Sarooj mortar: From a traditional building material to an engineered pozzolan -mechanical and thermal properties study

M. S. Meddah*, N. Benkari, S. N. Al-Saadi, Y. Al Maktoumi

*المؤلف المقابل لهذا العمل

نتاج البحث: المساهمة في مجلةArticleمراجعة النظراء

16 اقتباسات (Scopus)

ملخص

Developing new energy efficient building materials to reduce the carbon footprint is now the core of sustainability in construction and an essential factor of life cycle assessment (LCA). The extensive and increasing usage of conventional concrete, mortar, plasters and various cement-based materials is only one of the many factors contributing towards urban thermal discomfort caused by urban heat island phenomena and the poor thermal insulation of ordinary cement mortar. Not only this, the wide use of concrete and mortar in construction increases the consumption of their primary components mainly -Portland cement-requiring a large consumption of energy and causing a significant rise in CO2 emissions. Embedding natural and artificial cementitious/pozzolana materials in today's cement-based building materials has become a common practice. Cementitious and Pozzolanic materials are known to provide an added value to mortar/concrete not only in terms of mechanical and durability properties but also in energy efficiency and enhancing sustainability. Sarooj is a local term describing an artificial cementitious and pozzolana material obtained by traditional calcining of the raw clayey soil. Although its usage is nowadays very limited, Sarooj has been used in Oman and other neighboring countries for centuries, in various buildings and defense structures. The main objective of this research is to transform the traditionally produced Sarooj into an engineered binding material and hence investigating its physico-mechanical and thermal properties. The raw soil used to produce the traditional Sarooj was employed to engineer a modern “Sarooj” under controlled energy processing (grinding and calcination) conditions. The raw clay minded from specific location was ground first to a fine powdered material and then subjected to full characterization. The physical and chemical characterization indicated that the raw soil is suitable for producing a cementitious/pozzolanic calcined clay. The thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis of the clay used reveal that only a moderate temperature of around 800 °C is required for its calcination which preserves energy and reduces CO2 emissions compared to 1600 °C to produce clinker cement. The strength development showed a slow early-age reactivity but an appreciable enhancement in long-term which demonstrates a remarkable latent hydraulic potential of the clay used. It was also found that adding an optimum amount of the calcined clay enhances the thermal properties. The annual energy performance of a typical housing in the hot climate of Muscat, Oman, was evaluated using DesignBuilder software, a whole-building simulation tool. The simulation results showed insignificant savings in annual energy consumption when the developed mixes are used as plastering materials. The clay alkali-activated with NaOH has, however, showed great potential to enhance the mortar's long-term strength. Using locally engineered cementitious material in a partial replacement of Portland cement can further enhance durability and sustainability by reducing the manufacturing energy of the produced building material such as mortars and plasters.

اللغة الأصليةEnglish
رقم المقال101754
دوريةJournal of Building Engineering
مستوى الصوت32
المعرِّفات الرقمية للأشياء
حالة النشرPublished - نوفمبر 2020

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