Density, strength, chemical solution resistance and shrinkage of sustainable geopolymer concrete containing PET Waste flakes, PET fiber and polypropylene fiber

Mohammed, Azad A.; Mohammed Ali, Taghreed K.; Salih, Nihad B.; Ahmed, Hemn U.; Al-Tamimi, Adil K.

doi:10.22059/ceij.2025.388314.2219

Density, strength, chemical solution resistance and shrinkage of sustainable geopolymer concrete containing PET Waste flakes, PET fiber and polypropylene fiber

Articles in Press

Document Type : Technical Notes

Authors

¹ Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sulaimani

² Department of Architecture Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Koya University

³ Water Resource Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sulaimani

⁴ College of Engineering, American University of Sharjah

10.22059/ceij.2025.388314.2219

Abstract

To produce a sustainable geopolymer concrete different solid wastes were used and properties of the recycled concrete were investigated. Performance of the produced geopolymer concrete is modified by such additions, as observed by different researchers. In this paper, mechanical properties, shrinkage, and sulphate attack resistance of fly ash-based geopolymer (GPC) containing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste aggregate, PET waste fiber, and polypropylene fiber (PPF) were investigated. Results indicated that compressive strength is decreased due to PET aggregate addition to GPC, while there is a strength enhancement by using PET and PP fibers. There is a slight loss in flexural strength when using PET aggregate and strength enhancement associated with using PPF. The existence of PET and PP fibers is helpful to change the sudden collapse of flexural specimen to a gradual failure mode. Due to heat curing, instantaneous drying shrinkage is relatively high and changes little with time except for GPC containing PET aggregate. The geopolymer concrete exhibits good sulphate resistance of GPC, in which maximum compressive strength reduction after 30 days of immersion in H2SO4 solution was measured to be 6% and the addition of different PET wastes and PPF have some effect in reducing the strength loss.

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