Recycling waste brick from construction and demolition of buildings as pozzolanic materials

This investigation elucidates the pozzolic characteristics of pastes that contain waste brick from building construction and demolition wastes. The TCLP leaching concentrations of waste brick for the target cations or heavy metals were all lower than the current regulatory thresholds of the Taiwan EPA. Waste brick had a pozzolanic strength activity index of 107% after 28 days. It can be regarded as a strong pozzolanic material. The compressive strengths of waste brick blended cement (WBBC) that contain 10% waste brick increased from 71.2 MPa at 28 days to 75.1 MPa at 60 days, an increase of approximately 5% over that period. At 28 days, the pozzolanic reaction began, reducing the amount of Ca(OH)(2) and increasing the densification. The intensity of the peak at 3640 cm(- 1) associated with Ca(OH)(2) is approximately the same for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) pastes. The hydration products of all the samples yield characteristics peaks at 978 cm(-1) associated with C-S-H, and at ~3011 cm(-1) and 1640 cm(-1) associated with water. The samples yield peaks at 1112 cm(-1), revealing the formation of ettringite. In WBBC pastes, the ratio Q(2)/Q(1) increases with curing time. These results demonstrate that increasing the curing time increases the number of linear polysilicate anions in C-S-H. Experimental results reveal that waste brick has potential as a pozzolanic material in the partial replacement of cement.