Sustainable Concrete Hollow Blocks Using Composite Waste Replacing Fired Clay Bricks—An Experimental Study

Abstract

The removal of topsoil from agricultural land and the use of low-quality fuel to produce fired clay bricks affect the environment, disturbing the ecological balance and contributing to climate change. This study has attempted to produce sustainable concrete hollow blocks by replacing OPC with a combination of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) (5–25% fly ash) optimally (10% silica fume and 5% recycled aggregate fine dust). Furthermore, 100% of the developed sustainable sand was added instead of natural sand. Based on the results, the highest compressive strength, 7.6 MPa, was achieved in the mix 15FASFRAHB with the combination SCMs (15% fly ash + 10% silica fume + 5% recycled aggregate fine dust), slightly higher (2.7%) than that of the reference mix NAHB*’s value of 7.4 MPa. All hollow block mixes also satisfied the tensile strength criterion (10–15% of f’c of NAHB*). This showed that they reached the acceptable strength limit for building hollow blocks. In addition, the SCMs effectively reduce the permeability coefficient (k) of sustainable concrete hollow block mixes. However, a direct correlation between the permeability coefficient (k) and compressive strength was not maintained. Finally, the best overall mix from this study, 15FASFRAHB, was with an optimal 30% SCMs and 100% sustainable sand. By using developed sustainable concrete hollow blocks in place of fired clay bricks (6.48 × 107 tons of CO2 emission), 1.2 × 109 tons of natural sand can be saved.