Behavior of Sustainable Reinforced Concrete Building Containing Waste Plastic and Fibers

Abstract

Abstract Plenty of waste plastic is one of the major problems for environmental sustainability as plastic contaminates the mainland, rivers, and seas. Moreover, many-sided behavior of waste plastic (lightweight, flexible, cheap, strong, and moisture-resistant) can make it a replacement for or alternative to coarse aggregate in concrete. This paper investigates the properties and strength of reinforced concrete flat plate slabs using recycled waste plastic as a coarse aggregate instead of the conventional aggregate to produce lightweight concrete. Also studying the effectiveness of adding polypropylene fibers for enhancing both concrete properties and shear strength of the reinforced concrete respectively in a flat slab. All specimens had the same dimensions and main flexural reinforcement ratio and they were subjected to concentrated vertical loads. Four mixes had been tested in this work, the results showed that using waste plastic mixed with polypropylene fibers to produce lightweight concrete was very promising. It was observed that by adding polypropylene fibers the failure pattern was shifted from punching to flexural. Ultimate load, crack pattern, and deflection had been included and discussed for all specimens.