Experimental investigation and optimization of lightweight concrete bricks developed using vermiculite

Concrete production requires a wealth of resources, including cement, aggregate, and water. Therefore, in terms of maintaining the Earth’s natural ecosystems and resources, researchers need to find sustainable and green methods for producing concrete. The focus of the current research was the use of potentially harmful alternative aggregates to manufacture lightweight concrete bricks. In this study, cement, fine aggregates, and vermiculite were the concrete brick mix components. Three trail mixes were followed by a replacement ratio of 60:40, 50:50, and 40:60 for fine aggregates in bricks. Statistical techniques were exerted to compare all the experimental results. Initially, regression analysis was employed to determine the precise relationship between the dependent and independent variables of the study. Furthermore, the compressive strength of the concrete brick was investigated. As a result of the research, vermiculite concrete bricks with the compressive strengths ranging from 3.2 to 5.9 N/mm2 and densities ranging from 1,780 to 2,142 kg/m3 were obtained. The regression model captured the variability of the data, as evidenced by the suitable R2 threshold (R2 > 0.9935). Subsequently, every property of the concrete bricks was predicted using regression, surface plots, main plots, and a heatmap. The conclusion of the study demonstrated that the models generated very effective results

A Scientometric Analysis Review on Agricultural Wastes Used as Building Materials

The rapid urbanization of developed countries and the difficulty in disposing of agricultural wastes have created opportunities for the construction industry to use agricultural wastes. A wide variety of agricultural waste materials are already in use with concrete as substitutes for cement and aggregates, as well as reinforcing materials. This study reviews the available literature published from 1935 to 2022 on agricultural wastes being used as building materials. The research utilizes a bibliographic approach based on the Scopus database. This article retrieves data employing the Scopus database and incorporates 671 articles based on the keywords, agricultural wastes used as building materials. The scientometric analysis is the second step, wherein the patterns of the obtained articles are investigated with various factors such as countries with the most publications, sources that have the most publications, most frequently appearing keywords, and articles with more relevant research works. A summary of the results obtained at various stages of the research is depicted in each phase. Detailed quantitative and qualitative discussions are also conducted to achieve the three main objectives: the summarization of quantitative data, discussion of the existing application, and identification of future research directions. These findings serve the future endeavor of agricultural waste-to-building materials’ incineration academic research. The scientometric review paves the way for academics from various nations to impart novel ideas and information and foster research collaboration

Development of alkali activated paver blocks for medium traffic conditions using industrial wastes and prediction of compressive strength using random forest algorithm

Abstract Geopolymer is an environment friendly construction material that could be synthesized using either the natural source or the industrial byproducts such as flyash and GGBS. The characteristics of the Geopolymer rely on the proportion of the flyash and GGBS and the concentration of the activator solution used. In this research work, the effect of partial replacement of flyash with GGBS in proportions such as 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% is investigated. Also Molarity of NaOH are tested from 8 to 14 M and both the parameters are optimized. In this optimized Geopolymer concrete, the utilization of iron slag as a partial substitute for river sand in various proportions such as 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 35, 40 and 45% are investigated. The optimized Geopolymer concrete with iron slag is investigated for its performance as a paver block with incorporation of banana fiber in proportions such as 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 and is compared with conventional cement concrete paver block. The results show that there is a significant enhancement in the properties of Geopolymer concrete with the different levels of optimization and the utilization of natural banana fiber. The developed sustainable paver block was found to with stand medium traffic conditions as per IS 15658:2006. Further this study employed random forest (RF) algorithm for the prediction of compressive strength of geopolymer concrete specimens for the variable parameters such as molarity of alkaline solution, Flyash/GGBS ratio and partial replacement of river sand with iron slag. The performance evaluation parameters represented high accuracy of developed RF model. This research work unleashes a heft potential of Geopolymer concrete to develop economical eco-friendly sustainable paver blocks to the society through mitigation of environmental strain on the ecosystem