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Article history: This work is aimed to study the effect of incorporating recycled modified polypropylene (PP) plastic
Received 15 December 2014 particles on the workability and mechanical behavior of self-compacting lightweight concrete (SCLC).
Received in revised form 16 February 2015 Four replacement levels (10%, 15%, 20% and 30%) of sand by plastic by volume were introduced. The
Accepted 4 March 2015
slump flow value is improved with an increase in the sand substitution. The viscosity of fresh SCLC is
reduced and the passing ability is improved with the replacement level up to 15%. Both the dry bulk
density and elastic modulus of SCLC decrease with an increase in sand replacement. The compressive
Keywords:
strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural tensile strength are increased with the replacement level
Recycled plastic
Self-compacting lightweight concrete
up to 15%. A microscopic study on the plastic-paste interface was performed.
Workability Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mechanical properties
Plastic-paste interface
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.03.038
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453 445
Table 1
The physical properties of cement.
SO3 MgO Loss in Chloride ion Alkali Initial setting Final setting time 3-Day compressive 28-Day compressive
(%) (%) ignition (%) content (%) content (%) time (min) (min) strength (MPa) strength (MPa)
2.01 1.80 2.15 0.019 0.56 185 295 P10 P32.5
increases, the density and elastic modulus of concrete or mortar in concrete mixing on the flowability, passing ability, uniformity of
are apparently reduced [16–23]. As for the mechanical properties, lightweight coarse aggregate distribution and mechanical proper-
the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural ties of SCLC. Different from previous studies, the kind of plastic
tensile strength decrease with an increase in plastic content particles in this paper is modified polypropylene (PP) which is from
[16–26] mainly due to the mismatch properties between plastic waste industrial plastic floor boards or waste car bumpers. The
particles and cement paste [19]. For plastic with non-absorption mechanical performance of modified PP is improved and it may
properties, internal bleeding water would accumulate and sur- be beneficial to the strength of concrete containing this kind of
round the plastic particles resulting in a relatively weak bond plastic particles.
between the particles and cement paste [22]. Moreover, elongated
or flaky particles can provide a bridging action in concrete sub- 2. Experimental program
jected to bending and then the toughness behavior is improved
[17,21,23,27]. The workability of fresh concrete also depends on 2.1. Materials used
the shape of plastic particles. If the particles have sharp edges, Cement used in the experiment is No. 32.5 composite Portland cement (Chinese
the slump value is reduced [26,28]. The fluidity becomes better standard GB 175 [41]). The physical properties of cement are seen in Table 1. Ultra-
with the introduction of particles which have spherical edges fine fly ash was used to improve the flowability of SCLC with the physical properties
[26]. The durability is found to be much related to the kind of in Table 2. Fine aggregates were river sands with fineness module of 2.75 and bulk
density of 1360 kg/m3. Expanded clay ceramsite was used as coarse aggregate as
plastic. The resistance of chloride ion penetrability is improved
shown in Fig. 1. The bulk density of the coarse aggregate is 399 kg/m3 and the water
for concrete containing PVC particles due to the impervious prop- absorption is 16.2%. The particle size distributions of both sand and expanded clay
erties of PVC [19]. However, the chloride diffusivity coefficient of ceramsite are shown in Fig. 2. Admixture was Sica 3301 polycarboxylate-based
the concrete containing pre-wetted polyurethane aggregate is high-range water reducer (HRWR).
apparently higher than that of the conventional concrete [29]. Plastic particles in the test are modified PP plastic which is recycled and pro-
vided by Qingdao Shundafeng Industry and Trade Co., Ltd. The recycled modified
It is observed that previous studies are mainly aimed at the PP plastic was ground into small particles and rinsed. Then they were treated to
properties of plastic waste as aggregate substitution in ordinary
concrete. The work related to self-compacting concrete or mortar
containing plastic particles is relatively few. Safi et al. [30] intro- Table 2
duced waste PET particles as sand substitution in self-compacting The physical properties of fly ash.
mortar mixing. They stated that the slump value is significantly SO3 Loss in Percentage retained Water Water
improved by incorporating the plastic particles but the compres- (%) ignition (%) on 45 lm sieve (%) requirement (%) content (%)
sive strength is apparently reduced with an increase in plastic con- 1.2 4.2 9 73 0.3
tent [30]. No literature is found about the effect of plastic waste on
properties of self-compacting concrete. Moreover, self-compacting
lightweight concrete (SCLC) has been gradually applied in practical
engineering particularly in large-span bridge structures due to the
light self-weight, ease of construction, lower on-site noise level,
etc. Coarse aggregates used in SCLC often include expanded shale
[31], expanded clay ceramsite [32], pumice [33], expanded
polystyrene [34], etc. All the coarse aggregates are so light that
they may float in the cement paste. High fluidity is demanded for
SCLC, and hence the plasticity and viscosity of fresh paste should
be reduced. Then the possibility of segregation is increased. It is
crucial to design a rational mix proportion on SCLC. Shi and Wu
[31] first provided a design procedure by combing the least void
volume for a binary aggregate mixture, excessive paste theory,
and ACI standard practice for selecting proportions for structural
lightweight concrete. Glass powders and fly ash are added to
increase the flowability and segregation resistance of the SCLC
[31]. Workability is very important for SCLC [35]. Slump flow test
and V-funnel test are usually performed to determine the fluidity
of SCLC, and L-box test and J-ring test can be used to evaluate
the ability of passing through steel bars [31–40]. Moreover, sieve
segregation and settlement column tests are conducted to evaluate
the segregation resistance of SCLC [36]. The binder content should
be larger than that in ordinary concrete. An increase in binder con-
tent can improve the filling and passing abilities of SCLC [37].
