Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Modelling the mechanical properties of concrete containing PET waste

aggregate
Azad A. Mohammed
Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Iraq

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Data on recycled concrete containing

PET waste aggregate were analyzed.

Using regression analysis equations
for mechanical properties were
proposed.

Linear equation is more accurate for
elastic modulus and splitting tensile
strength.

For flexural tensile strength the
power equation is more accurate.

The proposed equations can be
applied on concrete containing other
types of plastic wastes.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Properties of concrete containing PET plastic wastes are now well understood as a result of many exper-
Received 9 October 2016 imental tests. Aspects of structural design and analysis of concrete members made from concrete con-
Received in revised form 15 May 2017 taining PET waste need accurate equations for mechanical properties. In this paper, available data on
Accepted 20 May 2017
mechanical properties of normal strength concrete containing PET waste were collected, analyzed, and
Available online 5 July 2017
equations were developed for calculating elastic modulus, splitting and flexural tensile strengths.
Results of analysis indicate that, in general, there is a good correlation between the three properties
Keywords:
and compressive strength of concrete containing PET plastic waste. The proposed equations were found
Compressive strength
Elastic modulus
to be safe and accurate, and can apply for recycled concrete containing different types of plastic waste
Flexural tensile strength other than shredded PET waste. The models proposed for mechanical properties can be utilized in the
PET waste analysis and design of those structural members made from recycled concrete containing PET waste
Recycled concrete and some other plastic wastes.
Regression analysis Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Splitting tensile strength

