EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL RESISTANCE IN MORTARS WITH THE ADDITION OF BRICK FINES AND CHARCOAL
Mortar. Brick waste. Charcoal fines. Solid waste management. Construction.
The Vale do Caí region - RS is an important hub for the production of red ceramics and charcoal. It is essential for environmental and social sustainability that solid waste arising from these activities is properly managed. Red ceramic fines have a pozzolanic action comparable to Portland cement. Replacing this with brick waste in mortar formulations comes up against the need for alkali activation, greater water consumption and controlled curing temperature to maintain compressive strength similar to Portland cement. Charcoal, in turn, has adsorbent properties. Therefore, the objective of this study was to incorporate these residues in order to replace 25% of Portland cement in formulations of six different mixing proportions of charcoal and brick fines to produce mortar at room curing temperature. The evolution of the compressive strength of the samples was evaluated at 7 curing ages, between 1 and 90 days. The formulation with 20% brick fines and 5% charcoal showed greater mechanical resistance to compression than the mortar without added residue, from 28 days of age. Thermogravimetric and X-ray fluorescence analyzes demonstrated that charcoal does not behave as a pozzolanic material, but due to its adsorbent capacity, it allowed the supply of water during the pozzolanic reaction of brick fines with Portland cement.