Abstract
A primary concern of conventional Portland cement concrete (PCC) is associated with the massive amount of global cement and natural coarse aggregates (NCA) consumption, which causes depletion of natural resources on the one hand and ecological problems on the other. As a result, the concept of green concrete (GC), by replacing cement with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), and metakaolin (MK), or replacing NCA with recycled coarse aggregates, can play an essential role in addressing the environmental threat of PCC. Currently, there is a growing body of literature that emphasizes the importance of implementing GC in concrete applications. Therefore, this paper has conducted a systematic literature review through the peer-reviewed literature database Scopus. A total of 114 papers were reviewed that cover the following areas: (1) sustainability benefits of GC, (2) mechanical behavior of GC in terms of compressive strength, (3) durability properties of GC under several environmental exposures, (4) structural performance of GC in large-scale reinforced beams under shear and flexure, and (5) analytical investigation that compares the GC shear capacities of previously tested beams with major design codes and proposed models. Based on this review, the reader will be able to select the optimum replacement level of cement with one of the SCMs to achieve a certain concrete strength range that would suit a certain concrete application. Also, the analysis of durability performance revealed that the addition of SCMs is not recommended in concrete exposed to a higher temperature than 400 °C. Moreover, combining GGBFS with FA in a concrete mix was noticed to be superior to PCC in terms of long-term resistance to sulfate attack. The single most striking observation to emerge from the data comparison of the experimentally tested beams with the available concrete shear design equations is that the beams having up to 70% of FA as a replacement to OPC or up to 100% of RCA as a replacement to NCA were conservatively predicted by the equations of Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE-1997), the American Concrete Institute (ACI 318-19), and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA-A23.3-14).
Highlights
One is reducing the depletion of natural resources by partial replacement of natural coarse aggregates (NCA) with recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) generated from the construction and demolition (C&D) wastes. Another approach is by partial substitution of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with waste supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), which were categorized according to Liew et al [32] in three groups: 1—industrial wastes such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash (FA), and silica fume (SF), 2—agricultural wastes such as rice husk ash (RHA), corncob ash (CA), and sawdust ash (SA), and 3—municipal wastes such as glass and plastics
Knowing that Portland cement concrete (PCC) production is one of the leading causes of global warming and that there are extensive efforts worldwide to achieve a sustainable environment, this study aims to contribute to the growing research area of green concrete (GC) by conducting a comprehensive review on the sustainability, strength, and durability properties of GC to check for its feasibility as an eco-friendly and structural material instead of the PCC
At 28 days, concrete strength of the range 40 to 60 MPa can be achieved when water binder (W/b) is by reacting with the hydrated lime to densify the microstructure of concrete, of the range 0.3 to 0.4 and when the replacement ratio of GGBFS is ranging from 20%
Summary
More land areas are being occupied and polluted when disposing C&D wastes into landfills [19,20] With this in mind, the global annual consumption of natural coarse aggregates (NCA) has reached 40 billion tons [21], and it is annually increasing by 5%, whereas the highest consumption was concentrated in Asia and the Pacific [22]. One is reducing the depletion of natural resources by partial replacement of NCA with recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) generated from the C&D wastes Another approach is by partial substitution of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with waste supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), which were categorized according to Liew et al [32] in three groups: 1—industrial wastes such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash (FA), and silica fume (SF), 2—agricultural wastes such as RHA, corncob ash (CA), and sawdust ash (SA), and 3—municipal wastes such as glass and plastics. Cellulose nanocrystals are other green materials extracted from plants and Materials 2021, 14, 351 trees, which when partially substituted by OPC can cause a significant reduction in CO2 consumption with improved compressive strength and fracture properties of concrete [33]
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