1. Introduction the other excellent behavior of concrete is that this construction

Concrete is an excellent material mainly because it provides
good structural properties with a reasonable total cost. However;
E-mail address: azad.mohammed@univsul.edu.iq
material has flexibility for modifications on basic constituent
materials to obtain other desired properties. There are many mate-
rials other than those of concrete can work successfully inside the
concrete mass, with final properties considered by the engineers as
good properties. This fact was observed from the results of many
tests carried out on new concretes.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.05.154
0950-0618/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
596 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Notation
a,b coefficients
Ecw elastic modulus of concrete containing PET waste
fc’ compressive strength of concrete without PET waste
fcu cube compressive strength
fcw’ compressive strength of concrete containing PET waste
frw flexural tensile strength of concrete containing PET
waste
ftw tensile stress in general
f’tw splitting tensile strength of concrete containing PET
waste
r correlation coefficient
R2 coefficient of determination
Many types of wastes from a polymer source are increasing
with time, due to the daily demand of citizen consumers. The large
quantity of plastic wastes usually accompanied with the environ-
mental pollution problems. To diminish the effects of such wastes
recycling process currently in use, and has a promised future to
solve the pollution problems. One form of the recycling process
is the use of such waste in concrete production. The plastic waste
is added to concrete as an aggregate replacement in the form of
shredded particles, obtained from grinding plastic containers using
a grinding machine. In order to achieve homogeneous size and
make the cutting easy, only the plastic bottle’s body is used,
excluding the neck and the bottom. Another form of using is as pel-
lets acting like a coarse plastic aggregate, obtained from some
industrial heating and extrusion processes. The waste plastic con-
tainer can be cut to produce different sizes of fibers with different
aspect ratios to produce a fibrous concrete.
Different mechanical properties of concrete containing plastic
wastes nowadays well understood through many experimental
tests carried out during the past twenty years. Fresh and hardened
concrete properties of concrete, temperature dependent proper-
ties, permeability, impact and abrasion resistances of concrete
with recycled plastic were studied [34,11]. Other properties of
dynamic elastic modulus and non-destructive test using ultrasonic
pulse velocity [3,32,33] were also studied. Researches on concrete
containing plastic wastes extended to test structural concrete
members [19,21,22,25] and presenting models for analysis and
design of concrete members made from a concrete containing plas-
tic waste [5].
In this paper, the available test data on mechanical properties of
concrete, containing a special type of plastic waste which is the
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste, are analyzed to develop
models for mechanical properties. Accurate equations based on
large test data usually necessary for analysis and design of struc-
tural members made from concrete containing PET waste.
It is well accepted that there is a strong correlation between dif-
ferent types of tensile strengths and compressive strength of con-
crete. It is followed that the properties of direct tensile strength,
splitting tensile strength and flexural tensile strength can be
obtained with the existence of test data on compressive strength.
Based on this fact, codes of practice contained equations for calcu-
lating different tensile strengths and elastic modulus. These equa-
tions usually based on statistical regression analysis on test data
obtained experimentally. In addition to the equations given by
the codes, many other equations are available in the literature pro-
posed by the researchers.
With regard the concrete containing plastic wastes, similar to
normal concrete, there is a need to know elastic modulus and dif-
ferent tensile strengths for the purpose of practical applications.
Equations proposed for the case of normal concrete may not be
SD standard deviation
Vw volume of PET waste
Uw parameter for size and shape of PET particles
l mean value (test/calculated)
ccw density of concrete containing PET waste
etw’ strain at peak tensile stress of concrete containing PET
waste
etw tensile strain in general
etwu ultimate tensile strain of concrete containing PET waste
ft1, ft2, e1, e2 parameters related to tensile stress- strain relation-
ship
accurately applied for those concretes containing plastic wastes.
This study arranged to collect and analyze data on mechanical
properties of concrete containing PET waste aggregate, to obtain
equations for the properties of elastic modulus, splitting tensile
strength and flexural tensile strength. The accuracy of the past pro-
posed equations for mechanical properties of PET waste concrete
and some other well-known equations are checked, via making a
comparison with the collected test data.
2. Research significance
Using PET waste in concrete construction has a promised future
because properties of this type of concrete well understood from
many experimental laboratory tests. Some aspects of the design
of structural members made from PET waste concrete usually
depend on equations for calculating mechanical properties. Those
equations currently in use for normal concrete may not be accu-
rately applied for concrete containing PET waste. Some proposed
equations for PET waste concrete also may not be accurate because
they depend on a few number of observations. Accordingly, there is
a need for other equations for this type of concrete. This research
study is arranged to analyze experimental test data on mechanical
properties of concrete containing PET plastic waste. The test data
are employed to develop models for calculating elastic modulus,
splitting tensile strength and flexural tensile strength. The pro-
posed equations can be utilized in the analysis and design of struc-
tural members, made from concrete containing PET waste.
3. Past studies
Unfortunately, those equations proposed for calculating
mechanical properties of concrete containing PET waste were
based on few data observations, and mostly the data of control
concrete (without PET waste) were included. The accuracy of such
equations should be checked based on a large number of test data.
Hannawi et al. [14] obtained the following linear equation for
calculating elastic modulus of mortar made with sand partially
replaced with PET or polycarbonate (PC) waste
0
Ecw ¼ 4:6886 þ 0:6534f cw ð1Þ
where Ecw is the elastic modulus and f0cw is the cylinder compressive
strength measured in MPa. The above equation obtained from
regression analysis on ten data observations, including the results
