Utilizing Red Mud as a Partial Replacement for Cement in High- Performance Concrete: Assessing Mechanical and Durability Properties

Abstract

Bauxite residue (Red mud) is one of the industrial caustic waste materials obtained from alumina production. Because of high annual production, it requires high costs and vast landfills to dispose it. In addition, due to high alkalinity, disposal of red mud (RM) may cause serious environmental problems. Considering use of concrete beside economic and environmental issues of cement production, replacing cement by industrial waste seems inevitable. In this study, RM has been used as high as 10% replacement of cement mass in order to study the performance of this waste material in high performance concrete (HPC) in terms of their mechanical properties, 5-10% of the cement in concrete was replaced with red mud, in increments of 2.5%. In addition, to enhance the pozzolanic reaction. A slump cone test was conducted to evaluate the workability. Compressive, flexural, and split tensile strength tests were conducted to observe the mechanical properties. A rapid chloride penetration test and water absorption tests were conducted to determine the durability properties of the concrete