The mechanical properties of brick containing recycled concrete aggregate and polyethylene terephthalate waste as sand replacement

Abstract

This research focuses on the performance of composite sand cement brick containing recycle concrete aggregate and waste polyethylene terephthalate. This study aims to determine the mechanical properties such as compressive strength and water absorption of composite brick containing recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste. The bricks specimens were prepared by using 100% natural sand, they were then replaced by RCA at 25%, 50% and 75% with proportions of PET consists of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% by weight of natural sand. Based on the results of compressive strength, only RCA 25% with 0.5% PET achieve lower strength than normal bricks while others showed a high strength. However, all design mix reaches strength more than 7N/mm2 as expected. Besides that, the most favorable mix design that achieves high compressive strength is 75% of RCA with 0.5% PET.