of control specimens. The coefficient of determination (R2) was
found to be 0.9643.
From regression analysis on their own data (6 observations
including the results of control specimens) Nibudey et al. [23] pro-
 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
posed the following equation for splitting tensile strength of con-
crete containing PET fibers
F 0tw ¼ 0:105f cu  0:758
0
where ftw is the splitting tensile strength and fcu is the cube com-
pressive strength measured in MPa. For the above equation R2
was found to be 0.975.
From regression analysis on their own data (4 observations) Juki
et al. [17] proposed the following equation for calculating the split-
ting tensile strength of concrete containing PET waste
0:5
0 0
f tw ¼ 0:634ðf cw Þ
0 0
For the above equation ftw and fcw are in MPa and the experi-
mental/ predicted ratio of splitting tensile strength varied between
0.82 and 1.07. The same authors obtained the following equation
for calculating the flexural tensile strength
0 0:703
f rw ¼ 0:466ðf cw Þ
where frw is the flexural tensile strength measured in MPa. For this
equation the experimental/predicted ratio of flexural tensile
strength varied between 0.83 and 1.06.
Furthermore, Saikia and De Brito [31] obtained the following
equation for constructing the relation between cube compressive
strength (fcu) and splitting tensile strength (f0tw ) based on their test
data (10 observations)
0
f cu ¼ 11:618f tw þ 0:9101
They also obtained the following relationship for the cube com-
pressive strength (fcu) and flexural tensile strength (frw)
f cu ¼ 10:888f rw  9:9961
They investigated the accuracy of the Eurocode 2 [8] equations
for the splitting tensile strength and flexural tensile strength when
applied on PET waste concrete. They concluded that the splitting
tensile strength of the reference concrete and concretes containing
PET waste aggregate are almost the same as or slightly lower than
the value predicted by EC2 and the flexural strength of concrete
containing the waste behaves according to EC2.
One can observe from the past models that the compressive
strength is the unique independent variable governing mechanical
properties of concrete containing PET waste. However, it is better
to illustrate the role of concrete parameters, other than compres-
sive strength, such as concrete density and PET aggregate volume.
The effects of these parameters usually appear when there is a
large amount of test data to be analyzed for regression analysis.
4. Data Inspection and regression analysis
Many tests were carried out to investigate the mechanical prop-
erties of concrete containing PET waste. Investigating test data
indicates that the method of preparing shredded material, particles
or fibers, from waste plastic containers has a considerable effect on
the mechanical properties, and in turn on the relation between
them. In this study the collected test data are those for concrete
made from an aggregate (mainly fine aggregate) partially replaced
with shredded PET waste particles, chips or short fibers. The large
number of test data collected in this study will lead to more accu-
rate equations, compared with the others based on a few number
of test data.
Some researchers tested cubes for measuring compressive
strength; convention to cylinders is required to obtain the true
relation between elastic modulus and compressive strength and
between splitting tensile strength and compressive strength. For
this purpose the cube compressive strength is multiplied by 0.8.
It is assumed that no correction is required for cylindrical speci-
597
mens to obtain the standard 150  300 mm cylinder. In the present
study test data from twenty published works were collected and
used for statistical regression analysis. Details of PET waste con-
ð2Þ
crete properties tested by the researchers and number of data
points are summarized in Table 1.
Accordingly, a total number of 79 data points (from eleven ref-
erences) for elastic modulus, 155 data points (from eighteen refer-
ences) for splitting tensile strength and 87 data points (from ten
references) for flexural tensile strength were collected. If concrete
density is required for analysis the number of data points will be
lower, because some published works contain no information
ð3Þ about the density of concrete containing PET waste.
It should be noted that the data described above contain no
measurements for control specimens without PET waste. Accord-
ingly, the volume of PET waste varied between 0.4% and 75% as fine
aggregate replacement.
ð4Þ 5. Regression analysis
Major parameters governing mechanical properties of concrete
containing PET waste are PET volume ratio (Vw), PET particles
size, shape and grading (Uw), compressive strength of control
concrete (f0c ), and the density (ccw). For elastic modulus, splitting
tensile strength and flexural tensile strength another parameter
which is the compressive strength of PET waste concrete (f0cw ) is
available. Variation of elastic modulus and tensile strengths with
ð5Þ the above independent parameters can be known from analyzing
test data available in the literature. Analysis of data indicates that
correlation coefficient (r) between Ecw and Uw is close to zero. The
0
same behavior was found for the dependent variables ftw and frw.
ð6Þ In general, the influence of PET particles size, shape and grading
(Uw) on dependent variables is not important, but has an influ-
ence of the compactness of concrete mass, and in turn on the
concrete density parameter (ccw). The role of compressive
strength of control concrete without PET waste is also neglected,
and instead f0cw is used. The remained independent variables are
Vw and ccw.
Figs. 1 through 3 show variation of elastic modulus with inde-
pendent parameters of Vw, cw and f0cw , respectively. It is observed
that the correlation between Ecw and independent parameters Vw
and cw is weak. In contrast, the correlation coefficient between
Ecw and f0cw is high and found to be 0.81. Accordingly, the unique
independent parameter is f0cw and this parameter is used for regres-
sion analysis. The same decision can be made for the case of split-
ting tensile strength and flexural tensile strength (Figs. 4 through
9). The correlation coefficient between f0tw and f0cw is 0.77 and that
between frw and f0cw is 0.829. Two models were proposed for each
dependent variable (Ecw, f0tw and frw), based on a linear equation
(y = b + ax) and a power equation (y = bxa). The coefficients a and
b for the two models were calculated from regression analysis
and the following equations were obtained.
For elastic modulus
0
Ecw ¼ 1:694 þ 0:807 f cw ð7Þ
0 1:4
Ecw ¼ 0:229ðf cw Þ ð8Þ
where Ecw is measured in GPa and f0cw is in MPa.
For splitting tensile strength
0 0
f tw ¼ 0:713 þ 0:0826 f cw ð9Þ
0 0 0:75
f tw ¼ 0:246ðf cw Þ ð10Þ
For flexural tensile strength
0
F rw ¼ 1:36 þ 0:11f cw ð11Þ
 598
Table 1
Description of test data used in the present study.

