Characteristics of mortar and concrete containing fine aggregate manufactured from recycled waste polyethylene terephthalate bottles

This paper presents the development of lightweight aggregate concrete using fine aggregate that is manufactured from recycled waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Investigations on waste PET lightweight aggregate concrete included three phases: examination of the properties of waste PET lightweight aggregates (WPLA), analysis of the properties of mortar when WPLA was used as fine aggregate, and analysis of the properties of concrete when WPLA was used as fine aggregate. The results of the first phase showed that the WPLA had a density of 1390 kg/m³, a water absorption of 0% and a bulk density of 844 kg/m³. WPLA fineness modulus (F.M.), however, was 4.11, which is higher than the F.M. of river sand. This is because the WPLA was single graded. The results of the second phase showed that for the mortar, in which the WPLA was used as a fine aggregate, the flow value increased, while the compressive strength decreased proportionally to the addition of WPLA with elapsed time. In addition, the amount of water absorption by unit area was higher than for the control mortar (without WPLA) when the WPLA content was either 40% or 60%. For the third phase, the results showed that the slump of the WPLA concrete increased as the WPLA content increased regardless of the water-cement ratio (W/C). In comparison to the control concrete, the 28-day WPLA concrete compressive strength decreased by 5%, 15% and 30%, with an increase of WPLA content of 25%, 50% and 75%, respectively. In addition, for a W/C of 0.49, the structural efficiency (compressive strength/density ratio) of the concrete containing 25% of WPLA was higher than that for the control concrete.