Reusing ceramic wastes in concrete

doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.10.023

Construction and Building Materials

Volume 24, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 832-838

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.10.023 Get rights and content

Abstract

The ceramic industry is known to generate large amounts of calcined-clay wastes each year. So far a huge part is used in landfills. Reusing these wastes in concrete could be a win–win situation. For one hand by solving the ceramic industry waste problem and at the same time leading to a more sustainable concrete industry by reducing the use of non renewable resources like cement and aggregates and avoiding environmental problems related to land filled wastes. This paper examines the feasibility of using ceramic wastes in concrete. Results show that concrete with 20% cement replacement although it has a minor strength loss possess increase durability performance. Results also show that concrete mixtures with ceramic aggregates perform better than the control concrete mixtures concerning compressive strength, capillary water absorption, oxygen permeability and chloride diffusion thus leading to more durable concrete structures.

Introduction

In Europe the amount of wastes in the different production stages of the ceramic industry reaches some 3–7% of its global production meaning millions of tons of calcined-clays per year that are just land filled [1]. With increasing restrictions on landfills in European Union area, the cost of deposition will increase and the industries will have to find ways for reusing their wastes. Although the reutilization of ceramic wastes has been practiced, the amount of wastes reused in that way is still negligible. Hence, the need for its application in other industries is becoming absolutely vital. Construction industry as the end user of almost all the ceramic materials is well posed to solve this environmental problem which is partially its own. The nature of construction industry, especially the concrete industry, is such that ceramic wastes can be used safely with no need for dramatic change in production and application process. On one hand, the cost of deposition of ceramic waste in landfill will be saved and, on the other, raw materials and natural resources will be replaced, thus saving energy and protecting the environment. According to some authors the best way for the construction industry to become a more sustainable one is by using wastes from other industries as building materials [2], [3]. The production of cement requires high energy input (850 kcal per kg of clinker) and implies the extraction of large quantities of raw materials from the earth (1.7 tonnes of rock to produce 1 tonne of clinker). On the other hand the production of one tonne of cement generates 0.55 tonnes of chemical CO₂ and requires an additional 0.39 tonnes of CO₂ in fuel emissions, accounting for a total of 0.94 tonnes of CO₂ [4]. Therefore, the replacement of cement in concrete by ceramic wastes represents a tremendous saving of energy and has important environmental benefits. Besides, it will also have a major effect on decreasing concrete costs, since the cost of cement represents more than 45% of the concrete cost. Several authors already confirmed the pozzolanic reactivity of ceramic waste powder [5], [6], [7], nevertheless, research carried out so far are scarce and do not evaluate concrete durability performance which is a key issue. The same could be said about investigations concerning the use of ceramic aggregates in concrete [8], [9]. Consequently the aim of this research project is the assessment of strength and durability of ceramic wastes based concrete.

Section snippets

Materials and concrete mix design

Ceramic wastes can be separated in two categories in accordance with the source of raw materials. The first one are all fired wastes generated by the structural ceramic factories that use only red pastes to manufacture their products, such as brick, blocks and roof tiles. The second one is all fired waste produced in stoneware ceramic such as wall, floor tiles and sanitary ware. These producers use red and white pastes, nevertheless, the usage of white paste is more frequent and much higher in

Compressive strength

The results obtained indicate, as expected, large differences in early curing ages and smaller differences at long curing ages (Fig. 3). The concrete mixture with 20% of CB waste has the highest mechanical performance for all ceramic wastes which means it has the higher pozzolanic reactivity. The concrete mixture with WSOF wastes has the worst mechanical performance at early ages, representing 74.8% of control strength for 7 days curing. For 28 days curing that concrete mixture has almost 80% of

Conclusions

Results show that concrete with ceramic waste powder although has a minor strength loss possess increase durability performance because of its pozzolanic properties. Results also show that replacement of traditional sand by ceramic sand is a good option because it does not imply strength loss and has a superior durability performance. As for the replacement of traditional coarse aggregates by ceramic coarse aggregates, the results are promising but underperformed slightly in water absorption

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Reusing ceramic wastes in concrete

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials and concrete mix design

Compressive strength

Conclusions

Cem Concr Res

Cement Concr Compos

Waste Manage

Waste Manage

Construct Build Mater

Construct Build Mater

Cem Concr Res

Construct Build Mater

Nucl Eng Des

Cem Concr Res