Experimental Investigation on Bubble Deck Concrete Using Plastic Waste

Reinforced concrete and steel are the commonly used building materials in which reinforced concrete plays a vital role in the construction of buildings. In the structural components like slab and beam, the concrete below the neutral axis is assumed that it will not take any tensile stresses and will act only as a filler material. Hence, those ineffective concrete can be replaced with other material which in turn reduces the self-weight of the structure. Plastic waste which is nondegradable becomes a great concern to the environment. Such plastic waste must be recycled to create an eco-friendly atmosphere. Hence, plastic waste are recycled in the form of balls and can be used in the slab, such type of slab is called Bubble deck slab. Bubble deck slab replaces ineffective concrete by plastic balls, thereby dramatically reducing the structural self-weight which in turn reduces the magnitude of seismic forces which will be highly useful in seismically active areas. Hence in this paper, spherical balls made of recycled plastic were introduced to replace the ineffective concrete near the neutral axis of the concrete slab. Two slabs are casted with dimensions 0.75 m × 1 m, one with bubbles (Bubble deck slab) and one without bubbles (Conventional slab). It is found that, though ultimate load of Conventional slab is more than the Bubble deck slab, the cracking load of Bubble deck slab is comparatively higher than the Conventional slab due to its flexibility. And also the Bubble deck slab undergoes maximum deflection before failure while compared to the Conventional slab which will give sufficient warning to the users before failure of the structure.