Upgrading seismic safety of masonry building models built using recycled waste fiber-reinforced mortar through uni-axial shake table testing

The rapid rise in the population has resulted in the requirement for many products to fulfill the need. However, using various products has also led to the generation of a significant amount of waste. In particular, products made up of plastic, nylon, coconut, etc., carry a notable percentage towards waste formation as the terminal ends of these products are waste only. Therefore, the current study was focused on using waste materials (plastic, nylon, and waste coconut) in the construction of buildings and reducing their negative impact on the environment besides augmenting the performance of structures. Fibers were extracted from waste products such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, nylon-made products, and coconut and used as reinforcement in the mortar mix. Scaled-down masonry building models were built using unreinforced and fiber-reinforced mortar (same mortar composition in joints and plastering). Further, the building models were subjected to swept-sine motion generated through a uni-axial shake table. Various parameters were observed, and the obtained results were compared with the unreinforced masonry model (URM). It was observed that the fiber-reinforced mortar was significantly effective in enhancing the seismic performance of the building model. The fiber-reinforced building models performed up to 2.64 times better than the unreinforced model as far as the first crack strength was concerned (in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA)). Similarly, the augmentation in the peak strength (in terms of PGA) was observed to be up to 248 % when compared with the unreinforced building model. The failures of reinforced building models were gradual and ductile in nature, unlike the sudden failure of their unreinforced counterparts. The crack widths formed in reinforced models were smaller compared to unreinforced building models. On the whole, using waste fiber as reinforcement in mortar mix augmented the seismic performance of masonry building models as well as proved to be cost-effective (increase in the total cost less than 4 %), easy to use, and environment-friendly.