In this study, cubic and cylindrical cement mortar specimens were first subjected to high temperatures, then the cubic and cylindrical specimens were taken out and conducted with uniaxial compressive test and splitting tensile test, respectively. The effect of the length to side ratio on the uniaxial compressive properties and the effect of thickness-to-diameter ratio on the splitting tensile properties of cement mortar specimens after high temperature were studied. Test results show that: (1) With temperature increasing from 25°C (room temperature) to 400°C, the compressive strength and elastic modulus of cubic specimens with three kinds of side lengths decrease; the decreasing rates of compressive strength and elastic modulus of cubic specimen with side length of 70.7 mm is higher than those of cubic specimens with side length of 100 mm and 150 mm, and the strain at the peak stress of cubic specimens with three kinds of side lengths increase. (2) After the same temperature, the tensile strength of cylindrical specimen decreases with the thickness-to-diameter ratio increasing from 0.5 to 1.0. The decreasing rate of tensile strength of cylindrical specimen with thickness-to-diameter ratio is highest when the temperature is 25°C (room temperature), followed by that after the temperature of 200°C, and that after the temperature of 400°C is the lowest.
This study investigates the fresh and mechanical performance of concrete incorporating sintered fly ash lightweight aggregates (SFLWA) both with and without steel fibers. Comparative assessments of natural aggregates with sintered fly ash aggregates were evaluated. Mix design was obtained by the IS method for M30 grade concrete, and within the natural aggregates were replaced with 20%, 40%, and 60% amounts of SFLWA. The addition of SFLWA shows an increase in the workability of the concrete. Replacement with SFLWA increases with an increase in slump value, and decreases in strength parameters. Compressive strength of 42.6 MPa was achieved with a 40% replacement of SFLWA with steel fibers. The mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus, and structural efficiency of SFLWAC were examined, both with and without fibers. The incorporation of fibers drastically improved the mechanical properties of the mix.
Recycling of plastic wastes helps in reducing waste disposal problems and helps for the sustainable development of the country. Concrete with various % (0 to 55%) of waste plastic aggregates were tested for their mechanical strength properties. In the present work, plastic aggregates obtained as end product of a polymer recycle industry in the form of grains called as plastic aggregates are used as fine aggregate replacements in concrete. The addition of plastic aggregate as fine aggregate replacements results in increase in compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength and thus helps in production of sustainable concrete. It is observed that, the optimum % of replacement of sand with waste plastic waste is 40% and it is also found that upto55% of sand replacements with plastic wastes, mechanical strength values are comparable with that of the normal concrete.