Sustainable development of concrete through treated and untreated plastic waste aggregates

Abstract

This study focused on sustainable and novel development of concrete through treated and untreated plastic waste aggregates. In this study, the surface of Elec-waste coarse aggregates was treated with sulfuric acid, marble dust coating, silica fume coating, and alkaline bleach. Elec-waste aggregates were used in concrete by replacing natural coarse aggregates in amounts of 10%, 20%, and 30%. The 10%, 20%, and 30% Elec-waste replacement ratios resulted in the compressive strength reduction of 8.97%, 27.99%, and 42.01%, respectively. The same percentage of Elec-waste aggregates reduced the splitting tensile strength by 21.77%, 35.89%, and 47.89%, respectively. However, the slump was observed to increase by 41.4%, 52.1%, and 68.8%, respectively. All the considered treatments enhanced the performance of Elec-waste aggregate concrete (E-WAC). Overall, the best improvement in the performance of E-WAC was imparted by silica fume coating, irrespective of the quantity of Elec-waste aggregates. The present study proposed an expression to estimate the reduction of the compressive strength of E-WAC. It was demonstrated that the equation by JCI-08 predicted splitting tensile strength of E-WAC close to experimental results.