Response of Self-Compacting Cementitous Systems Using Wood Sawdust

Abstract

It’s no surprise that preventive measures to matters of resource reduction and global pollution are the prime aspects if not the main objective of most of the researches. The construction industry is no exception to that and having a direct major impact on environment and its localities, the need is more than ever for an environment friendly material in construction material. An attempt is made in the field of high performance self-compacting cementitious system to have an eco-friendly construction material utilizing raw materials, in this case wood waste sawdust, to not only benefit the environment but also keeping the material quality and its standard intact. Sawdust has been used previously in conventional concrete and mortar systems with mix reporting of results. This the first study of sawdust being used in high performance self-compacting cementitious system. Two different sizes of wood sawdust (SD) namely, coarse sawdust(CSD) and fine sawdust(FSD) were used with neat Portland cement paste system in replacement mode. The replacement of SD was 2%, 5% and 7% in each case i-e coarse and fine. While the results showed a consistency in the slight decrease of compressive strengths, the reduction in shrinkage with samples having sawdust (SD) were highly significant. Densities and weights were also reduced of the hardened specimens having sawdust. Moreover, the effect of water and air curing along with the water absorption capacity of sawdust in powder form and the comparison of water uptake of self-compacting paste samples with and without sawdust at different days during wet curing showed that sawdust has the potential to serve as an internal curing agent in Self compacting cementitious system.