Property studied and specimen detail PET Waste particles size Waste particles Density Data Point** Reference
volume ratio
Compressive Splitting tensile Flexural tensile Elastic modulus
strength strength strength
150  300 mm 150  300 mm ASTM C78 150  300 mm 2.6 mm, 11.4 mm and 50/50% of both sizes 10% and 20% N.M.* 12 for Ecw, f0tw , Albano et al. [3]
cylinders cylinders cylinders and frw
150  300 mm 150  300 mm 130  150  450 mm N.M. Graded 2 mm to 4.9 mm and 0.05 mm to 2 mm 5%,10%,15%,20%,25% N.M. 18 for ftw’ and Azhdarpour et al. [4]
cylinders cylinders and 30% frw
100  200 mm 100  200 mm N.M. 100  200 mm 5 mm to 15 mm 25%, 50% and 75% N.M. 9 for Ecw, and Choi et al. [6]
cylinders cylinders cylinders ftw’
150  300 mm N.M. N.M. 150  300 mm 0.5 mm, 1.5 mm and 3 mm sizes 1%, 2.5% and 5% N.M. 6 for Ecw Cordoba et al. [7]

A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605

cylinders cylinders
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm N.M. N.M. Graded 0.1–5 mm 10%+ N.M. 4 for ftw’ Frigione [9]
cylinders
50  100 mm N.M. 40  40  160 mm 50  100 mm 10 mm PET and 5 mm Polycarbonate plastic agg. 3%, 10%, 20% and 50% M. 8 for Ecw and frw Hannawi et al. [14]
cylinders cylinders
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm 150  150  750 mm N.M. 19 mm chips and Fibers (Lf = 30 mm, bf = 4 mm and 0.4%,0.8%,1.2%,1.6% N.M. 5 for ftw’ and frw Hanna and Mosa [13]
cylinders tf = 0.2 mm) and 2%
150  300 mm 150  300 mm N.M. 150  300 mm Graded 6 mm to 10 mm 0.5%,1% and 1.5% N.M. 3 for Ecw, and Irwan et al. [15]
cylinders cylinders cylinders ftw’
100  200 mm 100  200 mm N.M. 100  200 mm Graded 6 mm to 10 mm 0.5%,1% and 1.5% M. 9 for Ecw, and Irwan et al. [16]
cylinders cylinders cylinders ftw’
100  200 mm 100  200 mm 100  100  500 mm 100  200 mm 5 mm 25%, 50% and 75% M. 3 for Ecw, ftw’, Juki et al. [17]
cylinders cylinders cylinders and frw
100 mm cubes 100  200 mm N.M. 100  200 mm 5 mm 25%, 50% and 75% M. 9 for Ecw, and Juki et al. [18]
cylinders cylinders ftw’
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm N.M. 150  300 mm 11.2 mm and 4 mm max. size PET and heat-treated- 7.5% and 15% N.M. 5 for Ecw, and Lima [20]
cylinders cylinders pellet ftw’
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm N.M. N.M. Fibers, L = 25 mm, and breadth = 2 mm 0.5%,1%,1.5%,2%, 2.5% M. 6 for ftw’ and frw Nibudey et al. [23]
cylinders and 3%
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm 100  100  50 mm N.M. Fibers, Lf = 25 mm, bf = 1 mm and 2 mm 0.5%,1%, 1.5%,2%, 2.5% M. 12 for ftw’ and Nibudey et al. [24]
cylinders and 3% frw
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm – N.M. Fibers, Lf = 30 mm, bf = 5 mm and tf = 1 mm 0.5%,1%,1.5%,2%, 2.5% M. 6 for ftw’ Parahallada and
cylinders and 3% Prakash[26]
150  300 mm 150  300 mm 100  100  500 mm 150  300 mm 7 mm max. size 5%, 10% and 15% M. 6 for Ecw, ftw’, Rahmani et al. [27]
cylinders cylinders cylinders and frw
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm 100  100  500 mm N.M. N.A. 0.5%,1%,2%,4% and 6% N.M. 5 for ftw’ and frw Ramadevi and Manju
cylinders [28]
150 mm cubes 150  300 mm N.M. N.M. 0–5 mm 5%, and 10% N.M. 6 for ftw’ Sadeghifar and
cylinders Suhrabi [30]
NP EN 12390-3 NP EN 12390-6 NP EN 12390-5 N.M. Passing by 100% on 16 mm or 5.6 mm sieves (and 5%, 10% and 15% M. 9 for ftw’ and frw Saikia and De Brito
heat-treated-pellet) [31]
150 mm cubes 100  150 mm 150  150  100  150 mm 11.2 mm and 4 mm max. size(and heat-treated- 5%, 10% and 15% M. 9 for Ecw, ftw’, Saikia and De Brito
cylinders 600 mm cylinders pellet) and frw [32]
*
N.M. = not measured, M = measured, N.A. = Not available.
**
Excluding the control specimen. + Equivalent to 6% by weight.
 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Fig. 1. Variation of Ecw with Vw.
Fig. 2. Variation of Ecw with ccw.
0 0:795
f rw ¼ 0:317ðf cw Þ
where frw and f0cw
are measured in MPa.
Table 2 contains the proposed equations for calculating Ecw, f0tw
and frw, accompanied with the regression analysis parameters for
each case.
6. Validity of the analysis
It is necessary to check the accuracy of the proposed equations
for mechanical properties. The accuracy of the proposed equations
