High performance concrete incorporating ceramic waste powder as large partial replacement of Portland cement

Abstract Ceramic waste powder (CWP) is produced during ceramic tile polishing with potential environmental pollution. CWP is silica-rich, alumina-rich and fine particle size material. High performance concrete (HPC) mixtures incorporating 10–40% CWP as replacement of Portland cement by mass were evaluated. Mechanical, durability and microstructural investigations of HPC mixtures were performed. It is shown that concrete incorporating CWP as large replacement of cement has high strength and excellent durability. Microstructure investigations showed that incorporating CWP did not make significant difference in cement hydration compared with cement without CWP. Performance improvement is explained by the low water/cement ratio of the reference mixture enabling CWP to create dense packing particles.