Cleaner Engineering and Technology (Apr 2023)
Modeling and experimental studies on energy consumption and properties of concrete containing waste brick powder and waste tire rubber for sustainable construction
Abstract
The advantages of utilising waste materials in concrete have led to the use of waste brick powder (WBP) and waste tire rubber (WTR) in concrete production. The awareness of factors influencing energy required during concrete production and the capability to optimise energy consumption and modified concrete properties could pave way for adoption of modified concrete in construction industry. This paper is aimed at generating models via response surface methodology (RSM) which are suitable at establishing best compromises amongst responses of energy consumption, unit weight and compressive strength of concrete. The generated models facilitated the understanding of effect of parameters of WTR (0–20%) substituting coarse aggregates and WBP (0–5%) substituting cement on energy consumption, unit weight and compressive strength responses. The reliability of the constructed models was verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The models using RSM illustrated increased R2 values of larger than 0.84 for all responses which proved that the established models were reliable in the prediction of all the responses. The energy consumption response was established with the linear regression model while the unit weight and compressive strength responses were established with quadratic regression models. The desirability analysis produced 5% WBP and 0.614% WTR as values illustrating higher concrete unit weight at decreased energy consumption for concrete production. Optimisation procedure of energy consumption and compressive strength of concrete by desirability analysis provided 5% WBP and 0% WTR as optimum parameters establishing higher compressive strength at lower energy consumption. Moreover, no significant relationship was noticed between energy consumption of concrete and 28-days compressive strength of concrete as the compressive strength increased. The findings in this research motivate the reduction of energy consumption during concrete production without significantly influencing concrete properties.
