A Review on the Influence of Introducing Waste Materials to the Properties of Cement Mortar

Abstract

The purpose of these investigations is to review how applying recycled material to mortar can enhance its compressive strength. The recyclable materials used in the mortar were marble powder, recovered rubber, and discarded plastic in various weights. Following preparation following Iraqi norms, the mortar samples were submerged in water for seven and twenty eight days, respectively. The best mortar “compressive strength” results were obtained for both times by introducing (4g) marble powder samples. The best mortar compressive strength estimates for both durations were obtained with (10g) recycled rubber addition samples. The ideal mortar compressive strength values, on the other hand, were with (5g) waste plastic addition samples for both times. The produced samples were subjected to various pH solutions to determine how pH affects compressive strength as a key factor. The second element was the utilization of varied salt concentration solutions as curing water for the samples to submerge in throughout both periods. The “compressive strength” of the specimens treated with different pH revealed that the optimum compressive strength of mortar was at pH 7. Still, it dropped with increasing acidity (1-6 pH) but increased with rising alkalinity in the other samples (8-14 pH). The compressive strength progressively rose at (pH ranging from 1 to 14). Sodium chloride (NaCl) was employed as the salt in various weight percentages (5 percent, 10 percent). Moreover, for both durations, the compressive strength estimates of the mortar samples submerged in a solution of (5 percent NaCl) were higher than the values of the samples submerged in (10 percent NaCl). In conclusion, the compressive strength of samples kept in water for twenty eight days was higher than that of samples left in water for senen days, indicating that the longer the samples were kept in water, the higher the compressive strength achieved.