Evaluation of the use of an industrial by-product as partial replacement of Portland cement in structural concretes
Structural concrete, silica fume, sustainability
Cement is the second most used material in the world, after water and one of the major responsible for the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, east gas, responsible for the greenhouse effect. Concretes mostly use cement as a binder material capable of bonding the aggregates and providing rigidity to the material. Structural concretes are used to enable the structures to withstand, primarily, compression stresses. The number of concrete types available on the market is quite varied, and Conventional Concrete (CC) and High Performance Concrete (HPC) are generic classifications for all types of structural concrete. HPC is a material understood as a technological evolution of conventional concretes, the result of applied research and the result of the joint introduction in the list of the basic raw materials of concrete, of mineral additions and chemical additives. Silica fume, one of the supplementary cementitious materials of HPC, is an industrial by-product of the manufacture of silicon metal, ferrosilicon alloys and other silicon alloys. The objective of this work is to characterize the by-product (sílica fume); review the literature on the by-product properties of silicon-based alloy mills, analyze the results of preliminary tests to understand and propose alternatives to the use of this material, and mitigation of industrial processes, and, finally, the influence on the behavior of this material as partial substitution of Portland cement in the mechanical properties and durability in structural concrete in order to make the concrete construction industry more sustainable.