The evolution of shrinkage strain of pet-mortar composite eco-materials

Abstract

Concretes and mortars are subjected to several kinds of shrinkage strains which represent the volumic variations resulting from the cement hydration and are governed by various physical and chemical aspects. The use of polyethylene terephthalate PET plastic wastes which are available in quantity and within low cost in our country yields a very important economic and environmental impact in the construction industry. Thus, we are interested to investigate the effect of PET volumetric additive amounts for cement substituting and for the behavior of the total, drying and autogenous shrinkage. Comparison study of obtained experimental results with codale prediction models were performed according to Eurocode 2  (EC2) in order to analyze the evolution of shrinkage strain with PET-mortar  composite ages and for several rates of PET waste additions. According to obtained results, PET additions acts to reduce shrinkage strains of PET-mortar composites which promote the use of these modified mortar Eco-materials in the field of construction industry.

Keywords: Composite Eco-materials; Cement substitution; Shrinkage strain; PET waste; EC2.