Mechanical, thermal and chemical properties of spent black tea doped concrete

Abstract

Abstract The use of waste materials in concrete has been accelerated around the world recently. In this study, thermal and compressive strength properties of concrete doped with black tea waste are studied to assess the availability of using this type of waste in concrete. Black tea waste with 0.3 and 0.5 vol.-% were added to concrete mixtures. Thermal conductivity and effusivity of concrete with black tea waste were evaluated firstly, and load-bearing capacity of this biomass doped concrete were also investigated by the compressive test and Schmidt hammer test. The results showed that using black tea waste with 0.3 vol.-% slightly decreased the compressive strength of concrete whereas there was a considerable decrease in thermal conductivity. However, using black tea waste with 0.5 vol.-% causes an obvious decrease in compressive strength and a decrease in thermal conductivity of concrete which is not directly proportional with the amount of black tea. Therefore, with a small toleration of loss of compressive strength, black tea waste doped concrete can be produced with high volume fractions in order to have concrete samples with good thermal insulation for research purposes.