Author: Eliana Cimo
Cimo, Eliana, 2022 Ductility performance of concrete containing different percentage of recycled plastic and recycled coarse aggregates., Flinders University, College of Science and Engineering
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According to (Tarmac, 2022), concrete is the most widespread composition in the construction world, but its manufacture and applications are complex. When produced, concrete has a substantial environmental impact due to its energy consumption and releases of greenhouse emissions where 4-5% of the worldwide total of CO2 is caused by cement production (Hamakareem, n.d.). On 3 March 1983, a research ream funded by the government approximated that almost 17% of worldwide landfill was the product of concrete-based waste
To reduce the concrete’s impact and to produce an eco-friendlier product that can be adopted worldwide, a more environmentally approach needed to be found. This approach is related to the utilisation of plastic waste by combining it with coarse aggregates.
As this is the first study of its kind, an engineered structural recycled plastic aggregate within the concrete mixture had to be tested and examined. By maintaining all parameters within the mixture unchanged, except the key factor, the recycled plastic, which had substituted volumetrically the coarse aggregates, 28 cylinders and 7 big panels were manufactured and tested, with a total volume of 336 litres, throughout this research program to examine the ductility performance of concrete. The key timelines for the tests were in an earlier phase of 7 days, and later on 35 days of curing.
From the observed data, which are explained during this thesis, the concrete mixes that contained less dosage of these recycled atoms, display better parameters in line with the compressive strength and the ductility performance. Furthermore, a reduction in the workability of the fresh batch of concrete is typically associated with the incorporation of plastic aggregates.
Anyway, through this research was found that due to the high durability that these atoms with a unique three-dimensional design had, they have the potential to be reused in subsequent concrete mixes without incurring a substantial performance penalty.
Keywords: Ductility, Concrete, Toberite, Round Determine Panels (RDP), Cylinder
Subject: Engineering thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2022
School: College of Science and Engineering
Supervisor: Thomas Vincent