Improvement of the mechanical properties of glass fibre reinforced plastic waste powder filled concrete

comprehensive laboratory experiments were conducted to improve the mechanical properties of glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) waste powder filled concrete using superplasticiser for widening the scope for GRP waste recycling for different applications. It is imperative to note that the 28 days mean compressive strength of concrete specimens developed with 5–15% GRP waste powder using 2% superplasticiser resulted 70.25 ± 1.43–65.21 ± 0.6 N/mm2 which is about 45% higher than that of without the addition of superplasticiser (with GRP waste) and about 11% higher than that of the control concrete (without GRP waste) with 2% superplasticiser. The tensile splitting strength of the concrete showed 4.12 ± 0.05–4.22 ± 0.03 N/mm2 with 5–15% GRP waste powder which is also higher than that of the control concrete (3.85 ± 0.02 N/mm2). The drying shrinkage, initial surface absorption and density of GRP waste filled concrete were evaluated and found better than the desirable quality for use in structural and non-structural applications.