can be known from studying the regression analysis parameters
and making comparison with the other proposed equations, and
the distribution of test data and their relation with the predictions.
The correlation coefficient, mean (test/calculated) value, and stan-
dard deviation related to the proposed equations and other equa-
tions are shown in Table 2. Figs. 10 through 13 show variation of
599
Fig. 3. Variation of Ecw with fcw’
0
Fig. 4. Variation of ftw with Vw.
ð12Þ
elastic modulus, splitting tensile strength and flexural tensile
strength with compressive strength variation.
For elastic modulus of concrete containing PET waste of com-
pressive strength close to 25 MPa all proposed equations nearly
give the same value. As shown from Fig. 10 for all concretes of
compressive strength smaller than 25 MPa the proposed equation
given by Hannawi et al. underestimates test data, accordingly there
is a safety when this equation is applied for calculating elastic
modulus of concrete containing PET waste. Unfortunately, the
safety of the equation given by Hannawi et al. considerably reduces
for concretes of compressive strength higher than 25 MPa, and
cannot be safely used. It should be noted that correlation coeffi-
cient, mean value and standard deviation for the Hannawi et al.
equation are close to those related to Eq. (7). Both equations pro-
posed in the current study are accurate for calculating the elastic
modulus, but the quality of the linear equation is better due to
the larger R2 and smaller SD. If safety is considered Eq. (8) can be
600 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Fig. 5. Variation of ftw with ccw.
0
0 smaller than unity, accordingly their equation cannot be applied
Fig. 6. Variation of ftw with fcw’
used instead of the linear equation, because the mean value is lar-
ger than that of Eq. (7).
According to the results illustrated in Fig. 11 all proposed mod-
els give nearly the same value of splitting tensile strength when
the compressive strength is close to 32 MPa. For all concretes of
compressive strength smaller than 32 MPa the predictions of Juki
et al. model is not safe, because there is a large number of data hav-
ing splitting tensile strength smaller than the calculated value for
the same compressive strength. For concretes of compressive
strength larger than 32 MPa the predictions based on all proposed
equations except that given by Nibudey et al. are safe. In contrast,
for concretes of compressive strength smaller than 32 MPa Nibu-
dey et al’s predictions are considerably underestimates test data
and the other predictions, as observed from Fig. 11. Regression
analysis parameters shown in Table 2 indicates that the model
given by Juki et al. is not safe because the mean value is 0.873
Fig. 7. Variation of frw with Vw.
Fig. 8. Variation of frw with ccw.
for a wide range of concrete strengths. One can find that the pre-
dictions based on the equation proposed by Saikia and De Brito
are, in general, accurate, but moderately underestimates test data
when applied on concretes of compressive strength lower than
32 MPa. For the latter case the predictions of Euro code 2 equation
is quite close to those based on the proposed power equation.
According to the results shown in Table 2 the quality of the pro-
posed power equation for flexural tensile strength is better than
that of linear equation because of larger R2 value. One can observe
from the relationships shown in Fig. 12 that the calculated flexural
tensile strength based on Juki et al. model overestimates the test
data, accompanied with the reduction in safety. The predictions
based on Saikia and De Brito are safe and moderately underesti-
mate test data. One can find that the equation given by ACI 318
code is quite safe when applied on concrete containing PET waste
aggregate. If this type of concrete is considered as sand lightweight
concrete (k = 0.85) the mean value will by 1.57, and if the effect of
PET waste is neglected the mean value will be 1.33 indicating that
the equation is considerably underestimates test data.
 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605 601

Fig. 10. Test and calculated elastic modulus.

