Effect of Utilization Waste Strapping Plastic Belts on Flexural Behaviour of Concrete

Many researchers have investigated the solutions for the problem of solid waste in different ways.An example of that is reusing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as reinforcement to concrete.Strapping plastic belts used to tie clay bricks while transportation in trucks are one of the common waste of construction that could be beneficial in enhancement of concrete flexural behaviour due to its high tensile strength.This paper is a trial to investigate the effect of utilizing waste strapping plastic belts on the flexural behavior of concrete.Concrete prisms (100*100*500mm) were reinforced with plastic belts as the main reinforcement for flexural strength.Five amounts of reinforcement were added to the concrete section in the tension zone (81, 67.5, 54, 40.5, 27 sqr mm).The reinforcement was included in concrete sections internally or externally using suitable glue.The behavior of the reinforced prisms was compared to plane concrete prisms (containing no reinforcement).Tests results showed an enhancement in flexural strength of concrete section while reinforcement ratio is increased externally.The addition of 81 mm 2 of plastic straps externally, increased the flexural strength by 21% compared to sections with 27 mm 2 reinforcement.The enhancement in flexural strength as internal reinforcement is added was limited.According to the flexural test of reinforced concrete prizms.Adding 81 mm 2 of plastic straps internally, reduced the flexural strength by 18% compared to sections with 54 mm 2 reinforcement due to the splitting of the cover as the area of the reinforcement increases.Increasing the number of belts in the section results in a sever reduction in the spacing between each two belts, leading to increase concrete cover tendency to split.For that, increasing the amount of plastic diversely affects connectivity for the internally reinforced sections.