Reusing ceramic tile polishing waste in paving block manufacturing

Ceramic companies worldwide produce large amounts of polishing tile waste, which are piled up in the open air or disposed of in landfills. These wastes have such characteristics that make them potential substitutes for cement and sand in the manufacturing of concrete products. This paper investigates the use of ceramic tile polishing waste as a partial substitute for cement and sand in the manufacturer of concrete paving blocks. A concrete mix design was defined and then the sand was replaced with wastes from three production lines (porcelain tile, porous tile and stoneware tile) of a Brazilian ceramic tile industry in the percentages of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Another group of concrete was produced with porcelain tile waste replacing the cement. The concretes were characterized using a slump test. Paving blocks were produced and subjected to compression strength, water absorption and porosity tests. Compression strength values were compared to Brazilian Standards for paving blocks. A reduction in slump was observed for all concretes as the percentage of waste addition increased, in relation to the control concrete. The compression strength values were higher for concrete cured for 28 days, and all blocks met the standard requirement of 35 MPa for light vehicle traffic at a curing age of 7 days. The strength values obtained when the porcelain tile waste replaced sand were higher than when this waste replaced cement, and those values were even higher than the control concrete, and met the standard requirement of 50 MPa for heavy vehicle traffic. Water absorption values tended to decrease as sand was replaced by ceramic tile wastes, due to the filler effect. These results show that it is possible to replace 30% of fine aggregate or 20% of cement with ceramic tile wastes and produce paving blocks suitable for use in heavy vehicle traffic. Thus, this research demonstrates that the use of ceramic tile waste as a component of concrete for paving blocks manufacturing is technically feasible.

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