Flexural strength of reinforced polymer concrete made with recycled plastic waste

The flexural behavior and strength prediction of steel-reinforced polymer concrete (PC) using unsaturated polyester resins based on recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, plastic waste was evaluated in this study. Most of the beams were singly reinforced with steel bars in the tensile zone. Few beams used double reinforcement with steel bars in the tensile and compression zones. Test results show that very good flexural strength can be obtained with reinforced PC using unsaturated polyester resins based on recycled PET. The prediction of the ultimate flexural strength of steel-reinforced PC beams was first investigated by using the conventional ACI approach specifically developed for steel-reinforced portland cement concrete. The results of this analysis determined that the ACI method yields conservative results when applied to reinforced PC. An alternative method of predicting the ultimate flexural strength of PC was therefore proposed by using multiple regression analysis on the experimental data.