Laboratory evaluation of incorporating waste ceramic materials into Portland cement and asphaltic concrete

Laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating fired ware scrap, a waste ceramic material from automobile manufacturing, into pavement material. In this study, crushed fired ware scraps were added into Portland cement concrete (PCC) and hot-mix asphalt (HMA) to replace fine aggregates.The results of this study indicated that the fired ware scraps can be potentially used in the Portland cement concrete and HMA mixture. The compressive strength of PCC was improved by adding crushed scrap. However, due to the high water absorption of the crushed scrap, crushed scrap content is recommended to be less than 10% and a water reduction additive is recommended to provide adequate workability. For HMA, the test results indicated that adding a certain amount (up to 15% by weight) of ground scrap improved the binder’s total resistance to deformation. The dynamic modulus, flow number and indirect tensile strength of the HMA mixture were all improved by adding “filler” made of ground scrap. 2.5% “filler” content was recommended for a dense-graded HMA surface mixture.