Sustainable ferrocement mortar with different waste materials and curing methods

Abstract

In this study, the essential aim is to produce an environment-friendly ferrocement mortar using different waste internal curing materials and external curing methods. Wastes of broken bricks and porcelanite were used with different volumetric replacement percentages (5, 10 and 15%) of fine aggregate. Moreover, pozzolanic materials (silica fume and fly ash) were used. Besides to the water-cured reference mixture, four different curing methods (air, flan coat emulsified asphalt, wax sealing paint and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas) were used. The compressive and flexural strengths and densities of mortars of different ages (7, 14 and 28 days) were investigated. The outcomes demonstrate that the compressive strength of carbon dioxide cured ferrocement improved by 33.3 and 28% when 5 and 10% broken bricks were used and by 25.3 and 29% when 5 and 10% porcelanite were used, respectively, relative to that of the reference. The flexural strength was slightly improved when 10% porcelanite was used. The results demonstrate that the resulting ferrocement mortar improved despite using different waste materials in production.