Study of Strength Characteristics of Concrete with Partial Replacement of High Density Polyethylene as Fine Aggregate

Abstract

Concrete is the most widely used man made construction material in construction industries. It is mainly composed of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. The properties of concrete are mainly affected by its ingredients types, quantity and quality. The cement is used to bind the materials in concrete. Fine aggregate and coarse aggregate will fill the most of the spaces in concrete. There are numerous materials that can replace each constituent in concrete. In this study grinded HDPE waste plastic was used to partially replace fine aggregate at 0%, 3%, 6%, 9% and 12% dosage by volume proportion to evaluate various strength parameters like compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength. Concrete is strong in compression but it is weak in tension, brittle, low resistant to cracking, lower impact strength and heavy weight. Waste HDPE plastic is one of the solid wastes in our surroundings which mostly pollute the environment condition. In order to overcome such types of problems related to pollution of environment the study deals the engineering property of concrete with waste HDPE plastic. Workability, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength test were performed to determine the competence of reusing waste HDPE plastic in the production of concrete. The average of three identical sample tests for each strength was used to determine the strength of concrete and tested at 7, 14, and 28 days of curing age. All cubes were made with 150mm*150mm*150mm, cylinders with 100mm diameter and 200mm height and beams with cross-section 100mm*100mm*and length of 500mm size. The study result revealed that the density decreases for all percentage replacement, mechanical strength of concrete decreases with increasing dosage of HDPE beyond 6% and workability increases with the increase of HDPE. The optimum dosage was found to be 6%. The compressive strength increases up to 10.18%, tensile strength increases by 18.28% and flexural strength increases by 24.01% for 6% HDPE replacement in the concrete mix when compared with control concrete.