Strength and elastic properties of mortars with various percentages of environmentally sustainable mineral binder

The production of cement alone has increased dramatically over the past 80 years due to a continuous increase in demand for concrete. Due to increased public and scientific community awareness on the environmental impact of the construction industry extensive efforts have been put to reduce the CO2 emissions of the Portland cement plants. A major step in the direction of sustainable development has been done with the development of alternative cementitious binders. An important source of such materials is the industry. The present paper presents the results of a research work focused on the suitability of using a new mineral binder as partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement in concrete. At this stage of the research the strength and elastic properties of mortars incorporating various percentages of the new binder were investigated. The binder is obtained from industrial by-products, most of them being disposed in landfills. The experimental results lead to the conclusion that lighter structural or non-structural elements could be made with the incorporation of the new binder. In terms of bending tensile strength the obtained values were much higher than the reference mix proportion. On the other hand, the compressive strength did not match that of the reference mix. The volume of Portland cement substitution as well as the type of cement plays an important role on the strength and elastic properties of the mortars.