Characterization of some key industrial waste products for sustainable concrete production

Abstract

The use of environmentally friendly or green concrete to enable worldwide infrastructural development without increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is at the focal point of the global issues concerning sustainability. Aside from the concerted efforts by the key players in the construction industry to successfully replace in part or in whole, the conventional Portland cement with green or eco-friendly cementitious materials, the challenges of ensuring that the so called green or eco-friendly concrete performs up to the required expectation has been the focus of many researches. This study therefore, provides an overview of the various processing techniques for the industrial waste materials as well as the determination of the physical and chemical characteristics of the powders prepared from the respective waste materials. The materials were characterized using BET surface area analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Chemical analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), 45-μm wet sieving, 75-μm and 150-μm dry sieving, Specific gravity using density bottle and reactivity index (RI). The results show that FA and PBC are very similar in terms of their physical and chemical characteristic in comparism with POFA. Notwithstanding, all the materials satisfy the basic requirements of the relevant ASTM specifications and also falls within the limit specified by ASTM C 618 for class F fly ash.