Incorporation of plastic particles in SCLC as aggregate replace-
ment can further reduce the material density. Therefore, the influ-
ence of plastic particles on the workability and mechanical
properties of SCLC deserves to be studied. The intention of this
paper is to study the effect of plastic particles as sand substitution Fig. 1. Expanded clay ceramsite.
446 S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453
In Table 3, the number after the alphabet P in the title of each mix proportion
represents the replacement level (%) of the sand by the plastic particles.
Table 3
Mix proportions.
Nos. Cement (kg/m3) Fly ash (kg/m3) Water (kg/m3) Lightweight aggregates (kg/m3) Fine aggregates (kg/m3) Plastic particles (kg/m3) HRWR (kg/m3)
P0 369 154 133.3 300 703 0 5.3
P10 369 154 133.3 300 633 26.2 5.3
P15 369 154 133.3 300 602 41.8 5.3
P20 369 154 133.3 300 570 52.3 5.3
P30 369 154 133.3 300 495 78.5 5.3
S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453 447
strain gauges. All the gauges were connected with a static data acquisition system absorption should be used in the future work on SCLC. But the
as shown in Fig. 10. The test was carried out with a hydraulic compression testing
slump flow diameter increases with the replacement level.
machine having a capacity of 1000 kN.
The slump loss at 10 min and 30 min is significantly reduced as
the replacement level increases. The SCLC containing plastic
3. Results and discussions particles satisfy the requirements for SF2 SCC which is suitable
for many normal applications [36]. It is attributed to the non-
3.1. Slump flow test absorptive characteristic of the modified PP plastic resulting in
more free water in concrete mixes as presented by Al-Manaseer
Fig. 11 shows the variation of the slump flow diameter with and Dalal [47]. The fluidity is then improved with an increase in
the replacement level of sand by plastic particles at 0 min, free water content. But excessive accumulation of free water
10 min and 30 min. The value for the SCLC containing no plastic may cause bleeding. The tendency of slight bleeding has been
is 550 mm which only satisfies the lowest level of requirements observed in mixing SCLC with sand substitution of 30%. Thus,
for SF1 SCC [36]. It is mainly because some of the coarse aggre- the ratio of water to binder and water content should be adjusted
gates used in the test have elongated shapes as shown in Fig. 1 if more sand is replaced by the plastic particles.
which may have negative effect on the fluidity of fresh SCLC. It has been mentioned that T500 can be used to evaluate the
Moreover, relatively high water absorption (16.2%) reduces the viscosity of fresh concrete [36]. It should not be too long or
retaining of slump flow and then apparent slump loss is observed too short. The effect of plastic content on the T500 is shown in
in Fig. 11. Spherical lightweight coarse aggregate with low water Fig. 12.
448 S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453
tests, and is used to evaluate the passing ability of SCLC. Then the
variation of the PA value with the plastic content is seen in Fig. 13.
The passing ability is relatively weak for the SCLC containing no
plastic particles. The PA value (55 mm) is slightly larger than the
requirement (50 mm) by the literature [43,44]. It is mainly induced
by the elongated shapes of the coarse aggregate. As the plastic
content increases, however, the passing ability is significantly
improved. All the PA values are lower than 50 mm. The lowest
value is reached when the replacement level is 10% and 15%. It
can be concluded that good fluidity can achieve improved passing
ability. When the replacement level is larger than 20%, the ten-
dency of bleeding gradually appears and the passing ability is then
weakened.
Fig. 15 shows the dry density of the SCLC varying with the
plastic content. The dry density considerably decreases with the
Fig. 6. Column segregation test. sand replacement content as observed by other researchers
[16–23,30]. It is attributed to the lower density of plastic particles
It can be seen from Fig. 12 that the viscosity is reduced as the compared to sand. When 30% of the fine aggregate was replaced by
sand substitution increases. It is attributed to the non-absorption the plastic, the density is reduced up to 15%. Therefore, incorporat-
behavior of the plastic as explained earlier. The T500 attains the ing plastic particles can further reduce the dry density of SCLC.
minimum when 15% of the sand is replaced by the plastic particles
by volume. As the plastic content increases further, however, the
3.5. Compressive strength
T500 becomes longer due to the short-column shapes of the parti-
cles which have negative effect on the velocity of flow of fresh
The cubic compressive strength at 7-Day and 28-Day for all
SCLC. When the replacement level is bigger than 30%, the T500 is
groups of SCLC is shown in Fig. 16. The 28-Day compressive
probably reduced but significant bleeding would be observed.
strength of SCLC containing no plastic is 25.1 MPa which satisfies
the requirements for structural lightweight aggregate concrete
3.2. J-ring test (>17 MPa) [48]. In fact, the 28-Day compressive strength of con-
crete should be larger than 30 MPa for most of normal structures.
According to the literature [43,44], the PA value represents the But the present study is only aimed at the influence of plastic
difference between the flow diameters in the slump flow and J-ring incorporation on mechanical properties of SCLC. Thus, the value
Fig. 10. Test of elastic modulus. Fig. 11. Variation of slump flow diameter with plastic content.
450 S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453
Fig. 13. Variation of PA value with plastic content. Fig. 14. Variation of Iseg with plastic content.
S. Yang et al. / Construction and Building Materials 84 (2015) 444–453 451
4. Conclusions
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