Sustainable Use of Brine Water in Concrete Cement Mixes Alter Compression-Bending Strengths

Abstract

Freshwater resources are limited and many regions worldwide are suffering from water shortage due to the rapid increase in population, industrialization and urbanization. Concrete production has shown to consume a substantial amount of water for mixing and curing, and this large consumption has sparked concerted efforts to find sustainable and environmental friendly alternatives for replacing freshwater in order to lower the pressure on water resources. The use of hypersaline by-product brine water discharged from desalination plant has been tested in cement mortar production in order to lower the pressure on water resources and reduce the environmental impact resulted from discharging this effluent to surrounding streams. Discharge brine water to surrounding stream can deteriorate physicochemical and ecological properties of receiving streams as well as accelerate degassing process of dissolved greenhouse gases by lowering solubility coefficient. Compression and Bending strength of cement mortar specimens have been tested after adding different percentages of brine water and with/without Alkali-Resistance Glass Fiber (ARGF). Samples have been cured for 7, 14, 21 and 28 days in 50.5mm×50.5mm×50.5mm cubes and tested using compression testing machine. Adding 3% ARGF to cement mortar mixes has increased 28 curing days bending strength (3 times) and has decreased compression strength 30%. It has been observed that using brine water with ARGF in cement mortar mixes will lower compression strength on the average of 22%±2 and will increase bending strength values 2.7 times. The results show that using ARGF and brine water in cement mortar production seems promising in improving environmental conditions and enhancing the mechanical property in many applications.