Mechanical performance of concrete with incorporation of coarse waste from the marble industry

The waste resulting from marble extraction process is usually disposed of in landfills or dumps and its accumulation is causing serious environmental and landscaping problems. One way of reusing marble waste is to consider its incorporation in structural concrete as a non-primary aggregate. This research work attempts to alleviate the situation and provide information on the mechanical performance of concrete as a function of the replacement ratio of primary aggregates (PA) with coarse waste marble aggregates (CMA). Three concrete families, including reference concrete (RC) mixes, were studied that were made with primary aggregates of basalt (BCA), limestone (LCA) and granite (GCA) (these are the main sources of primary aggregates in the southern and central parts of Portugal), and concrete mixes with replacement ratios of 20%, 50% and 100% of PA by CMA. To evaluate their quality and mechanical performance mixes were tested for: slump (in the Abrams cone test), specific density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, Young's modulus of elasticity and resistance to abrasion. The results suggest a tendency for the values of all mechanical properties to decline. However, this tendency is clearly weaker than those observed for the majority of the research involving other types of non-primary recycled aggregates, which are already used in certain proportions in structural concrete, according to the limits imposed by the standards and specifications. The mechanical properties of concrete made with CMA were assessed within the scope of concurrent work also undertaken at Instituto Superior Tecnico (Lisbon, Portugal), concerning the durability-related materials of the same type of concrete.