The effect of polyethylene terephthalate (road barrier waste) in concrete for rigid pavement

Plastic have become a major problem in solid waste management due to its inability to degrade when they are disposed at landfill site. Approximately 0.80 kg/capita to 1.9 kg/capita of municipal solid waste is generated daily in Malaysia, which is expected to increase annually. Cracking of rigid pavement is the phenomenon where the pavement fails under repetitive loading by a load smaller than the load that can cause failure in single application. Other than that, decrements of the flexural strength due to the lower tensile strength can cause the joint spalling. The larger the load, the smaller will be the number of repetition to cause cracks. In this study paper presents the effect of Polyethene terephthalate (PET) road barrier waste as alternative addition in concrete grade C40 for rigid pavement. The material was obtained from Jabatan Kerja Raya(JKR) Seberang Perai Tengah and it need through cutting process to become fiber with range size about 12mm15mm length and 3mm-5mm width before to be addition into concrete. Four types of concrete mixes with different percentages of PET road barrier fibers which are 0%, 1%, 2% and 3%. Each specimen consist of six cube samples and one beam. The six cubes represent sample at 3 days, 7 days and 28 days. The beam sized 150mm x 150mm x 750mm was only tested on 28 days of curing. The result obtained on the compressive test, 2% of additive PET road barrier in concrete shows the highest result compare to the 0% and 1% additive. Compression test result shows 2% of PET road barrier waste fibers as the optimum percentage of PET road barrier additive with the maximum load of 42.13 MPa. (paper)