Utilization of Discarded Pet Bottle Granules as Fine Aggregate in Concrete - A Feasibility Study

Vol. 5  Issue 4
Year: 2015
Issue: Sep-Nov
Title: Utilization of Discarded Pet Bottle Granules as Fine Aggregate in Concrete - A Feasibility Study
Author Name: T. Sekar 
Synopsis:

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the feasibility of discarded Poly Ethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle granules as fine aggregate in concrete. Mechanical strength and temperature studies have been conducted on 162 numbers of standard concrete specimens which are made with or without waste PET bottle granules as per relevant Indian standard code procedure. The waste PET bottle granules have been used as a substituting material in lieu of conventional fine aggregate in concrete ranging from 0 to 100% at an interval of 10%. The mechanical strength studied includes compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength at the age of 28 days. Temperature studies have  been conducted on concrete cube specimens by exposing it to series of peak temperatures such as 300o C, 600o C and 900o C, to evaluate residual compressive strength. It has been found from test results that substitution of discarded PET bottle granules in place of conventional fine aggregate in concrete reduces compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, residual compressive strength and density of concrete markedly, and the reduction in strength and density increases with increase in PET bottle granules content in concrete. Also, reduction in residual compressive strength increases with increase in temperature for specimens made with and without PET bottle granules in concrete.