Using marble waste as a partial aggregate replacement in the development of sustainable self-compacting concrete

Abstract

Increased population growth and industrial development have increased production in various industries, resulting in increased waste production. Increasing consumption of non-renewable resources poses an inherent risk to future generations. In order to reduce the consumption of these valuable resources, a variety of methods can be used, one of which is the use of waste produced by various industries. This research investigated the feasibility of employing waste from marble mining byproducts to make structural concrete. This study replaced various percentages of marble with fine aggregates to determine their effects on compressive strength, bending strength, impact behavior, and water absorption of sustainable self-compacting concrete (SCC). Regarding the effects of recycled marble aggregates on mechanical properties, it has been discovered that substituting marble waste with sand can increase compressive and flexural strength. It has been determined, via testing on disk samples, that the amount of steel fibers have a much greater effect on the impact resistance of the specimens than the amount of recycled components. Fiber bridging has been shown to significantly affect the final strength of specimens containing fibers and the number of blows required for the first surface fracture to appear in fiber-containing specimens. This is in comparison to the sample that served as the reference. In addition to this, increasing the replacement percentage of recycled aggregates in the specimens causes them to have a greater resistance to the impact loads applied to them. In examining the effect of replacing marble aggregates on water absorption, it was found that no specific trend could be indentified. Based on the findings, it was determined that SCC with recycled marble aggregate performed satisfactorily.