Lightweight Geopolymer Mortars Containing Waste Tires for Sustainability

Abstract

Efficient use of natural resources and sustainable utilization of waste materials are of great importance in the production of construction materials. This study investigates the potential of using waste tires as aggregate in the production of lightweight geopolymer concrete. While waste tires cause serious challenges in terms of storage and recycling, this study investigates the use of waste tires as a sustainable alternative in the construction industry. Within the scope of the experiments on the subject, lightweight geopolymer mortar was produced instead of lightweight geopolymer concrete. In this way, it is thought that it can be used as a predictive tool in the evaluation of real geopolymer lightweight concrete behavior by taking advantage of its advantages such as more control and less material usage. In the experiments, waste tire was tested as a pumice substitute in lightweight geopolymer mortar. For this reason, waste tire (0-5 mm) and pumice (0-5 mm) were replaced with sand (0-5 mm) at 10%, 40%, 70% and 100%. Mini-spreading, unit volume weight, compressive strength, flexural strength and compressive strength tests were performed on the geopolymer mortar specimens. As a result of the experiments, it was observed that although the waste tire negatively affected the mechanical properties compared to pumice, it positively affected the ductility of the composite by not breaking down at fracture.