MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE REINFORCED WITH WASTE PLASTIC BOTTLES FIBERS

Nowadays plastic waste is becoming curse to the human society. In many countries the production of disposable plastic bottles is becoming a major issue. PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles usage increases day-to-day. This research addresses the effects of adding waste plastic bottles fibers on the slump, density, compressive, split tensile, flexural strength of concrete, and ultrasonic pulse velocity of concrete. The reason behind choosing this material is the cheapness and availability of them as well as nowadays the world is facing environment pollution problems, where many things which are invented for our life are responsible for polluting environment due to improper waste management. One of the big waste sources is the plastic ones which have to be disposed of or recycled properly to maintain the beauty of our nature, so utilizing such materials is absolute of a great benefit. It is planned to prepare cubes, cylinders, and beams of FRC Concrete and test them, then to compare the concrete reinforced with fibers with plan concrete. Where, the fibers of 35 aspect ratio will be added to concrete with ratios of (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%) The results in general showed that the fibers addition improved the all strengths of concrete but it reduced the workability of concrete and made concrete lighter. The main property was improved is the ductility of concrete. Generally, 1% percentage of fibers was the best percentage.