Properties and Sustainability of Ceramic Waste Concrete

Abstract

—The utilization of different types of industrial wastes is considered an essential tool to achieve sustainable development and reduce the environmental deterioration. Ceramic Waste Powder (CWP) is a by-product of the ceramic industry, resulting from polishing of ceramic tiles. The utilization of CWP will not only reduce the dumped solid waste and the required landfills, but it can also be utilized as a supplementary cementitious material in concrete, as a cement replacement, which will increase the sustainability and help protecting the environment for the future generations. CWP was used as a partial replacement of cement in different percentages (0%, 15%, 30% and 45%) with two W/C ratios (0.4 and 0.6). Fresh and hardened concrete properties were examined and tested such as (slump, unit weight, compressive strength, split tensile strength, absorption, and electrical resistivity). Also, the characteristics of CWP were investigated (chemical composition analysis, particle size distribution and pozzolanic reactivity). XRF analysis of CWP showed a good indication of being a pozzolanic material by having more than 70% silicon oxide (SiO 2 ). It was found that the introduction of CWP shows improvement and acceptable results in concrete properties. The optimum value of 15% resulted in increasing compressive strength, increasing tensile strength, reducing absorption, increasing modulus of elasticity and toughness, and improving electrical resistivity and corrosion rate. Higher values, up to 30%, maybe also used for greener more sustainable concrete with an acceptable reduction in properties.