Influence of waste marble powder as a replacement of cement on the properties of mortar

Abstract

The demand for cement usage increases in the world, currently. It is known that using industrial waste materials in concrete as cement or aggregate replacement as part of waste management as well as conserving natural resources is getting wider. Due to these facts, in this work, an investigation was carried out on the utilization of waste marble powders as cement replacement mineral materials. In this context, marble powder replaced cement at 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% in mass basis, and mortars were produced. In mortar mixtures, water-binder ratio was chosen as 0.5, and sand-binder ratio was taken as 3. Workability of fresh mortar was measured. Unit weight, water absorption, and porosity, compressive and flexural strengths, abrasion, carbonation and drying shrinkage measurements testing were carried out on hardened mortar specimens. Influence of elevated temperature on hardened mortar mixture was also investigated. As a result of laboratory study, it is concluded that replacing marble powder with cement result with a favourable contribution to workability of fresh mortar, as well as resistance to elevated temperature. It also reduced drying shrinkage of mortar in comparison to reference mortar made without marble powder. However, it influenced water absorption, abrasion, and carbonation resistance of mortar, unfavourably. For short term curing duration, replacement of marble powder with cement reduced compressive strength insignificantly for 5% and 10% marble powder replacement, but, reduced it significantly for 15% and 20%. However, at long term curing at 90 days, the difference between strength of reference mortar and marble containing mortar was diminished, particularly for mortar containing 5% and 10% marble powder