To Improve the Properties of Concrete by Using Pet Fibers

PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles have increasingly become an indispensable part of a common man's life. With the phenomenal increase in plastic consumption the problems with plastic waste disposal have also aggravated. Our voracious appetite for PET bottles coupled with the undeniable behavioral propensity of increasingly over consuming, discarding, littering and thereby polluting the natural environment makes it a lethal combination. Hence the need arises to route the waste plastic bottles to their optimum usage. That is why utilization of waste PET bottles has become an attractive alternative for disposal. Research studies are focused on using these bottles in concrete to enhance its properties. The use of various types of fibers including plastic as fibers in concrete has proved to enhance its performance in many ways. The study was carried out by using PET fibers in aspect ratios 30 (60 mm x 2 mm), 50 (100 mm x 2 mm) and 70 (140 mm x 2 mm) and incorporating them as weight of cement at different intervals of 0.6%, 0.8%, 1.0% and 1.2%. The fresh as well as mechanical properties of concrete mixes PET fibers were studied.