0
Fig. 9. Variation of frw with fcw.
From the foregoing discussion it is concluded that models given
by some researchers and building codes can be applied on concrete
containing PET waste for a limited range of compressive strength.
The quality of the proposed equations is better because they based
on a large number of test data. One can observe that the quality of
power equation for flexural strength is better than the linear one
(because of larger R2 value). This case is different from those of
elastic modulus and splitting tensile strength, in which the quality
of linear equation is better.
The equation given by ACI 318 code shown in Table 2 can be
applied for normal weight and lightweight concretes. There is a
chance to apply the equation for calculating elastic modulus of
concrete containing PET waste, because a part of fine aggregate is
replaced with lightweight particles and the concrete tends to be
a structural lightweight concrete. Fig. 13 shows the variation of
elastic modulus with compressive strength for the test data, ACI
318 equation and the proposed linear equation. As shown from
the figure, both ACI 318 and the proposed equations have nearly
the same value of elastic modulus when concrete compressive
strength is close to 30 MPa. For larger compressive strength the
safety related to using the ACI 318 equation usually increases.
For all concretes having compressive strength smaller than
30 MPa the equation of ACI 318 is moderately overestimates both
the test data and the predictions of linear equation. Accordingly,
the safety related to using the ACI 318 equation is low for those
concretes containing PET waste having compressive strength smal-
ler than 30 MPa. It should be noted that discussion presented
above is based on 39 data points which is one- half of total test
data used for regression analysis, because some researches con-
tained no information about concrete density. The accuracy of
ACI 318 equation for elastic modulus of concrete containing PET
waste should be again checked based on larger test data. This
can be done when other tests are carried out for elastic modulus
of concrete containing PET waste including measurements of con-
crete density.
7. Application of the proposed equations
The proposed equations for calculating mechanical properties of
concrete containing PET waste can be used for concretes contain-

Table 2
Proposed equations and regression analysis parameters.

