Properties and microstructure of alkali-activated red clay brick waste

Sintered red clay ceramic is used to produce hollow bricks which are manufactured in enormous quantities in Spain. They also constitute a major fraction of construction and demolition waste. The aim of this research was to investigate the properties and microstructure of alkali-activated cement pastes and mortars produced using red clay brick waste. The work shows that the type and concentration of alkali activator can be optimised to produce mortar samples with compressive strengths up to 50 MPa after curing for 7 days at 65 C. This demonstrates a new potential added value reuse application for this important waste material.The authors are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for supporting this study through Project GEOCEDEM BIA 2011-26947, and to FEDER funding. They also thank the Institute for Science and Technology of Concrete - ICITECH, for providing the means to carry out this investigation; and Universitat Jaume I, for supporting this research through the research stay granted.Reig Cerdá, L.; Tashima, MM.; Borrachero Rosado, MV.; Monzó Balbuena, JM.; Cheeseman, C.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ. (2013). Properties and microstructure of alkali-activated red clay brick waste. Construction and Building Materials. 43:98-106. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.01.031S981064

Study of the sintering mechanism of pulverised fuel ash using heating stage microscopy

In "Book of abstracts" and presentatio

Sintering anisotropy and shape distortion during viscous flow sintering: the case of glass matrix composites and glass-ceramics

In "Book of abstracts" and oral presentatio

Phase separation in alumina-rich glasses to increase glass reactivity for low-CO₂ alkali-activated cements

Abstract Ways to reduce cement-related carbon emissions are actively sought. One possible solution is partial substitution of Portland cement by alkali-reactive glass. We report on low-CO2 glass compositions that have high alkali solubility derived from industrial basaltic stone wool compositions. We found that highly alkali-soluble glasses can be formed with glass compositions that in principle can be made using silicate minerals which have no raw material-related CO2 emissions. The reason behind the reactivity of these glasses is thought to be caused by the dilution of the main network-forming species, silicon, which is further enhanced by phase separation, forming phases with high-silicon and low-silicon concentrations. Phase separation in alumina-rich samples is further studied and occurs at moderate cooling rates. The effect of glass-glass phase separation is discussed in the context of reactive glasses in cementitious systems. The results indicate that controlled phase separation could decouple CO2 emissions from the reactivity of glassy supplementary cementitious materials

Sintering anisotropy and shape distortion during viscous flow sintering: the case of glass matrix composites and glass-ceramics

In "Book of abstracts" and oral presentatio

Study of the sintering mechanism of pulverised fuel ash using heating stage microscopy

In "Book of abstracts" and presentatio