J.M. Irwan

The Mechanical Properties of PET Fiber Reinforced Concrete from Recycled Bottle Wastes

This research is carried out to investigate the performance of concrete containing Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle waste as fiber. PET bottle waste was chosen because it is being thrown after single use and cause environmental problem. One way to recycle wasted PET bottles is grinded into irregular fiber. Then, it was incorporate with the concrete and test the performance of the concrete. The study was conducted using cylindrical mold of concrete to investigate the performance of the concrete in term of mechanical properties. A total of four batches of concrete were produced namely, normal concrete and concrete containing PET fiber of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% fraction volume. In this research, the mechanical properties that were measured are compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity (MOE) following British Standard method. The results revealed that the presence of PET fiber in concrete will increase the concrete performance. Nevertheless, the content of PET fiber was specified in a specific limit to avoid effect of concrete strength.

Performance of Concrete Using Light Waste PET Fibre

The volume of polymeric wastes like polyethylene terephthalate bottles (PET) is increasing at a fast rate. PET bottles annual consumption represents more than 300,000 million units. The majority of the PET waste is sent to landfill. Since PET waste is not biodegradable, it can remain in nature for hundreds of years. Previous investigations already confirmed the potential of PET waste in replacing aggregates in concrete and represents better option than send it to landfill. This paper reviews researches published on the performance of concrete containing PET wastes. In this researches PET waste will be incorporated with an established binder namely fly Ash. The increase of workability is caused by the small spherical shapes of the fly ash that reduces the friction between cement and aggregates. Then it will results in an increase in the workability and flow of fresh concrete. Overall, the decision of using recycled waste plastic as fiber in structure for the design of structures provides enough benefits that will make it worthwhile to be considered as an economical attractive option. Once the use of performance concrete using light fibre becomes more popular and the importance of research contribution in providing technical knowledge on this new material becomes apparent. Furthermore this paper will bring new name for the new combination waste material is called Performance of Waste Light PET Fibre Concrete (WLPFC).

Compressive and flexural strength of foamed concrete containing polyolefin fibers

Foam concrete is a lightweight concrete which is produced relatively inexpensively. However, due to its low strength and brittleness the application in building construction is rather limited. A study has been undertaken to investigate the effects of polyolefin fibers at a relatively low volume fraction (0 %, 0.2 %, 0.4 % and 0.6 %) on the compressive and flexural properties of foamed concrete. The foamed concrete was designed to achieve a target strength of 8-10 MPa with a density of 1600 kg/m3 at the age of 28 days. For each mixture, nine 100x100x100 mm cubes and three 100x100x500 mm beam were prepared. The compressive test was performed on cubes and three points loading flexural test on the beams was carried out in accordance to MS 26:Part 2:1991. Test results showed that polyolefin fibers only slightly improved the compressive strength and flexural strength of foamed concrete by 4.3% and 9.3% respectively.

Deflection Behaviour of Irregular-Shaped Polyethylene Terephthalate Fibre Reinforced Concrete Beam

This paper reports the results on deflection behaviour of reinforced concrete (RC) beam conducted using irregular-shaped Polyethylene Terephthalate (IPET) as a fibre. Three volume fraction of IPET fibre is used namely, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%. All RC beam specimens are tested under four point loading under flexural capacity behaviour. The results for deflection behaviour namely cracking stage, yield stage and ultimate stage and ductility are reported. The results than are compared with control RC beam. It is found that the addition of IPET fibre improves the first crack and ultimate strength as well as ductility of RC beams proportional to the increment of volume fraction of IPET fibre. Therefore, based on the results reported, the addition of IPET fibre significantly increases the deflection behaviour of RC beam.

Cracking Propagation of Reinforced Concrete Using Polyethylene Terephtalate (PET) Bottles as Fine Aggregate

This paper describes the experimental investigation on the cracking propagation and pattern of reinforced concrete beam containing PET aggregate as fine aggregate that subjected to shear. The replacement ratio of 25%, 50% and 75% were used in this study. Prior to structural test, the materials properties which include the compressive strength test, split tensile test, Modulus of Elasticity test and density were determined. The result obtained showed that the inclusion of PET aggregate reduce the initial loading cracks to 27%, 38% and 46% compared to their corresponding normal concrete ; thus affecting the shear resistance of the structural beam especially the ability of the beam to resist shear via interface friction and interlocking between aggregate.

Development of mix design nomograph for polyethylene terephthalate fiber concrete

The aim of this project was to develop of mix design nomograph for PFC that can be used for estimated the required compressive strength and splitting tensile strength with the required PET and water-cement-ratio.The fibers were prepared by using plastic granulator machine SLM 50 FY with size passing 10 mm and retained 5 mm sieve. Different volumes percentages of PET fibers with 0%, 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%, were introduced in concrete mixes. The specimens prepared for this study was cylinder concrete with 100 mm diameter and 200 mm height. The laboratory work for physical properties were focused on density and workability, meanwhile for mechanical properties were focused on compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of PET fiber concrete (PFC). The experiment results indicate that the addition of PET fibers significantly decreased the compressive strength and splitting tensile, however the compressive strength still can be acceptable since achieved the mix design The nomograph developed can be used to estimate the desired compressive, splitting tensile strength as well as the modulus of elasticity (MOE).

