Short-Term Mechanical Properties of Concrete Containing Recycled Polypropylene Coarse Aggregates under Ambient and Elevated Temperature
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 10
Abstract
In recent years, the use of recycled plastic aggregate (RPA) as an alternative aggregate material has been considered to lower the environmental impact of both concrete and waste plastics. Recycled plastic aggregate concrete (RPAC) is now recognized as a highly promising technology that can contribute to resource efficiency in the construction industry. In this paper, the first experimental study on the properties of concretes manufactured using recycled polypropylene (PP) coarse aggregates is presented. Eight batches of concretes were manufactured with different RPA contents. The effect of RPA content on the compressive strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, workability, and fresh and hardened density of each batch is studied. Although the results illustrate that the mechanical properties of RPACs are lower than those of concretes produced with natural aggregates, when RPA content is below a certain threshold, this difference is not excessive. These results suggest that the method investigated in this study can offer an environmentally sustainable avenue for the use of waste PP. This study is also the first to investigate the compressive behavior of RPACs subjected to temperatures around the melting point of RPAs. The compressive strength of RPACs decreases significantly when exposed to elevated temperatures, with specimens having higher RPA contents experiencing greater reductions.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No. 51650110495 and the University of Adelaide through a Research Excellence Grant awarded to the first author. The authors thank Messrs. M.R. Amit, L.S. Hoang, and S. Zhang for completing the tests reported in this paper as part of their coursework master’s research project. This research is part of an ongoing program at the University of Adelaide on the development of structural concretes using waste materials.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 10 • October 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 21, 2016
Accepted: Apr 17, 2017
Published online: Jul 22, 2017
Published in print: Oct 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Dec 22, 2017
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