Eco-friendly mortar: Optimum combination of wood ash, crumb rubber, and fine crushed glass

Abstract

Globally, green, and recycled materials are attracting the imagination and the creativity required leading to innovative civil engineering applications. Waste materials in mortar mix are gaining popularity and are commonly utilized in civil engineering works. Investigating the properties of waste materials as partial replacements and substitutes for components in mortar applications is of great interest. Throughout this study, mortar specimens were investigated with mix design in which cement and sand are partially substituted with wood ash, crumb rubber, and fine crushed glass.A total of 540 mortar specimens were evaluated at 7, 14, and 28 days for the flexural strength and compressive strength. The first combined mortar mix was realized from the combination of 4% wood ash as partial cement replacement, and 20 % wood ash, and 2% crumb rubber as partial sand replacement, and resulted in an increase of 12.65 % in the flexural strength and 32.23 % in the compressive strength at 28 days while incorporating 14.52 % waste by weight. The second combined mortar mix that was realized from the combination of 4% wood ash as partial cement replacement, and 30 % wood ash, 30 % fine crushed glass, and 2% crumb rubber as partial sand replacement, resulted in an increase of 28.72 % in the flexural strength and 27.81 % in the compressive strength at 28 days while incorporating 40.61 % waste by weight. The significance of this research is that this study investigated the efficacy of the combined utilization of wood ash as partial cement replacement, and wood ash, fine crushed glass, and crumb rubber as partial sand replacements in mortar mixes without adding any chemical treatments or additives thus remaining faithful to producing an eco-friendly mortar mix.