STUDY OF THE THERMAL BEHAVIOUR OF CONCRETE CONTAINING THERMOPLASTIC WASTE AGGREGATES

摘要

The ability of a structural component to retain its physical and mechanical properties during and after exposure to severe thermal conditions is very important. Concretes containing thermoplastic wastes as aggregates are newly developed materials which attract a growing ecological interest. The thermal behaviour of concretes containing industrial wastes from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as replacement of a part of the conventional aggregates was studied. The replacement level was 20% by volume of aggregates. 100mm cube specimens were used. After 5 weeks from moulding, the specimens were exposed to conditioning at constant temperatures: 2°C, 20°C, 50°C, 120°C for 24h and to 250°C for 5h and then compressive tests for each temperature level were carried out in accordance to standard procedures. The results suggest that temperatures up to 120°C produce little damage to concrete that contains PET aggregates but as was expected, concrete exposed to 250°C was seriously damaged although no flaming was observed.