Man-made soils and mining wastes as raw materials for building composites

Abstract

The crucial task up to date is to find effective solutions to expand the raw material base of the construction industry by involving local natural and man-made raw materials instead of traditional expensive energy-intensive materials. An inexhaustible source of raw materials can be mining waste, such as dolomite and lime. Currently, they are large-tonnage industrial deposits that limit the area of development. The problems of strengthening man-made cohesive soils for the manufacture of wall materials, and their use as natural bases is also front and center. The optimal compositions of soil-concrete mixtures based on waste carbonate deposits are selected. The goal of this work was to design a composition of a complex binder for strengthening clay soil. The second goal of the work was to obtain masonry soil-concrete products. For this purpose, waste from the dolomite production of the Melekhovsky deposit was used. To solve the problems, authors carried out such tests as chemical analysis, mineralogical analysis, X-ray phase analysis, raster electron microscopy, compressive strength test, frost resistance test, and water resistance test. Comparing the obtained results, it is now becoming apparent that the compositions of GD-4 and GD-5 at close density values have high strength characteristics at design age. The content of dolomite waste above 30% leads to an increase in strength, the best results are achieved with a dolomite content of 34.6-45.3%, in this range also with increasing binder content, water absorption and density increase, and therefore porosity decreases. The phosphates that make up the composite increase its water resistance.