Effect of Superplasticizer on Thermal Properties of Concrete Containing Porcelain Waste as Sand Replacement

Abstract

Building material demand is putting enormous consumption on the Earth's natural resources, as many raw materials have reached critical and painful levels. Therefore, new materials that can replace traditional raw materials in whole or in part attracted the attention of researchers and thus became a hot topic for research. Due to huge production, waste is an ideal candidate for partial replacement of ceramic raw materials. Although porcelain wastes are produced at an annual rate, it is rarely used in construction materials, so their value in the construction sector will be very advantageous from an environmental and economic point of view. In the current research, the samples were prepared from cylinder concrete and cutting it using concrete cutter to produce the required specimens with diameter of 4 cm and 0.5 cm thickness according to the method used (hot plate method). Superplasticizer and water were homogeneously mixed for 2 minutes and added to the composition of concrete for casting process. Subsequently, the thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity were studied. The investigation revealed that the addition of porcelain waste increased the thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and thermal diffusivity which was found to be 2.41 K(w/m.k), 979 J/kg.k and 1.06 mm2 /s respectively at 50 % replacement for 60 days. The results show improved thermal properties with an added superplasticizer.