The evaluation of polymer waste in the production of fiber reinforced cement based composite

Nowadays, PET is one of the highest consumed plastic material in the world. This leads to accumulation of a great amount of waste materials. However, only a small proportion of this waste can be recycled. Health and enviromental institutions state that in the coming years, there must be a restriction to the products which may cause health and enviromental hazards. This research has been aimed of increasing the durability of cement composites by utilization of PET waste in cement based composite products. During the recycling process of PET waste, A by-products accumulate in a tank as a result of a fault in the production. These PET wastes have two different physical structure. During the cooling and hardening period, the wastes are crushed by a cracker and a portion is feeded back to the production cycle. This discarded PET wastes with undesired properties have been utilizated in cement based composites as aggregates within the scope of this thesis. As a general result of this test program; incorporation of waste PET decrease the bulk density, flexured, compressive strength and thermal conductivity of the composites. In case of fifty percent of replacement both flexural and compressive strength decreases. However workability, toughness, wear and chemical resistance properties increase. In case of high furnace slag incorporation porosity decreases parallel to the increase in workability, compressive and flexural strength, wear, freezing-thawing and acid resistance. Adding PET fibers to the mixture decreases the workability and compressive strength, but it also increases mid point deflection and toughness values. Since PET aggregates cause to a decrease in the mechanic properties by expanding and cracking at eighty centigrade, they may not be suitable for high temperature resistant construction materials. However PET aggregates can be used as flooring tile and pavement production. Keywords: Pet, aggregate, fiber, abrasion, high temperature, freezing-thawing, micro structure