Fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting repair mortar made with a new reduced carbon blended cement

Abstract

The present work investigates the effects of the use of waste brick as fine additive material =AM) by partial replacement to the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) on the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting repair mortar (SCRM) in order to produce a new reduced carbon blended cement. Waste brick which was available in a brick factory, was finely ground to obtain waste brick powder (WBP) before being incorporated in SCRM at substitution levels of 5%, 15% and 25%. SCM was tested at fresh state with mini slump flow and mini V-funnel flow time. At hardened state, compressive and flexural strengths and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) were measured. The results indicated that the particles size of WBP is coarser compared to the OPC. The use of WBP decreased the slump flow and increased in the same time the flow time. Including WBP in SCRM decreased not only the compressive and flexural strengths but also the UPV of SCM. WBP can be suitably used at replacement rate of 5 or 15% to produce a new reduced carbon blended cement. From environmental point of view, introducing WBP has a positive impact in decreasing the amount of CO2 released from cement plants into the atmosphere. Good correlations were found between strength and substitution levels of WBP.