Experimental Study on Plastic Strips and EPS Beads Reinforced Bottom Ash Based Material

Abstract

This paper pertains to the results of experimental studies carried out on newly developed geomaterial prepared by blending bottom ash with expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads, strips cut from the used and waste plastic water bottle and a binder such as ordinary Portland cement. The mix ratios used in the experimental study were 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 %. The plastic strips were used in two different aspect ratios 10 and 5 with different mix proportions with respect to bottom ash 1, 2 and 3 %. The cement to bottom ash (C/BA) ratio was considered as 10 %. Cylindrical specimen of dimensions 50 mm diameter and 100 mm height was used to evaluating the compressive strength of the geomaterial for curing periods of 7, 14 and 28 days. The effect of mix ratio, percentage of plastic strips and curing period on the compressive strength, stress–strain behaviour, density and initial tangent modulus of the geomaterial were studied and results are incorporated in the paper. Test results indicated that for a particular mix ratio, the compressive strength increased with increasing aspect ratio and percentages of plastic strips. For particular curing period, the compressive strength increased with decreasing mix ratio values. For all the mix ratios, maximum compressive strength of 293.3 kPa was observed for aspect ratio of 5 and 28 days of curing period when plastic strip percentage was 3 %. The relationship between compressive stress and strain was observed to be nonlinear for all the mix ratios and curing periods. The density of geomaterial reduced from 798 to 544 kg/m3 with the addition of EPS beads from 0.2 to 1.0 %. The initial tangent modulus of geomaterial increased with increasing percentages of plastic strips. The utilization of bottom ash and waste plastic bottle strips can solve its disposal problem in environmental friendly manner in the direction of sustainable development.