Arul Arulrajah, Sahan Perera, Yat Choy Wong, Farshid Maghool, Suksun Horpibulsuk,

Stabilization of PET plastic-demolition waste blends using fly ash and slag-based
geopolymers in light traffic road bases/subbases,
Construction and Building Materials,
Volume 284,
2021,
122809,
ISSN 0950-0618,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122809.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061821005699)
Abstract: Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and construction and demolition
(C&D) wastes contribute to a substantial fraction of the annual landfilling waste
composition of the world. Substituting traditional road construction materials with
PET/C&D blends is a sustainable solution for the increasing landfilling requirement
and increasing demand for the natural quarry aggregates. This study evaluates the
main geotechnical parameters of the geopolymer-stabilized blends comprising of two
main C&D types, namely recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and crushed brick (CB), in
blends with 5% PET fragments (% by mass). 10%Fly ash (FA), 10%Slag (S) and
5%FA + 5%S were used as the precursors at a fixed liquid activator to precursor
ratio of 0.4, and the alkaline activator for the geopolymer solution was comprised
of 30:70 ratio of liquid NaOH:Na2SiO3 solution. Strength and stiffness
characteristics of the stabilized blends were evaluated by unconfined compressive
strength (UCS) tests. The resilient modulus (MR) values of the geopolymer-
stabilized blends under different cyclic axial stresses and confining stresses were
assessed by repeated load triaxial (RLT) tests. Bulk stress and three-parameter
model parameters were determined from the RLT test data to predict the variation of
MR of the geopolymer-stabilized PET/C&D blends. All the geopolymer-stabilized
blends using 5%FA + 5%S and 10%S as precursors satisfied the minimum UCS limit of
the granular materials for light traffic road bases/subbases. Geopolymer-stabilized
PET/C&D was identified as a potential, sustainable option for the stabilization of
upcoming road bases/subbases.
Keywords: PET; Demolition waste; Geopolymer stabilization; Pavement geotechnics;
Ground improvement