Journal of Applied Science and Engineering, Vol. 25, No 1, Page 59-70 59 Properties of Mortar Composites from Plastic Waste Apised Suwansaard 1,2 , Teerin Kongpun 2 , and Maneerat Khemkhao 1* 1 Rattanakosin College for Sustainable Energy and Environment, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, 96 Phutthamonthon Sai 5, Salaya, Phutthamonthon, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand 2 Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, 96 Phutthamonthon Sai 5, Phutthamonthon, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailand * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Received: April 20, 2021; Accepted: May. 17, 2021 An application of plastic waste blended with the sand aggregate in mortar helps to improve some properties of the mortar as well as reducing environmental pollution while solving the problem of a shortage of natural sand. In this study, polystyrene (PS) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) wastes were examined as partial replacements for sand in mortar. The water absorption, bulk dry density, flow value and compressive strength of mortar containing these plastic wastes were analyzed. In addition, the thermal conductivity of wall models plastered with mortar containing plastic waste was investigated. The main results were as follows. The plastic waste and the sand had comparable particle sizes. The properties of mortar with PS were found to be better than that of the mortar with HDPE. The water absorption of mortar with PS was comparable with the reference mortar but lower than that of mortar with HDPE. The compressive strength of the mortar with PS was significantly higher than that with HDPE. The thermal conductivity of a wall plastered by mortar containing PS decreased as the PS content was increased, whereas the thermal conductivity of a wall plastered by mortar containing HDPE increased as the HDPE content was increased. The results indicated that 10.0% PS could be used as a partial replacement for sand in mortar with an improvement in some of the properties of the mortar. Keywords: green composite; high density polyethylene; polystyrene; recycled waste materials; thermal conductivity of wall © The Author(’s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited. http://dx.doi.org/10.6180/jase.202202_25(1).0007 1. Introduction Due to increasing levels of urbanization and economic growth, increases in the rate of plastic production and con- sumption are occurring in many areas around the world. The recovery rate of plastic waste is very low because of the low value of recycled plastic and the lack of technological support for its recovery. Most plastic waste is very stable and degrades very slowly in the environment either when disposed of as landfill or when it enters the ocean or atmo- sphere. If plastic waste is not disposed of properly, it causes environmental and economic problems. The huge amount of plastic waste which is now being produced is leading to food chain contamination, biodiversity breakdown, energy waste, and economic loss [1]. Among the available recycling methods, the use of re- cycled plastic waste as material for construction has been suggested as an ideal way for disposing of plastic waste [2]. Plastic waste can be used in many civil engineering appli- cations. For example, recycled plastic waste has been used as a partial replacement for sand in the aggregate that is required to improve the strength and durability of concrete in road and pavement construction or as an insulator or conduit in building construction [3, 4]. In the experiment of Al-Tulaian et al. [5], recycled plastic polyethylene tereph- thalate (PET) fibers can be used to enhance the performance of concrete, which improved the flexural toughness and minimized plastic shrinkage cracking of concrete slabs. For the areas of buildings with greater exposure to wa-
Properties of Mortar Composites from Plastic Waste
May 20, 2023
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