Characteristics of concrete prepared using recycled aggregates and waste plastic fibers.

Concrete generally consists of three main dry ingredients which are cement, sand and aggregates. Out of these materials, aggregates usually take up the largest percentage by volume, and are generally obtained by mining bedrock. Excessive mining for aggregates can cause significant damage to the environment. Recycled aggregates are a sustainable alternative to these natural aggregates. This study focuses on the properties of concrete prepared using varying proportions of recycled aggregates (RA), reinforced by using waste plastic fibers. In this study, four concrete mixes were prepared. R1 containing 20% recycled aggregate, R2 containing 30% recycled aggregate, R3 containing 40% recycled aggregate and N1 containing 0% recycled aggregate. All of the mixes containing recycled aggregate were reinforced by using waste plastic fibers of 0.5% by weight of cement. The compressive strength and workability of the concrete mixes were tested and analyzed by conducting cube test on hardened concrete, and slump test on fresh concrete. The results show that plastic fiber reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with up to 30% recycled aggregate replacement rate is a suitable substitute for natural aggregate concrete (NAC), with just a 3.3% reduction in compressive strength and 10mm reduction in slump compared to the N1 mix. The optimum replacement percentage of recycled aggregates was found to be 20% when 0.5% plastic fibers were used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]