Production of friendly environmental material as building element from plastic waste

الملخص EN

This paper aims to produce cheap building elements environmentally friendly and of good thermal insulation using plastic waste.

The study depends on adding plastic waste as aggregates to concrete mixes at different percentages by weight (12 percentages) to produce lightweight aggregate concrete of density (1095-1892) kg/m3.

The experimental work includes 120 specimens of concrete consisting of 72 cubes with side length of 150 mm and 48 cylinders of 150x300 mm.

The concrete specimens of the study are local raw materials without any admixture or treatment agents.

The mechanical and thermal properties determined were compressive strength (f'c and fcu), static modulus of elasticity (Ec), density (ρ), thermal conductivity (k), specific heat capacity (Cp) and thermal expansion (α) after 7-days of curing at 20 °C.

The increase in plastic waste content decreases the density of concrete; and that leads to lose in the mechanical properties of concrete but improves its thermal properties.

The experimental results revealed that; the measured static modulus of elasticity is less than the predicted static modulus of elasticity according to ACI 318-2014 and ACI 213R-2003.

All cubes specimens exposed to temperature 200, 400 and 600 °C exhibited gradual loss in the compressive strength of all mixes, and at 600 °C the strength of lightweight aggregate concrete were disintegrated.

Lightweight aggregate concrete has two advantages; it is about 25% lighter than normal concrete in dead load, and it is capable to improve the thermal insulation of building blocks.