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Sulfur concrete made with waste marble and slag powders: 100% recycled and waterless concrete

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Abstract

In this research, the mechanical properties and durability of sulfur concrete with two different waste aggregates were evaluated. The waste aggregates included ground granulated blast-furnace slag and waste marble powder. The properties of sulfur concrete were also compared with those of the conventional binder concretes (i.e., Portland cement concrete and sulfate-resistant cement concrete). The durability parameters included measuring water absorption capacity and resistance to different harsh chemical environments (5% HCl solution, 5 Molar NaOH solution, and 16% NaCl solution). It was found that sulfur concrete made with slag as aggregate exhibited the maximum strength, i.e., about 2 times higher than that of Portland cement concrete and sulfate-resistant cement concrete. Sulfur concrete made with slag and marble waste powder showed superior mechanical performance compared to that made with river sand. Thus, sulfur binder develops more favorable properties with eco-friendly fillers than it develops with natural sand. In harsh chloride and acidic environment, sulfur concrete with slag powder exhibited about 90–95% lesser mass loss than Portland cement concrete.

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Data availability

All data is present in the paper.

Abbreviations

SC:

Sulfur concrete

RS:

River sand

WMP:

Waste marble powder

GGBS:

Ground-granulated blast furnace slag

PCC:

Portland cement concrete

SRC:

Sulfate-resistant cement concrete

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Scholar, Department of Transportation Engineering and Management, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Faisal Rasheed & Abdur Rahim

  2. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Muhammad Irfan-ul-Hassan

  3. Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Islamabad, 57000, Pakistan

    Babar Ali

  4. Research Scholar, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

    Nazam Ali

  5. Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, 54770, Pakistan

    Nazam Ali

Authors
  1. Muhammad Faisal Rasheed
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  2. Abdur Rahim
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  3. Muhammad Irfan-ul-Hassan
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  4. Babar Ali
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  5. Nazam Ali
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Contributions

MFR: investigation, data curation, software, writing and editing original draft; AR: conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis, writing, reviewing and methodology; MI: formal analysis, investigation BA: formal analysis, writing and reviewing, validation NA: methodology, validation.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Faisal Rasheed.

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Rasheed, M.F., Rahim, A., Irfan-ul-Hassan, M. et al. Sulfur concrete made with waste marble and slag powders: 100% recycled and waterless concrete. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 65655–65669 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20456-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20456-y

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