Evaluation of marble slurry incorporated concrete using nondestructive methods

Abstract

Marble processing industry is one of most important industries of Rajasthan region in India. This industry produces large amounts of waste in the form of marble slurry. The waste slurry is dumped along the road sides thus causing environmental and health problems in the surrounding areas. Waste marble slurry is a material which helps in partially replacing cement in concrete thus promoting the utilization of a waste material and also reducing the use of cement.

This paper shows the use of waste marble slurry as a partial replacement of cement in concrete with mainly two water cement ratios 0.40 and 0.45. The percentage replacement of cement is varied from 10 to 30 percent. Concrete is tested for compressive strength at 7 and 28 days. Non Destructive tests namely Rebound hammer and Ultrasonic Pulse velocity tests are also performed on the cubes to study the strength and quality of concrete produced. The results show that concrete with 15% marble dust as a partial replacement of cement gives 20% more strength than the control concrete. It is also seen that with increasing replacement of cement with waste marble slurry - slump decreases, density increases up to 15% replacement and then decreases. The quality of concrete improves according to UPV test. A relationship is developed between compressive strength and rebound hammer values for the marble slurry incorporated concrete. Therefore, this study shows that waste marble slurry could be a good source for use as partial replacement of cement in conventional concrete. This would help in sustainable growth and bulk utilization of what otherwise is a waste material.