Use of ceramic wastes as aggregates in concrete production: A review

Waste management is one of the major challenging issues in the modern world due to rapid urbanization and industrialization over the past decades. The use of ceramic waste, originated from construction sites and industries, as fine and coarse aggregate in concrete presents an effective and sustainable endeavor to environmental problems through the reduction in the degradation of natural resources caused by extraction of natural aggregates and decrease in dumping volume as well. A plethora of researches has been attempted to analyze the suitability of ceramic wastes from various sources as a possible alternative to natural aggregates in concrete. This paper presents an assembled and up-to-date review of the physical, mechanical, durability, and other notable functional properties of ceramic aggregate concrete. From the outcome of the researches, it has been observed that ceramic aggregate concrete possesses comparable mechanical and durability properties to that of conventional concrete. The results show that it is possible to produce medium and high strength concrete with the incorporation of ceramic aggregates instead of natural aggregate. It is also seen from the results that the compressive strength, permeability characteristics, bond strength, etc. of ceramic aggregate concrete met the required criteria set by various international standards and codes, which confirms the potentiality of ceramic waste to be used as an efficient substitute to natural aggregates in structural concrete. However, the structural performance of ceramic waste-based reinforced concrete members is not yet explored in the researches, and therefore, recommendations are provided for future research.