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 plastic 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
..............................................................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