The effects on mechanical properties of sustainable use of waste andesite dust as a partial substitution of cement in cementitious composites

Abstract

The sludge waste generated during the cutting of andesite stones is stored in dust form after drying. The wide range of use and consumption of andesite creates the problem of storage of the resulting waste. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of using in cement-based composites in order to sustainably dispose of these wastes and recover them to the economy. For this purpose, in the present study, the mechanical and microstructural properties of cement-based composites produced by replacing waste andesite with cement at 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% by weight were experimentally investigated. The results obtained at ages 28 day and 90 day revealed that the waste andesite dust increased the pore structure of the mixtures due to its porous structure, and therefore, the substitution of waste andesite dust with cement at low substitution rates up to 15% gave more positive results. More approximate results were obtained in terms of compressive, flexural and tensile strengths in the cement-based samples produced with the 5 wt % substitution ratio of waste andesite dust with cement compared to the reference sample. In addition, in the samples produced by substituting 30% by weight with cement, the deflection and tensile strain capacities were increased by approximately 2.31 and 1.88 times, respectively, compared to the reference sample.