Abstract
In this study, the researchers investigated the potential use of locally available waste materials from the lime stone quarry and the granite industry as a partial replacement of cement. Quarry sites and granite industry in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia produces tons of powder wastes in the form of quarry dust (QD) and granite sludge (GS), respectively, causing serious environmental problems along with frequent dust storms in the area. According to ASTM C109, identical 50-mm3 specimens were cast throughout this study to evaluate the compressive strength development of mortars (7, 28 and 91 days) containing these waste materials. Experimental variables included different percentage replacement of cement with waste materials (GS, QD), fineness of GS, various curing temperatures (20, 40 and 60 °C as local normal and hot environmental temperatures) and curing moisture (continuously moist and partially moist followed by air curing). Finally, the results of mortar containing waste materials were compared to corresponding results of control mortar (CM) and mortar containing fly ash (FA). The test results indicated that under normal curing (20 °C, moist cured), the compressive strength of mortar containing the different percentage of waste materials (QD, GS, FA and their combinations) remained lower than that of CM at all ages. However, the compressive strength of mortar containing waste materials slightly increased with increased fineness of GS and significantly increased under high curing temperatures. It was recommended that more fineness of GS be achieved to use its high percentage replacement with cement (30% or more) incorporating local environmental conditions.
Highlights
Most of the developed and underdeveloped countries are experiencing the serious problems of dumping non-biodegradable and industrial wastes
The sum of SiO2, Al2 O3 and Fe2 O3 is 84.65%, which is more than the min requirement of 70%; the amount of SO3 is 0.10, which is less than the max limit of 4.0; and the loss on ignition (LOI) is 2.71, which is less than the max limit of 10.0 (Table 2)
The results of this study have clearly demonstrated that the rates of curing strength temperatures, which might be due to their different pozzolanic potentials and filling/packing effects
Summary
Most of the developed and underdeveloped countries are experiencing the serious problems of dumping non-biodegradable and industrial wastes. High transportation cost and environmental issues of waste materials have forced worldwide researchers to explore appropriate green solutions for dealing with such wastes. The issue of depletion and overexploitation of available natural resources has alerted the construction industry to look for alternatives. The building construction industry consumes a huge amount of naturally available materials and is responsible for about 24% of the total materials mined [1]. Concrete is the most widely-used material for building construction all over the world. In 2006 alone, the annual global production of concrete was around
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