Effect of recycled fine aggregate on properties of mortar: a factorial design approach

The influence of the use of recycled fine aggregates as replacement natural fine aggregate on properties of cement mortar has been investigated using the procedures of general factorial design. In this study, the incorporation percentage of recycled fine aggregate (RFA %) and water-cement (w/c) ratio are selected as factors and compressive strength and water absorption as responses. The levels of RFA (%) are fixed at 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% and the levels of other factor w/c ratio was kept at 0.4, 0.45, and 0.5. Compressive strength (CS) and water absorption (WA) of mortar mixes prepared with varying levels of aforementioned factors are selected responses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been performed over test results for analysing the significance of factors and their interaction on selected responses. The results of study depict that the selected factors are significantly affecting the responses; however, no substantial influence of interaction between the factors on responses are observed.