Mechanical property Equation Statistical Parameter Reference

R2 l SD
Elastic Modulus Ecw = 1.694 + 0.807 f0cw 0.656 0.987 30.8% Current investigation
Ecw = 0.229 (f0cw )1.4 0.622 1.107 42.21%
0
Splitting tensile strength ftw = 0.713 + 0.0826 f0cw 0.613 1.056 19.69%
f’tw = 0.246 (f0cw ) 0.75 0.606 1.079 20.08%
Flexural tensile strength frw = 1.36 + 0.11 f0cw 0.686 0.995 18.57%
frw = 0.317 (f0cw ) 0.795 0.704 1.017 18.66%
Elastic Modulus Ecw = 4.6886 + 0.6534f0cw 0.656 1.009 31.4% Hannawi et al. [14]
0
Splitting tensile strength ftw = 0.105fcu  0.758 0.593 1.222 40.73% Nibudey et al. [23]
0
Splitting tensile strength ftw = 0.634 (f0cw ) 0.5 0.591 0.873 18.49% Juki et al. [18]
Flexural tensile strength frw = 0.466 (f0cw ) 0.703 0.711 0.927 16.67% Juki et al. [18]
Elastic Modulus Ecw = 0.043 c1.5 0
cw (fcw )
0.5
0.605 0.996 21.5% ACI 318 [1]
Splitting tensile strength f’tw = 0.086 fcu  0.0783* 0.593 1.103 24.28% Saikia and De Brito [31]
Flexural tensile strength frw = 0.92 + 0.0918 fcu** 0.686 1.084 20.14% Saikia and De Brito [31]
0
Splitting tensile strength ftw = (1/0.9)[ 0.3(f0cw ) 2/3] 0.593 0.979 19.38% EC2 [8]
0
Flexural tensile strength frw = 0.62k (fcw)0.5 0.725 1.57 29.94% ACI 318 (k = 0.85) [1]
0.725 1.33 25.45% ACI 318 (k = 1.0) [1]
*
Obtained from Eq. (5).
**
Obtained from Eq. (6).
602 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Fig. 11. Test and calculated splitting tensile strength.
Fig. 12. Test and calculated flexural tensile strength.
ing PET waste shredded particles or short fibers added by volume
0.4%–75% (as sand replacement). However; there is a chance to
apply the equations for other types of concrete containing plastic
wastes. Here, an attempt is made to check the accuracy of the pro-
posed equations for some mechanical properties of concrete con-
taining other plastic wastes.
7.1. High density polyethylene coarse aggregate
Shredding PET waste containers is one stage for a series of pro-
cesses done for recycling. The data used for regression analysis in
this study is for a concrete containing the simplest type of recy-
cling PET wastes. Ramesan et al. [29] studied the mechanical prop-
erties of concrete containing high density polyethylene coarse
aggregate of constant size equal to 20 mm. The plastic wastes were
subjected to the processes of sorting, shredding, washing and
extruding using extruder device. Later, the waste was melted and
compressed then channeled to obtain a rough surface sheet of
20 mm thickness. The sheets were then cut into aggregates of
20 mm size. Compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and
Fig. 13. Variation of elastic modulus with compressive strength.
Fig. 14. Splitting tensile strength variation (High density polyethylene coarse
aggregate).
flexural tensile strength of concrete containing this plastic aggre-
gate by a ratio up to 40%, were measured at the age of 7, 14, and
28 days. Splitting tensile and flexural tensile strengths were calcu-
lated using equations (Eqs. (9) and (12)) for this type of concrete,
and compared with the test data given by Ramesan et al. [29].
Fig. 14 shows variation of splitting tensile strength with compres-
sive strength. R2 for the relationship is 0.925 indicating the accu-
racy of the predictions. One can find that the predictions in
general are conservative (l > 1), and the safety increased with
increasing compressive strength. Fig. 15 shows variation of test
and calculated flexural tensile strength using the power equation
(Eq. (12)). R2 for the relationship is 0.741 indicating the accuracy
of the predictions. If the linear equation is used for calculating
the flexural strength R2 will be 0.735, indicating that the predic-
tions of the power equation is better, similar to the case of PET
waste concrete.
 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Fig. 15. Flexural tensile strength variation (High density polyethylene coarse
aggregate.
7.2. E-waste
Tests were carried out by Akram et al. [2] to search the suitabil-
ity of using coarse crushed electronic plastic waste. E-waste con-
sisted of discarded refrigerators, radios, TVs, air conditioners,
mobile phones, computers and others. The E-waste was used by
proportions of 5%, 10%, and 15%. Another tests were carried out
by Gull et al. [12] to study the effect of replacing a part of aggregate
with polyvinyl chloride (pvc) wire insulation on mechanical prop-
erties of concrete. The pvc wire diameter was 4 mm, shredded into
small pieces of 5 cm, 4 cm, and 3 cm, and used by proportions of
0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8% and 1%. Concrete specimens were tested for mea-
suring compressive strength and splitting tensile strength at the
age of 7, 14, and 28 days. Splitting tensile strength was calculated
using linear equations (Eq. (9)) for the two cases and the predic-
tions were compared with the data given by Akram et al. and Gull
Fig. 16. Splitting tensile strength variation (E-waste).
603
et al. Fig. 16 shows the variation of splitting tensile strength with
the compressive strength. Results show that R2 is 0.903, mean
value (l) is 1.14 and SD is 10%, indicating that the predictions are
accurate. Based on the comparisons made, one can observe that
the proposed linear equation for splitting tensile strength can be
applied safely and accurately for concrete containing plastic E-
waste.
7.3. Plastic bag waste
Ghernouti et al. [10] performed tests for measuring the com-
pressive strength and flexural tensile strength of concrete contain-
ing plastic bag waste (PBW) material. Graded PBW passed on 5 mm
sieve added to concrete with volume percentages of 10%, 20%, 30%
