Mechanical properties, durability and life-cycle assessment of waste plastic fiber reinforced sustainable recycled aggregate self-compacting concrete

This paper deals with the problem of recycling of waste concrete, waste plastic and industrial waste to produce eco-friendly and cost-effective concrete materials. A sustainable recycled aggregate self-compacting concrete (RSCC) was proposed by combined incorporation of industrial waste and waste plastic fiber (WPF), which aims to simultaneously enhance the fresh and hardened properties of RSCC. 19 WPF reinforced RSCC (WPF-RSCC) mixes were produced by dramatically replacement natural aggregates and cement with recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) and mineral admixtures, respectively. The hardened properties and durability (freeze-thaw resistance, drying shrinkage) of WPF-RSCC were analyzed. The environmental performance of WPF-RSCC mixes was studied and various impact indicators were determined and comparatively analyzed. The influence of RCAs, SCMs and WPFs on the hardened properties and environmental impact was analyzed as well as the concurrent effect of WPFs and supplementary cementitious material (SCMs) was specified. The test results show that the inclusion of WPFs consistently improved the mechanical properties and durability. With the addition of WPF, the compressive strength, flexural strength and split tensile strength of RSCC increased by up to 41.29 %, 83.75 % and 19.69 %, respectively and the drying shrinkage strain reduced up to 9.7 %. Moreover, the combined incorporation of SCMs and WPFs produced concurrent effect and led to an additional enhancement in the net gain of hardened properties. The combined inclusion of WPFs and SCMs reduced the environmental burdens up to 73 % without compromising mechanical properties. It is feasible to incorporate RCAs, SCMs and WPFs together to produce sustainable self-compacting concrete (SCC) along with superior hardened properties and dramatic environmental and economic benefits.