Relevance of Ornamental Stone Residues in the Manufacture of Concrete Blocks for Structural Masonry

Abstract

The civil construction industry in Brazil is an ever growing sector with relevant participation in the country’s economy. On the other hand, this sector, technically, is among those that generate the largest amount of undesirable rejects, waste and residues. Some of these residues are highly detrimental to the environment not only because of landscape degradation but also the possibility of pollution to rivers and lakes as well as ground waters. A typical example is that of the ornamental stone industry, which generates granite and marble residues from the several processing stages. Therefore the aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of direct addition of this kind of residues in concrete blocks for different applications in housing masonry. It was found that blocks added with 20 wt% of residue possess relatively higher compression strength in association with convenient water absorption below those presented by residue-free traditional blocks.