Effect of Recycled Plastic Granules as a Partial Substitute for Natural Resource Sand on the Durability of SCC

Abstract

This investigation is focused on durability studies of binary blended self-compacting concrete (SCC) with the replacement effect of electronic plastic waste, namely high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) granules as partial sand. In the current investigation, for all the SCC mixes, cement is replaced with pozzolanic material fly ash in the binder content of 497 kg/m3 and an adopted water-to-binder ratio of 0.36. Durability properties such as porosity, water absorption, and sorptivity are assessed for the curing periods of 28 and 90 days on SCC specimens produced with HIPS (0%–40% replacement by volume of sand). Both surface and internal water absorption rates were found to be minimal for SCC with HIPS. Replacement of HIPS up to 30% in SCC exhibited improved trends for all tests results. Reported durability parameter values were within permissible limits and revealed the excellent performance of HIPS in SCC. The optimum durability values can be attributed to the dense microstructure of SCC obtained with the combined effect of HIPS and fly ash. The continuous gradation of aggregates in the matrix reduced porosity due to the spherical shape of HIPS; additionally, the hydrophobicity of HIPS inhibits moisture migration in SCC. The additional benefits of fly ash, such as pozzolanic action and the filler effect at the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) are also major contributions to the long-term performance of durability. Electronic plastic waste replacement for fine aggregates in concrete compensates for the disposal problem and conserves natural sand.

A scientometric analysis approach on the plastic sand

“…Several research and assessments on the usage of the plastic waste in the construction industry have been conducted in recent years, and the findings have been promising [ [4] , [7] , [8] , [13] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] ]. In the past, the reuse of waste plastics as construction materials in developing nations has been investigated.…”

Prediction of Compressive Strengths of Concrete with Partial Fine Aggregate of Plastic Using Artificial Neural Network and Revisions

“…According to Chunchu and Putta [7], recycled high impact polystyrene could replace up to 30 per cent of natural river sand (by volume) for production of eco-friendly durable and flowable concrete. According to Soboji and Owamah [8], low density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic waste recycling in concrete is environmentally friendly and it should be encouraged.…”

“…in the group Selection of model was based on the RMSE value. RMSE, R 2 , MAE & MAPE were determined for the de-normalized dataset of the selected model.The percentage differences between the compressive strengths for both experimental and predicted values and control/reference or target strengths (control strength) were calculated based on equation(7). The dataset was clustered based on percentage of plastic replacement or addition as fine aggregates and percentage averages differences were calculated.…”