This paper presents a numerical investigation of thermal response of mortar panels, incorporating macro-encapsulated paraffin in different forms. Two types of macro capsules were fabricated and tested in this study using an instrumented hot plate device. The experimental results show that macro encapsulated paraffin reduced the temperature and increased time lag in the mortar panels due to the latent heat capacity of paraffin. Finite element models adopting the effective heat capacity method to model phase change effects were able to capture the overall thermal response of panels incorporated with paraffin well. Then, a parametric study was conducted using the validated finite element (FE) modelling technique to investigate the effects of different forms of macro capsules, the quantity of paraffin and the position of macro capsules. It was found that the tube and sphere macro capsules showed similar thermal responses, while the plate shaped capsules may cause a non-uniform temperature distribution in mortar panels. The quantity and position of paraffin have significant effects on the thermal response of the mortal panels. A higher paraffin content results in a significantly longer temperature lag and a lower temperature during the phase transition of paraffin. Furthermore, placing the paraffin away from the heating face can cause a longer temperature lag on the other face, which is desirable for building façade applications.@en

Concrete production utilizes cement as its major ingredient. Cement production is an important consumer of natural resources and energy. Furthermore, the cement industry is a significant CO2 producer. To reduce the environmental impact of concrete production, supplementary cementitious materials such as fly ash, blast furnace slag, and silica fume are commonly used as (partial) cement replacement materials. However, these materials are industrial by-products and their availability is expected to decrease in the future due to, e.g., closing of coal power plants. In addition, these materials are not available everywhere, for example, in developing countries. In these countries, industrial and agricultural wastes with pozzolanic behavior offer opportunities for use in concrete production. This paper summarizes the engineering properties of concrete produced using widespread agricultural wastes such as palm oil fuel ash, rice husk ash, sugarcane bagasse ash, and bamboo leaf ash. Research on cement replacement containing agricultural wastes has shown that there is great potential for their utilization as partial replacement for cement and aggregates in concrete production. When properly designed, concretes containing these wastes have similar or slightly better mechanical and durability properties compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete. Thus, successful use of these wastes in concrete offers novel sustainable materials and contributes to greener construction as it reduces the amount of waste, while also minimizing the use of virgin raw materials for cement production. This paper will help the concrete industry choose relevant waste products and their optimum content for concrete production. Furthermore, this study identifies research gaps which may help researchers in further studying concrete based on agricultural waste materials.@en

Studies have shown that the incorporation of waste tire rubber aggregates reduces the strength, increases permeability and decrease thermal conductivity of concrete. However, only a few studies have investigated the effect of surface-modified rubber aggregates on the properties of concrete. This study investigates the effect of the surface treatment of waste tire rubber as coarse aggregates with different oxidizing solutions and different treatment durations on the mechanical, durability and thermal properties of concrete. The properties of concrete incorporated with 8% rubber coarse aggregates (by volume of natural aggregates) which were treated with three different solutions: water (H2O), 20% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and 5% calcium hypochlorite [Ca(ClO)2] (both as% weight of water) for durations of 2, 24, and 72 h, respectively. The effect of these treatments on the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, water permeability, thermal conductivity and diffusivity of concrete was investigated. Results show that Ca(ClO)2 has a more positive effect on the strength and permeability compared to NaOH solution and water. Experimental results were statistically analyzed using ANOVA and Post Hoc tests. The analyses showed that the improvement of concrete strength is only significant when the treatment with NaOH and Ca(ClO)2 is prolonged to 72 h. Furthermore, the microstructural analysis of concrete showed that the improvement in the strength is due to the improved bonding between cement paste and rubber aggregates as a result of surface treatment. This microstructural improvement also resulted in lower water permeability of concrete. However, the thermal conductivity and diffusivity increased when the surface treatment duration increases as there are less air voids in the samples. This study shows that, with appropriate pretreatment, a certain percentage of natural aggregates can be safely replaced with waste tire rubber aggregates while maintaining sufficient quality of the resulting concrete.@en

This study evaluates the mechanical, durability, and residual compressive strength (after being exposed to 20, 120, 250, 400 and 600 °C) of mortar that uses recycled iron powder (RIP) as a fine aggregate. Within this context, mechanical strength, shrinkage, durability, and residual strength tests were performed on mortar made with seven different percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30% and 50%) of replacement of natural sand (NS) by RIP. It was found that the mechanical strength of mortar increased when replaced with up to 30% NS by RIP. In addition, the increase was 30% for compressive, 18% for tensile, and 47% for flexural strength at 28 days, respectively, compared to the reference mortar (mortar made with 100% NS). Shrinkage was observed for the mortar made with 100% NS, while both shrinkage and expansion occurred in the mortar made with RIP, especially for RIP higher than 5%. Furthermore, significantly lower porosity and capillary water absorption were observed for mortar made with up to 30% RIP, compared to that made with 100% NS, which decreased by 36% for porosity and 48% for water absorption. As the temperature increased, the strength decreased for all mixes, and the drop was more pronounced for the temperatures above 250 °C and 50% RIP. This study demonstrates that up to 30% RIP can be utilized as a fine aggregate in mortar due to its better mechanical and durability performances. @en

This study explores the effects of different types of nanoparticles, namely nano-SiO2 (NS), nano-TiO2 (NT), and nano-Fe2O3 (NF) on the fresh properties, mechanical properties, and microstructure of cement mortar containing fly ash as a supplementary cementitious material. These nanoparticles existed in powder form and were incorporated into the mortar at the dosages of 1%, 3%, and 5% wt.% of cement. Also, fly ash has been added into in mortars with a constant dosage of 30% wt.% of cement. Compressive and flexural strength tests were performed to evaluate the mechanical properties of the mortar specimens with different nanoparticles at three curing ages, 7, 14, and 28 days. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) tests were conducted to study the microstructure and the hydration products of the mortars. To elucidate the effects of nanoparticles on the binder phase, additional experiments were performed on accompanying cement pastes: nanoindentation and open porosity measurements. The study shows that, if added in appropriate amounts, all nanoparticles investigated can result in significantly improved mechanical properties compared to the reference materials. However, exceeding of the optimal concentration results in clustering of the nanoparticles and reduces the mechanical properties of the composites, which is accompanied with increasing the porosity. This study provides guidelines for further improvement of concretes with blended cements through use of nanoparticles.@en