Mechanical and environmental performances of an epoxy-resin-based recycled artificial stone containing hazardous sediment

Abstract

Solidifying and stabilizing hazardous sediment from petrochemical activities are not only expensive but make also high-volume waste to landfills. Parallel, finding alternative aggregates with lower costs can reduce the capital cost of artificial stone. For the first time, a combination of hazardous sediments and stone waste was used as aggregates to produce the recycled artificial stones. Furthermore, the target of this study is to evaluate the behavior of these recycled artificial stones under external forces and weathering, as well as in the acid environment. In order to evaluate the properties of the stones containing hazardous sediment, the compressive strength, the brightness variation, and water absorption under UV radiation, 60 cycles of salt attack, 60 cycles of freezing and thawing, and 60 cycles of thermal shock cycles were evaluated. In order to assess the leaching of heavy metals, according to the US toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and DIN38414-S4, two leaching tests were used to evaluate the leaching of the heavy metals under rainfall and acid environment, like soil. In order to conduct leaching tests, three spices from the crushed zone of the stone under compressive test were used. The results show that the stones have suitable performance in comparison to the performance of the artificial stone containing nonhazardous sand, travertine stone, and treated travertine stone using epoxy resin and nanocomposite. Based on the results, P90HSa10Eb25T25, with 39.3 MPa compressive strength, 3.02 color variation under 60 cycles of salt attack, and 1.59 color variation under UV radiation, has the best performance among the recycled artificial stones.