Recycling of plastic waste materials: mechanical properties and implications for road construction
- PDF / 413,963 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 432 x 648 pts Page_size
- 40 Downloads / 204 Views
MRS Advances © 2020 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2020.197
Recycling of plastic waste materials: mechanical properties and implications for road construction J. A. Panashe 1 and Y. Danyuo 1,* 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ashesi University, 1 University Avenue, Berekuso, Ghana
Abstract This paper presents a recent study on recycling poly-ethylene-tetraphylate (PET), known as plastic waste material in Ghana, to wealth. Composites were produced by heating aggregates together with shredded PET plastic waste material, while bitumen was added to the plasticcoated aggregates. The composites produced were reinforced with 4.5 wt%, 9.0 wt%, 13.6 wt%, and 18.0 wt% PET. Mechanical properties of the fabricated composite samples were studied with a Universal testing machine for optimization. The work demonstrated that shredded PET plastic waste material acts as a strong binding agent for bitumen that can improve on the shelf life of the asphalt. From the results, 13.6 wt% concentration of PET was shown to experience the maximum compressive strength and flexural strength. Besides, water resistance was shown to increase with PET concentrations/weight fraction. From the data characterized 13.6 wt% of PET plastic gives the optimum plastic concentration that enhances the rheological properties of bitumen. The implications of the result are therefore discussed for the use of 13.6 wt% PET in road construction. *Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected], Mobile: +233550505434.
1.0 INTRODUCTION: Composites are materials obtained through the combination of two or more different materials with identifiable phases and distinct interfaces [1,2]. The main composition of composites comprised of the matrix phase which surrounds and binds the reinforced material or binds fragments of the reinforced materials together [3]. Asphaltic concrete is an example of a composite produced from coarse or fine aggregates and filler materials bounded together with a bitumen [4,5,6]. Bituminous mixture comprised of aggregates bounded with a hydrocarbon binder [6]. Composite materials are often characterized by low weight, high fatigue strength, good resistance to corrosion, resistance to abrasive wear, enhanced hardness and higher impact strength [1-3, 7]. Plastics production and utilization have affected our globe. An estimate of 8300 million metric tonnes of plastics has been produced by 2017 with an annual production rate of fibers and resin alone been estimated to increase from 2 million tonnes to 380 million 1305
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Macquarie University, on 30 May 2020 at 12:49:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1557/adv.2020.197
tonnes within 1950-2015 [8]. About 9% of the generated plastic waste has been recycled, 12% incinerated, while the remaining 79% is damped in our environment and landfills [9]. Disposability of plastic waste is of global concern. In Africa, the environment has also been challenge
Data Loading...