Incorporating recycled PET fibres for concrete Cylindrical Culverts

Abstract

Fiber reinforced concrete is one of the prominent solutions for many problems that concrete had from its early stage. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber is a sustainable solution for fiber reinforced concrete since it makes fiber material an eco-friendly material. It’s a well-known fact that steel reinforced concrete is vulnerable to corrosion. It is accelerated in the water conveying elements such as concrete pipes. So usage of PET fibers as a replacement material for steel reinforcement cage in reinforced concrete pipe element would definitely have a long life. At the initial stage concrete cubes were casted with different fiber compositions for water cement ratio of 0.3 and 0.45.From that it has observed that 2% of PET fiber would give the optimum result for concrete having 0.3 water cement ratio. Three sets of specimens (plain concrete, Reinforced concrete and PET fiber concrete) were subjected to three-edge-bearing test. It was identified that PET fiber reinforced concrete is the most applicable method for production of concrete pipes. Because manufacturing of the cage form of the conventional reinforcement bars adjusted for concrete pipes requires special bending, welding, and placement machinery, and also it is time-consuming. PET fibres of standard sizes, on the other hand, can be added to the pan-mixer of any concrete plant as if they were another aggregate or mineral admixture. Without any extra process modification, PET-fibre concrete can be produced and cast in the moulds similar to the ordinary plain concrete. Therefore it can be declared that PET-fibre concrete pipes seem to be an economical alternative to the classically-reinforcedconcrete pipes.