EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON PERFORMANCE OF SELF COMPACTING CONCRETE (M30) DESIGNED BY PACKING DENSITY CONCEPT WITH POLYSTYRENE AS PLASTIC AGGREGATE

The usage of plastic has become in evitable in present world. The consumption of plastic in packaging, automotive and industrial applications has been increased extensively. Out of various types of plastics used, polystyrene a light weight classified plastic type which has high heat retaining tendency is been used for the present study. The use of Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) which is capable of flowing in form work and congested reinforcement without any mechanical vibrator fills the concrete voids with its high paste content is highly durable and economical. It is believed that this kind of property is attained by achieving high packing density among the constituents of concrete with satisfactory workable properties and such mix design is been followed. A comparative experimental studies on the arrived M30 grade SCC is carried out with replacement of coarse aggregate with polystyrene plastic wastes varying from 0% to 50% to determine optimum replacement. Fresh properties of SCC reveal the enhancement of workability satisfying permissible limits. An optimum replacement upto 30% coarse aggregate with plastics aggregates is suggested without any significant variation in compressive strength. Durability properties such as water absorption, sulphate resistance are improved under plastic replaced concrete at all levels.