Study on Marble Dust Powder as Partial Replacement of Cement in Concrete

Abstract

Marble dust powder is a by-product of the marble processing industries which is generated during cutting, shaping and polishing process; already causing environmental problems around the marble processing industries. Due to the boosting of the construction activity in the country, a huge shortage is created in most of the construction materials especially cement, resulting in increase of price. Therefore, this research was conducted to examine the potential of marble dust powder as partial replacement of cement in concrete. Initially, marble dust powder samples were collected from Ethio-marble Processing Enterprise. Then marble dust powder was sieved until the particles passing the 90µm reaches more than 90%, which is similar to that of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). OPC was replaced by marble dust powder. Normal consistency and setting time of the pastes containing OPC and marble dust powder from 4% to 20% replacement were investigated. The compressive strength, flexural strength, tensile split strength and permeability of concrete containing OPC with marble dust powder from 4% to 20% replacements was also investigated. Six different concrete mixes with the replacing 0%, 4%, 8%, 12%, 16% and 20% of the OPC were prepared for characteristic strength of 25MPa concrete with water to cement ratio of 0.50 and 340kg/m3 cement content. Then the properties of these mixes have been assessed both at the fresh and hardened state. The results of the concrete work have shown that, up to 8% replacement of the OPC by marble dust powder achieved a higher compressive strength, whereas the 12%, 16% and 20% replacement of the cement by marble dust powder in the concrete have shown a slightly lower compressive strength. The water penetration depth was found to decrease as the marble dust powder content increases and all the blended concretes showed a lower maximum penetration depth than the control concrete. Therefore it can be concluded that 8% replacement of cement by marble dust powder shows satisfactory concrete properties and higher replacement could also be recommended with a slight reduction in the performance of the concrete.