Mechanical, physical, blast waves and ballistic impact resistance properties of a concrete incorporating thermally treated PET inclusions

Abstract

• PET fibre concrete is tested for mechanical, shockwave and balistic impact resistance. • Thermal treatment of PET plastic improves the performance of PET fibre concrete. • Highly effective reuse of waste water bottle plastic in concrete composition. • Incorporating PET fibres improves ballistic and impact resistance of concrete. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics are widely used worldwide, and large amounts end up discarded in nature as waste after use. While the incorporation of PET in the concrete composite is known to be environmentally beneficial, it appears to also improve some characteristics of concrete. In this work the effect of PET strip shaped inclusions on concrete performance is investigated with PET fractions up to 20 kg/m 3 , while focusing on thermally treated plastic. The heat treatment has been shown to elevate the tensile strength of the inclusions by up to 120 %. This has led to a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of the concrete. In addition, the use of PET strips reduces thermal conductivity by up to 30 %. The ballistic impact resistance and blast waves resistance of concrete with treated PET strips is also investigated. The results show a better protection against the threat of explosive and bullet attacks.