Characteristics of Concrete Partially Replaced With Waste Ceramic Aggregates

A large quantity of ceramic tiles change into wastage, these waste materials are not reusable and recyclable due to their physical and chemical structure. Using ceramic wastage in concrete production could be an effective measure in maintaining the environment and improving the properties of concrete. The present experimental study deals with the investigation of possibility of using waste ceramic tile in concrete. Waste ceramic tile is the least expensive of all the concrete constituents and is much less expensive than natural aggregates and thus the idea is to replace as much of the natural aggregates as possible to save money and to reduce the amount of disposable wastes, as well, but care has to be taken in order not to weaken the concrete by adding too much ceramic tiles. To do so, first, the ceramic waste tiles are collected and then being grind by a hammer. They are used in concrete as the substitute for coarse aggregates with 0 to 50 percent of substitution with W/C ratio of 0.5. Besides, all other parameters are constant. Then a standard series 18 density tests and compressive strength tests were conducted.

The output results obtained from this laboratory program showed reliable data points and promising further research horizons. The optimum value of coarse waste ceramic tile to be used within the concrete mix with a water-cement ratio of 0.5 was determined as about 30%, and the corresponding expected 28-days hardened concrete compressive strength was about 23.2MPa. Also the density of concrete cube decreases as the amount of tile increases. The findings revealed that using waste ceramic tile lead to enhancing the properties of concrete.