Norzila Othman

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).

Relationship Between Compressive, Splitting Tensile and Flexural Strength Of Concrete Containing Granulated Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Bottles as Fine Aggregate

This paper describes the experimental investigation of relationship between splitting tensile strength and flexural strength with the compressive strength of concrete containing waste PET as fine aggregates replacement. Waste PET was reprocesses and used as the artificial fine aggregate at the replacement volume of 25%, 50% and 75%, Cylindrical and prism specimens were tested to obtain the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strength at the age of 28 days. Based on the investigation, a relationship for the prediction of splitting tensile and flexural strength was derived from the compressive strength of concrete containing waste PET as fine agglegate replacement.

Characterization and Optimization of Heavy Metals Biosorption by Fish Scales

The pollution of water with heavy metals has been a great concern due to their toxic nature and adverse effect. Various techniques were employed to remove heavy metal namely physical, chemical, and biological treatment. Biosorption is one of the biological treatment that has emerged as a new technology for the removal and recovery of metal ions from aqueous solutions which is more environmental friendly. Biosorption using Tilapia fish scale was studied with the intention to remove zinc, plumbum, and ferum ions from synthetic wastewater. The optimum adsorption capacities of fish scale was investigated under several condition namely, pH, biosorbent dosage, initial heavy metals concentration, and contact time while final concentration was obtained by using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass (ICP-MS). The results revealed that 92.3% of zinc, 89.33% of plumbum, and 64.2% of ferum able to be sequestered under best adsorption conditions. The maximum percentage removals were observed at pH 6, 5.5, 4.5 and dosage 0.02 g, 0.001 g, 0.8 g at concentration 10 ppb, 0.3 ppb, 300 ppb for zinc, plumbum, and ferum ions, respectively. Maximum removal achieved at 3 hours contact time for ferum and zinc while 2 hours for plumbum. The results indicate that Tilapia fish scale is a promising method in removing ferum, zinc, and plumbum ions from aqueous solution.

An overview of fruit waste as sustainable adsorbent for heavy metal removal

Biosorption is an environmental friendly method for metal removal as it can be used as a cost effective and efficient technique for heavy metal removal. A lot of biomass can be choosed as biosorbent such as waste material from food processing and agriculture.ent. This paper will review the potential used of local fruit rind as biosorbent for heavy metal removal in wastewater. Heavy metals have been in various industries and resulted to a toxic condition in aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, various techniques have been employed for the treatment of metal-bearing industrial wastewaters including biological treatment through biosorption. Biosorption offers the advantages of low cost, good efficiency and production of sludge with high metal content is possible to avoid by the existence of metal recovery method from metal loaded biosorbent. The successful application of local fruit waste in treating wastewater containing heavy metals requires a deeper understanding of how biosorbent material proceeds.

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).

The Evaluation of Indoor Microbial Air Quality in Two New Commissioning Higher Educational Buildings in Johor, Malaysia

The proliferation of indoor airborne microorganism in public institutional buildings such as schools and universities is often regarded as a potential health hazards to the buildings’ users. This issue is not new in Malaysia, a country with humid climate which favours the growth of microorganism. However, there is lack of research’s data, especially in higher institutional buildings in this country. The assessment of the indoor air quality is conducted in a university’s two new commissioning buildings located at Southern Peninsular of Malaysia. Both buildings utilized centralized air conditioning system. Concentrations of airborne microorganism were determined using a single-stage impacter (biosampler) as per requirement of National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Manual Analytical Method 0800. The acquired readings were compared to the standard level determined in Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality (ICOP IAQ) 2010. Other parameters such as relative humidity, temperature, and air velocity were recorded along the assessment. The mean concentrations of the total bacteria at the affected area of the two buildings are 1102.5 CFU/m3 and 813 CFU/m3 respectively and it is significantly higher compared to the maximum exposure limit of 500 CFU/m3. While, the mean concentration of total fungi at the affected area for two buildings are 805.7 CFU/m3 and 509 CFU/m3 respectively which are both higher than the reading of outdoors and unaffected indoor area although slightly lower than the maximum exposure limit of 1000 CFU/m3. This study provides a glance of the poor indoor microbiological air quality in new higher institutional buildings in this humid region.

Watermelon rind: a potential adsorbent for zinc removal

The industrial revolution has significantly increase the discharge of wastewater into water bodies with heavy metals. In this study, watermelon rind was used as a biosorbent. Wastewater from mosaic industry was characterized by using flame AAS and zinc was found to have concentration range of 350mg/L to 450mg/L. Watermelon rind was characterized by using XRF and SEM. The results from XRF before biosorption shows the presence of Si to enhance biosorption. Zinc present after biosorption. The optimum pH, biosorbent amount, zinc concentration and contact time were found to be pH8, 1.5g, 400mg/L, and 30minutes respectively. The watermelon rind was proven as an effective biosorbent for zinc removal from aqueous solution