An Overview of Bioconcrete for Structural Repair

In Malaysia and worldwidely, concrete is one of the most popular construction material because of its strong, durable and inexpensive material. It has speciality of being cast in any desirable shape but plain concrete however is porous, possesses very low tensile strength, limited ductility and little resistance to cracking. These problem become more complicated in various environmental condition like Malaysia to which concrete is exposed. Conventionally, a variety of sealing agent namely, latex emulsions suffer from serious limitations of incompatible interfaces, susceptible to ultraviolet radiations, unstable molecular structure and high cost. Therefore, a novel and more environmental friendly technique is proposed for treating concrete material in structure by employing bacteria induced calcium carbonate precipitation in the form of calcite

Calcium Lactate addition in Bioconcrete: Effect on Compressive strength and Water penetration

This paper presents compressive strength and water penetration of bioconcrete with addition of calcium lactate. Bioconcrete has higher engineering concrete properties and durability compared to normal concrete but the natural production of calcium carbonate is limited to the calcium content in cement. Therefore, additional calcium is added as an additional calcium source to study the influence towards compressive strength and water penetration. The bacteria used in this research are Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus sp . Calcium lactate was added into concrete mix in concentrations of 0.001mol/l, 0.005mol/l and 0.01mol/l of liquid used. The concentration of bacteria added into the mix is by partial replacement of water used in casting, which are 3% for Enterococcus faecalis and 5% for Bacillus sp . Both compressive strength and water penetration test used cubes of 150mm × 150mm × 150mm. The cubes were tested after 28 days. The result of compressive strength for control is 36 MPa while partial replacement of bacteria yields 38.2 MPa for 3% Enterococcus faecalis and 37.0 MPa for 5% Bacillus sp . Calcium lactate with 0.005 mol/L has the best performance with 42.8 MPa for Enterococcus faecalis and 39.6 MPa for Bacillus sp . Whereas for water penetration, the best concentration of calcium lactate which yielded the lowest water penetration is 0.01 mol/l for both Enterococcus faecalis and Bacillus sp which are 8.7 cm and 8 cm respectively. The addition of calcium lactate into bioconcrete is quite promising for improvement of concrete properties and durability.

Compressive Strength and Water Penetration of Concrete with Enterococcus faecalis and Calcium Lactate

This paper presents the compressive strength and water penetration of Bioconcrete with calcium lactate. The bacteria used in this concrete is Enterococcus faecalis, which was isolated and enriched to suit the concrete environment. Bioconcrete is a sustainable and environmentally friendly method to improve concrete properties, but the natural production of calcite by the bacteria is limited. Therefore, the objective of this research is to add in calcium lactate as additional food source for the bacteria and determine the effect on the compressive strength and water penetration of concrete. The Bioconcrete is fabricated in the standard size of 150mm × 150mm × 150mm cubes. The calcium lactate added into the mix is in concentrations of 0.001 mol/l, 0.005mol/l and 0.01 mol/l measured according to the amount of water used in fabrication. Both compressive strength and water penetration is tested after the 28th day by using Universal Testing Machine (UTM) and Water Permeability testing machine respectively. It is found that by adding calcium lactate into Bioconcrete, the compressive strength improves by a maximum of 16.4% which is 41.9 Mpa using the concentrations of 0.005 mol/l of calcium lactate. Compared to control which was 36 Mpa and concrete with only Enterococcus faecalis of 38.2 Mpa. The water penetration has a similar trend of decreasing the water penetration of concrete with Enterococcus faecalis and calcium lactate. A maximum decrease of water penetration is from calcium lactate of concentration 0.01 mol/l of 26.2% which is 8.7 cm compared to control of 11.8 cm and concrete with only Enterococcus faecalis of 9.2 cm. Adding calcium lactate as an additional food source for bacteria in concrete has positive results and further study with the same concept is encouraging

Isolation and Identification of Concrete Environment Bacteria

This paper presents the isolation and molecular method for bacteria identification through PCR and DNA sequencing. Identification of the bacteria species is required in order to fully utilize the bacterium capability for precipitation of calcium carbonate in concrete. This process is to enable the addition of suitable catalyst according to the bacterium enzymatic pathway that is known through the bacteria species used. The objective of this study is to isolate, enriched and identify the bacteria species. The bacteria in this study was isolated from fresh urine and acid mine drainage water, Kota Tinggi, Johor. Enrichment of the isolated bacteria was conducted to ensure the bacteria survivability in concrete. The identification of bacteria species was done through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and rRDNA sequencing. The isolation and enrichment of the bacteria was done successfully. Whereas, the results for bacteria identification showed that the isolated bacteria strains are Bacillus sp and Enterococus faecalis.