Granite Waste from Diamond Wire Sawing Addition into Concrete for Civil Construction

Abstract

The ornamental stone industry in Brazil is a major world producer of marble and granite with a significant amount being destined to foreign countries export. A considerable amount of waste is generated at the several stages of stone processing specially the sawing with the so called diamond wire technique. In the present work a granite waste from a diamond wire sawing was added into conventional mixture of cement, gravel and sand to fabricate concrete used in civil construction. The waste was chemically and mineralogically characterized by X-ray and its pozzolanic activity was evaluated. Concretes with 0, 10 and 20 wt% of waste were tested for the water absorption and mechanical strength as well as environmental behavior. The results indicated that up to 20 wt% addition, the granite waste does not change the concrete performance and attends its environmental requirements.