Production of sustainable concrete using sawdust

Abstract

Rapid progression of construction industry rises the demand on building materials. With focusing on developing cost effective, sustainable and eco-friendly buildings, there is a need to find alternative materials to fulfil the constructions’ requirements. This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the applicability of using sawdust and sawdust ash as a green alternative for natural sand and cement respectively in order to lessen both environmental impacts and construction cost. The proposed mixtures incorporate sawdust with 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 %, 25 % and 30 % as partial substitution for each of natural sand and cement. Mechanical properties of proposed mixes were compared to reference mixtures with typical concrete constituents. Physical properties were also investigated. The test results reveal that the optimum percentage of replacement of natural sand for producing sawdust concrete mixture is 10 % to 20 % and the acceptable percent of partial replacement of cement with sawdust ash is up to 15 %.

Keywords

• mechanical properties
• aggregate
• portland cement
• building materials
• sustainability
• sawdust
• cost