Life Cycle Assessment and Shrinkage Properties of Sustainable Green HPMs with Eco-Friendly SWMs

In this study, the usage of an alternative material as supplementary cementitious materials were researched for the design of high performance mortars (HPMs). For this purpose, SWMs (aspect ratio of 22:1) were produced from calcite and quartz sand. Then, SWMs were replaced with the ratios of 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12% by the cement weight to investigate the fresh, mechanical, and shrinkage properties of HPMs. Test results showed that the mechanical and shrinkage properties of HPMs had an improvement up to 9% of SWMs due to its special particle characteristics. The compressive strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity, fracture toughness and fracture energy of HPM incorporating 9% of SWM was higher than that of the control mixture by 8.8-9.1%, 7.5-9.9%, 4.7-6.7%, 8.9-4.6% and 13.2-2.5% at 28-90 days, respectively. Similarly, these ratios for maximum drying shrinkage and average crack width were determined as 10.5% and 58.3%, respectively, at the end of 60 days. These findings were also supported by SEM/EDX and TGA/DTA. Moreover, the potential environmental impacts resulting from the production of 1 kg SWM and HPM incorporating 9% SWM were evaluated using the life cycle analysis software (LCA) SimaPro 8.5.0.0. Based on the LCA results, SWMs with acicular particle structure can be used as an alternative material to develop sustainable concrete structures.