Investigation on the Partial Replacement of Cement by the Mixture of Ethiopian Marble Dust and Fly Ash in Concrete Production

Abstract

Concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water in the proper proportions. The cement which is one of the components of concrete plays a great role, but is the most expensive and environmentally unfriendly material. The main objective of the research work is to investigate the possibility of utilizing flay ash and marble dust available in Ethiopia as partial replacement of cement. Also to reduce such type of waste in environment or to reduce the amount of the CO2 release during the manufacture of cement and to analyze the cost of the concrete construction and investigation of fresh and hardened properties of concrete. The setting behavior, soundness and consistency characteristics of cement pastes made by partially replaced cement with fly ash and marble powder are studied. The mechanical properties of the concretes are investigated along with compressive strength test and flexural strength test. Along this, strength development and micro-structural properties of cement modified with fly ash and marble dust are investigated by performing SEM analysis on the mixes specimen pieces. The results of the study indicates that the mixture up to 5% of fly ash and 10% of marble dust can be used as replacement of cement with no compromise on the technical characteristics of the mix. So, the 15% replacement of mix specimen Compressive strength shown us increments by 18.7% and flexural strength also increased by 8.56% at 28 days. The utilization of fly ash and marble dust in the construction industry can improve for environmental, technical and economic issues caused by cement production and cement cost.