Use of waste marble and recycled aggregates in self-compacting concrete for environmental sustainability

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, due to an increase in marble and concrete production, emerged wastes are disposed into empty fields. This waste causes environmental pollution. In this study, the use of marble waste (MW) and recycled aggregate (RA) from crushed concrete in the production of SCC was investigated. Control series were produced with crushed limestone aggregate (LS) in different water to binder ratios. Then, LS was replaced with MW or RA in ratio of 100%. Fresh concrete experiments such as slump-flow, the J-ring test, unit weight and air content were carried out. Furthermore, compressive strength, splitting-tensile strength, stress–strain relationship, modulus of elasticity and ultrasonic pulse velocity experiments on the hardened specimens were carried out, and mechanical properties of all the concrete types were compared. According to the results obtained, workability of SCC such as flow-ability, blocking resistance and segregation resistance is increased by use of pieces of MW instead of LS. Moreover, important differences were not observed in the mechanical properties of SCC by using MW and RA. For this reason, crushed marble stone and recycled coarse aggregates that were obtained using lower energy than that required for obtaining the LS, can be used in the SCC.