Construction and Building Materials: Valeria Corinaldesi, Giacomo Moriconi, Tarun R. Naik
Construction and Building Materials: Valeria Corinaldesi, Giacomo Moriconi, Tarun R. Naik
Construction and Building Materials: Valeria Corinaldesi, Giacomo Moriconi, Tarun R. Naik
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: A powder obtained as a by-product of marble sawing and shaping was characterized from a chemical and
Received 15 January 2009 physical point of view in order to use it as mineral addition for mortars and concretes, especially for self-
Received in revised form 26 June 2009 compacting concrete. This marble powder showed a very high Blaine fineness value of about 1500 m2/kg,
Accepted 5 August 2009
with 90% of particles finer than 50 lm and 50% under 7 lm. For rheological studies, several cement pastes
Available online 11 September 2009
were prepared using marble powder, with and without the addition of an acrylic-based superplasticizer.
Water to cementitious materials ratio was also varied. In order to evaluate the effects of the marble pow-
Keywords:
der on mechanical behaviour, many different mortar mixtures were tested, all prepared with sand to
Marble
Mineral addition
cement ratio of 3:1 at about the same workability. Mixtures were evaluated based upon cement or sand
Mortar substitution by the marble powder. Results obtained show that 10% substitution of sand by the marble
Paste powder provided maximum compressive strength at about the same workability.
Rheology Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Recycling
Self-compacting concrete
The marble has been commonly used as a building material In this study very fine marble powder was used. It was obtained
since ancient times. Disposal of the marble powder material of as a by-product of marble sawing and shaping. It was characterized
the marble industry, consisting of very fine powder, is one of the from a physical and chemical point of view for evaluating the pos-
environmental problems worldwide today. sibility of using it in mortar and concrete production. The test re-
In this work, a marble powder, obtained as a by-product of mar- sults indicate that due to high fineness of the marble powder, it
ble sawing and shaping, was characterized from a physical and was very effective in assuring very good cohesiveness of mortar
chemical point of view for evaluating the possibility of using it in and concrete. This research should lead to proper use of such mate-
mortar and concrete production. rials for sustainable use of otherwise discarded materials.
Mineral additions in general influence the performance of fresh
concrete and mortar. Therefore, a rheological study was carried out 3. Materials
on various cement pastes prepared with marble powder in combi-
nation with cement, and eventually, also, with a superplasticizing 3.1. Portland cement
0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.08.013
114 V. Corinaldesi et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 113–117
Nomenclature
d50 particle diameter for which the cumulative volume is sy yield stress (Pa, or psi)
50% (lm, or in.) g plastic viscosity (Pa s, or psi s)
d90 particle diameter for which the cumulative volume is D shear rate (s1)
90% (lm, or in.)
s shear stress (Pa, or psi)
A marble powder was used, which was obtained as a by-product of marble saw-
ing and shaping. Its relative density was 2.55 and the value of Blaine fineness was
1500 m2/kg. It can be observed that the marble powder had a high specific surface
area; this could mean that its addition should confer more cohesiveness to mortars
and concretes [4,5].
For better physical characterization of the marble powder, its grain size distri-
bution was performed using laser diffraction. From the graph shown in Fig. 1, it can
be observed that 50% particles had a diameter lower than 7 lm (d50 = 7 lm) and
90% of particles had a diameter lower than 50 lm (d90 = 50 lm).
The marble powder is produced as ‘‘slurry”, a mud made of powder and water.
Therefore, for its use in concrete it is important to know how much water is con-
tained in the slurry, by drying it and registering the weight loss related to water
evaporation. A known weight of slurry was put in an oven to dry at a temperature
of 110 ± 5 °C. At fixed intervals (1 h, 4 h, 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h) the weight loss was
registered with the aim to reach a constant weight. The results obtained are re-
ported in Fig. 2. It is evident from the graph that the sample loses water quickly
and reaches the constant weight after about 24 h.
In order to characterize the marble powder from a chemical point of view, ther- Fig. 2. Weight loss of the marble powder slurry verses time.
mal analysis and X-ray diffraction were carried out. Thermal analysis carried out
show that the examined material contains about 66% of calcium carbonate, CaCO3.
As a matter of fact, as it can be observed in Fig. 3, a sharp weight loss (corresponding
to the flex of the DTA curve) occurs from about 730 °C–900 °C while strong heat
absorption was detected. This was due to the decomposition reaction of calcite,
which is endothermic. X-ray diffraction analysis, Fig. 4, shows the presence of
quartz, which could be estimated at about 3%, and ankerite (ferroan dolomite) at
about 2%. The remaining part of the marble powder consist of amorphous silica
or silicates, coming from natural stones other than marble, whose low crystallinity
(making them mostly undetectable by X-ray diffraction) may be due to mechanical
processing (sawing and shaping).
Fig. 1. Grain size distribution of the marble powder by laser diffraction. Fig. 4. X-ray diffraction of the marble powder.
V. Corinaldesi et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 113–117 115
Table 1
Paste mixture proportions.
s ¼ sy þ g D ð1Þ
where s is the shear stress (Pa), sy is the yield stress (Pa), g is the Fig. 7. Yield Stress values vs. time.
plastic viscosity (Pa s), and D is the shear rate (s1).
The slope of the down-curve (decreasing shear rate) was used to
calculate the plastic viscosity, while the intercept at zero shear rate ment of 0.5 but in absence of superplasticizer. On the other hand,
was used to calculate the yield stress (see Fig. 6). when the water to cement ratio was 0.5 and the superplasticizing
In Fig. 7, the mean value of the measured yield stress values on admixture was added, even at the low dosage (0.5% by weight of
three samples are plotted as a function of time. It is evident that cement), the yield stress was very low, less than zero, thus imply-
the pastes prepared with marble powder, superplasticizing admix- ing low cohesiveness of the related mortars and concretes, partic-
ture, and water/cement of 0.4 showed the highest values of the ularly for self-compacting concretes.
yield stress, more than 40 Pa. Quite high values also were obtained In Fig. 8 the mean value of the measured plastic viscosity values
for the cement pastes prepared with marble powder and water/ce- on three samples are plotted as a function of time. Also in this case,
the same hierarchy of yield stress values was maintained among
the various cement pastes.
For maximum segregation resistance, the yield stress of the
paste should be high [1–3,9] and the difference in density between
the aggregate and the paste should be low. If the density of the
aggregate particle is greater than the density of the cement paste,
segregation will occur to some extent. However, if the plastic vis-
cosity of the matrix were high enough the velocity of the falling
aggregate particle would be so slow that segregation would be
avoided [9]. On the basis of the results reported in Figs. 7 and 8,
it can be seen that in the presence of a superplasticizing admixture
(e.g., for preparing self-compacting concrete), the addition of mar-
ble powder is very effective in improving segregation resistance
provided that water/cement is lower than 0.5. Otherwise, a viscos-
Fig. 5. Typical shear stress (s) verses shear rate (D) of Newtonian or Bingham fluid ity-modifying agent should be added to the mixture for adjusting
(A); thixotropy measured by the hysteresis area (B). its rheological behaviour [11–13].
116 V. Corinaldesi et al. / Construction and Building Materials 24 (2010) 113–117
Table 2
Mortar mixture proportions.
8. Conclusions
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