Evaluation of strength and durability of lean concrete mixes containing marble waste as fine aggregate

Abstract

The extraction of marble and its processing as marble blocks is most common in several states of India. But the extensive growth of this industry has put adverse impact on the environment because of the production of huge amount of marble waste during extraction and processing. This experimental study highlights the impact of use of marble waste on the properties of lean concrete mix designed for the production of bricks. The basic objective of this experimental programme is to replace river sand in concrete by an optimum combination of quarry dust and marble waste in order to extract best performance in terms of strength and durability parameters. By varying the percentage replacement of fine aggregate with marble waste (0–100%), six concrete mix proportions were prepared for experimental purpose. The result shows that all these properties improved for complete substitution of fine aggregate with marble waste. It was found that compressive strength and flexural strength increased by 84% and 18.6%, respectively. The mixes were less reactive to the aggressive agents also. These advantages were derived due to the ability of marble fines impart necessary cohesiveness even at lesser water content which resulted in an impermeable microstructure.

Keywords:

• Concrete
• marble waste
• water absorption
• sulphate attack
• acid attack