Mechanical Performance of Reused Plastic Bottle as Structural Floor Panel

Abstract

There have been many experiments regarding reusing plastic bottles, especially polyethylene (PET) as building materials. Some of them are experimenting with their compressive strength as exterior wall bricks (Mansour, et al., 2015); their energy consumption as roof insulations (Racolta, et al., 2016); their compressive and flexural strength as interior walls (Santana, 2016); and their compressive strength as walls and slabs (Oyinlola, et al., 2018). This paper discusses the compressive strength and the flexural strength of PET bottles as structural floor panels. This study explored the positions, binders, patterns, fillers, sizes, and supports of the PET bottles panel to reach the optimum combination of compressive and flexural strength. The experimental result shows that PET bottles panel with an upright position, sealant binder, and sand filler has better compressive strength and flexural strength. It also shows that the panels with more bottles face downwards have better compressive strength, while the ones with more bottles face upwards have better flexural strength. On the other hand, panel with smaller size and higher amount of support shows better flexural strength.