Sustainable utilisation of ceramic waste in concrete: Exposure to adverse conditions

Abstract

A large amount of ceramic waste is produced in the form of deformed or broken ceramic products. A suitable waste recycling outlet for ceramic waste is to replace natural fine aggregates in concrete. One of the concerns with using alternative building materials is the durability performance under adverse environmental conditions. The present research utilised fine bone china ceramic aggregate (FBA) as fine aggregate at different levels of replacement (20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%). Investigations were done to determine the voids percentage, depth of wear due to abrasion, changes in mass and compressive strength due to freeze–thaw cycles, resistance against drying–wetting cycles, chloride penetration and corrosion. The mixes with 40% and 60% FBA content were found to have the least embodied energy and emission of embodied carbon dioxide. From an economic point of view, the concrete mix with 100% FBA content was found to be the most economical. The results indicated that fine bone china ceramic waste can be utilised as aggregate to produce durable and resilient concrete. © 2018