INVESTIGATING THE COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF PLASTIC BOTTLES AS MASONRY KALUMIRE KUSIMWIRAGI A report submitted in part requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Environmental Design with Honours Faculty of the Built Environment Uganda Martyrs University June, 2011 Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this thesis entitled, “Investigating the Compressive Strength of plas- tic bottles as masonry” is the product of my own work except as cited in the references. Signature :______________________________ Supervisor: Prof. Paul Thomas Signature :______________________________ Date : 6 June 2011 i Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry COPYRIGHT This thesis may be available for loan and limited copying in accordance with copyright and neighbouring rights Acts 19 of 2006 (Cap 210). Signature :______________________________ Kalumire Kusimwiragi Date : 6 June 2011 ii Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This report has only been made possible with the help of many parties. Above all, I would like to pay tribute to the incontrovertible help of GOD the almighty to have taken care of me through this course while ferreting knowledge that change the course of ‘History’. I express with humility a great appreciation to my supervisor, Paul Thomas and my course coordinator Mark Olweny from the Faculty of the Built Environment, Uganda Martyrs University, for their guidance and patience in supervising this study. Furthermore, I would like to thank my family members and my close friends, who had given a lot of encouragement and motivation to complete this research with a special thanks to my sisters Nyamulisa Solange and Vivianne Furah and my brother Kalumire Cubaka for their moral and backing assistance through my entire study. Besides, I am eternally grateful to all my colleagues for assisting me during my experi- mental work particularly Mugisha Emmanuel, and Achille Ahimbisibwe. Last but not least, to those who had contributed assistance and advice in this study, either directly or indirectly, yet their names are not cited here, they deserve my greatest grati- tude. Millions of thanks to all. iii Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to My father Kalumire Germain and my mother Zirimwabagabo Euphrasie for their love, support and patience. iv Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER TITLE PAGE CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i COPYRIGHT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii DEDICATION iv LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix APPENDICES xii ABBREVIATIONS xiii ABSTRACT xiv 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................1 1.1 Introduction .........................................................................1 1.2 Problem Statement ..............................................................3 1.3 Research Objective .............................................................6 1.4 Scope ..................................................................................7 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................8 2.1 Introduction .........................................................................8 2.2 Application of bottles in construction ................................9 2.3 Rammed earth: A review ...................................................12 2.3.1 Advantages and limitations ........................................13 2.3.1.1 Advantages.............................................................13 2.3.1.1 Limitations..............................................................14 2.3.2 Material for rammed earth .........................................15 Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry 2.3.3 Properties of rammed earth .....................................17 2.3.3.1 Dry density ........................................................17 2.3.3.2 Compressive Strength.... ...................................18 2.4 Stabilised Compressed Earth Blocks: A review ..................22 2.4.1 Advantages and limitations........................................23 2.4.2 Material for SCEB ....................................................25 2.4.2.1 Soil type...............................................................25 2.4.2.2 Stabilisation.........................................................26 2.4.2.3 Cure.....................................................................27 2.4.4 Properties of SCEB ..................................................28 2.4.4.1 Density and thermal property .............................29 2.4.4.2 Moisture Mouvement .........................................29 2.4.4.3 Compressive strength .........................................29 3 EXPERIMENTAL WORK .....................................................31 3.1 Method and methodology .................................................. 31 3.2 Materials for PETE bottles prisms........................................33 3.2.1 Soil ...........................................................................42 3.2.2 PETE bottles ............................................................43 3.2.3 Nylon Rope...............................................................46 3.2.4 Water ........................................................................48 3.3 Soil test ...............................................................................41 3.3.1 Sedimentation test ....................................................42 3.3.2 Dry sieving test ........................................................43 3.3.3 Plastic limit test .......................................................46 3.3.4 Moisture content test ...............................................48 3.3.5 Slump test .................................................................49 3.3.6 Flow test ...................................................................50 3.4 Producing the PETE bottles wall specimens......................51 3.5 Compressive test................................................................55 vi Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry 4 RESULT AND ANALYSIS......................................................61 4.1 Results of soil tests...............................................................61 4.1.1 Sedimentation test results..............................................61 4.1.2 Sieve test results............................................................63 4.1.3 Moisture content test results..........................................66 4.1.4 Slump test results...........................................................67 4.1.5 Flow test results.............................................................68 4.2 Results of compressive test .................................................69 4.2.1 Single bottle compressive test results............................69 4.2.2 Bottles wall compressive test results.............................73 5 CONCLUSION........................................................................78 BIBLIGRAPHY.......................................................................81 APPENDICES..........................................................................90 vii Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry LIST OF TABLES TABLE N° TITLE PAGE 1 Compressive strength test specimen details for rammed earth 19 2 Compressive strength for URE 20 3 Compressive Strength for Cement SRE 20 4 Advantages and limitations of SCEB 23-24 5 Properties of SCEB VS other walling materials 28 6 Annotation for soil specimen 34 7 Mechanical properties of HDPE 37 8 Mechanical Properties of Nylon Rope 39 9 Annotation for PETE prism specimen 57 10 Recorded Values for Sedimentation Test 61 11 Sedimentation test Result 62 12 Sedimentation test Result Chart 62 13 Sieve test result 63 14 Sieve test result Chart 64 15 Moisture content results 66 16 Moisture content results Chart 67 17 Slump consistency classes 67 18 Flow consistency classes 68 19 Single bottle compressive strength Versus Single bottle 69 density Chart 20 Unstabilised prism compressive strength Versus stabilised 73 prism compressive strength Chart 21 S-N Bottles wall compressive strength versus S-L Bottles wall 74 compressive strength chart viii Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE N° TITLE PAGE 1 PET Bottles sales/recycled. 3 2 PET bottles piled up as mountain of waste in Mperere 4 3 Michael Reynolds building a structure with cans bottles 5 4 Andrea Froeses standing near one of his PET bottles project. 5 6 William F. Peck’s Bottle House. 9 7 A glass bottle wall 10 8 Kaleva Bottle House 10 9 Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village exterior view 11 10 Interior of one building of Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village 11 11 Capacitor that failed during test 33 12 Sieving the soil specimen SM-UMU-A 35 13 Distribution of stress over a vertical axially loaded element 38 14 PETE bottles used in the research: Photo by author 38 15 Nylon rope used in the research 40 16 Sketch of sedimentation test procedure 42 17 Sedimentation test showing organic materials, water, clay , silt, 43 sand and gravel 18 The sieves plate used for the dry sieving test. 44 19 The electromechanical shaker with sieve plates. 44 ix Investigating the Compressive Strength of Plastic Bottles as Masonry 20 Electronic balance model Kern model CB12KI 45 21 Sieved soil specimen