Strength Development and Physical Properties of Cement Paste with Incorporated Ceramic Powder

Abstract

A possible usage of fine waste ceramic powder coming from precise brick cutting in production of blended cement is analyzed in the paper. For the studied ceramic powder, chemical and mineralogical composition is measured by X-Ray Fluorescence and X-Ray Diffraction. The particle size distribution of ceramic powder is accessed on laser diffraction principle. The ceramic powder is used in cement based pastes composition in cement mass replacements of 8, 16, 24, 32, and 40%. For the tested pastes, monitoring of strength development is done using measurement of time dependent mechanical parameters. Bulk density, matrix density, and total open porosity are measured for 28 days cured samples. In order to obtain information on the rate of hydration process, the formation of pastes’ solid structure is monitored using measurement of pore size distribution at chosen times of hydration. Application of waste ceramics is found to give the most promising mechanical properties of the cement-based paste for 8 and 16% cement replacement levels what makes good prerequisites for future research that will be focused on design and development of new types of cement-based composites with incorporated ceramic waste powder. However, also other tested mixtures provide acceptable results. This knowledge can be used for instance in the production of lower strength composites.