and 40%. Variation of flexural tensile strength for their data in addi-
tion to the calculated one using the power equation (Eq. (12)) is
illustrated in Fig. 17. Results show that R2 is 0.801, mean value
(l) is 1.09 and SD is 7.6%. Comparison with the test data indicate
that the predictions are fairly accurate, and the proposed equation
for calculating flexural tensile strength of concrete containing PBW
material can be applied accurately.
From the forgoing comparisons made, one can decide that the
proposed equations for calculating splitting and flexural tensile
strengths can be applied not only for concrete containing PET
waste particles, but for other types of recycled concrete, including
those containing high density polyethylene coarse aggregate, E-
wastes and plastic bag waste particles. The proposed equations
may be applied on some other types of recycled concrete, for this
purpose test data must be available and compared with the predic-
tions of the proposed equations.
7.4. Strain at peak tensile stress
Knowing strain at peck tensile stress is important because this
parameter must be determined in models proposed for the com-
plete tensile stress-strain relationship. Rigorous elastic-plastic
and nonlinear analysis in which material nonlinearity behavior
included essentially depends on the complete compressive
stress-strain and tensile stress-strain relationships. In the best of
author’s idea models for these two responses are not available
for recycled concrete containing PET waste. Based on the analysis
Fig. 17. Flexural tensile strength variation (PBW material).
604 A.A. Mohammed / Construction and Building Materials 150 (2017) 595–605
Fig. 18. Tensile stress-strain relationship proposed for recycled PET waste concrete.
presented in this study the ascending portion of the tensile stress-
strain relationship for this type of concrete can be obtained.
Fig. 18 shows the expected idealized tensile stress- strain rela-
tionship for recycled PET waste concrete, in which the parameters
ftw’, ft1, ft2, etw’, e1, e2, and etwu must be determined. Here, only the
two parameter ftw’ and etw’ can be determined. It is assumed that
the elastic modulus of recycled PET waste concrete in compression
is equal to that in tension, and the uniaxial tensile strength is 0.9
times the splitting tensile strength. The second assumption is
based on the convention factor given by the Eurocode 2 [8] recom-
mended for normal strength concrete.
Based on the above simplifications etw’ is calculate as follows
0
0:9f tw
e0
tw ¼ ð13Þ
Ecw
In order to obtain the simplest form of equation the power
equations (Eq. (8) for Ecw and Eq. (10) for ftw’) are used. On substi-
tution etw’ will be
0:000955
e0tw ¼ 00:64
ð14Þ
f cw
where fcw’ is in MPa.
Using Eqs. (8) and (14) the two parameters 0.9 ftw’ and etw’ for
the tensile stress-strain relationship are calculated. Unfortunately,
there is no test data on strain at peak tensile stress to compare
with the predictions of Eq. (14) and check the accuracy. Indeed,
there is a need for further research for modelling the complete ten-
sile stress-strain relationship of concrete containing PET waste.
8. Conclusions
Analysis of data on recycled concrete containing PET was made
in this study and equations were proposed for mechanical proper-
ties, from which the following conclusions can be drawn
1 Equations for mechanical properties of concrete containing PET
waste proposed by some researchers were obtained from
regression analysis based on their own data, including the
results of control concrete (without PET waste). Some of these
equations are accurate for a limited range of compressive
strength. However; there is a need for accurate equations for
the properties of elastic modulus, splitting tensile and flexural
tensile strengths of concrete based on a large number of test
data, because there is a sufficiently large number of test data
can be utilized for developing new models.
2 Mechanical properties of elastic modulus, splitting tensile
strength and flexural tensile strength was found to depend on
the independent parameters of concrete compressive strength,
PET waste aggregate volume, concrete density and PET waste
particles properties. The strongest one was found to be the
compressive strength, and for simplicity the effect of others
parameters was omitted in the regression analysis on the test
data. Based on a large amount of test data equations were pro-
posed, and can be used for concretes containing PET waste with
a ratio varied from 0.4% to 75% as sand replacement.
3 Mechanical properties of concrete containing PET waste are clo-
sely related to the compressive strength, and using regression
analysis two equations, linear and power, were proposed. Linear
equation was found to be more accurate for the elastic modulus
and splitting tensile strength, while the quality of power equa-
tion is better for the flexural tensile strength based on simple
statistical tests of analysis of variance.
4 The proposed equations for mechanical properties have flexibil-
ity for a wide range of applications and can be applied on recy-
cled concretes contain plastic materials other than PET waste
aggregate. The proposed equations were found accurate when
applied for calculating mechanical properties of concrete con-
taining plastic wastes of high density polyethylene coarse
aggregate, E-waste, and plastic bag waste, and
5 From the results of the proposed models for splitting tensile
strength and elastic modulus, ascending portion of the tensile
stress- strain relationship can be obtained via calculating ten-
sile stress and the corresponding tensile strain.
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