand
%A Amit Prakash Pandey
%A Alok Ojha
%A Nimesh Mani
%A Narasimhan Chandrashekara Mattur
%J Journal of Structures
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/389014
%X Disposal of solid wastes has been a major problem all over the world. Out of all the different types of solid wastes, the major challenge of disposal is posed by the ever increasing volumes of plastic wastes. While several methods are in practice, producing newer useful materials by recycling of such plastic wastes is, by far, the best method of their disposal. One such possible method is to use the waste plastics as an ingredient in the production of the concrete mixes in the construction industry. The present study aims to investigate the relative contributions of the various mix parameters to the mechanical properties of concrete mixes produced with waste plastics as partial replacement (10¨C30% by volume) to coarse aggregates. Initially, strength test results of a set of trial mixes, selected based on TaguchiĄ¯s design of experiments (DOE) method are obtained. A detailed analysis of the experimental results is carried out to study the effect of using waste plastics as a partial replacement to coarse aggregates on the strength parameters of these concrete mixes. It is found that all these trial mixes have performed satisfactorily in terms of workability in the fresh state and strength properties in their hardened state. 1. Introduction In the urge of making a cleaner and sustainable environment, one important concern has been on disposing of the solid wastes. There have been many attempts to use different solid wastes as possible construction materials. The present study explores the use of waste plastics as a possible replacement to coarse aggregates in concrete mixes. The study aims at investigating the mechanical properties of concrete mixes with waste plastic aggregates incorporated in them as a partial replacement to their coarse aggregate fraction. This work is focused on developing mixes with as maximum replacement of waste plastic as possible but retaining a minimum compressive strength of grade M20. In general, the inclusion of waste plastics into concrete has been found to decrease the strength performance characteristics of concrete. This decrease in performance is expected both in fresh and hardened properties. In fresh state, the workability of the concrete mixes produced with recycled plastic aggregates was found to be smaller as compared to the control mixes [1¨C5]. The hardened properties of concrete such as the compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, and modulus of elasticity reduce with increased percentage of waste plastics [1, 2, 5¨C10]. Though many works have been reported on the strength performance
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jstruc/2014/389014/