Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Lightweight concrete production with low Portland cement consumption

Fernando Pelisser a, *, Airton Barcelos a, Diego Santos a, Michael Peterson b, Adriano Michael Bernardin b
a
Civil Engineering, Santa Catarina Extreme South University, Avenida Universitária 1105, Bairro Universitário, CEP 88806-000, Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil
b
Chemical Engineering, Santa Catarina Extreme South University, Avenida Universitária 1105, Bairro Universitário, CEP 88806-000, Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The building industry has widespread social, economic and environmental impacts. Considering the
Received 3 January 2011 materials used, such impacts depend on the production of concrete, since it is the most consumed
Received in revised form material and its properties are associated with the consumption of Portland cement, which represents
20 September 2011
a significant part of CO2 emissions from this sector. This project studied the utility of recycled tire rubber
Accepted 8 October 2011
Available online 21 October 2011
for lightweight concrete with added metakaolin, with the dual purpose of reducing cement consumption
while achieving satisfactory strength. Metakaolin was produced in the laboratory, assessing the
minimum temperature for formation from kaolin. The lightweight concrete (in which rubber was
Keywords:
Lightweight concrete
substituted for sand) was evaluated using compressive strength, calorimetry and thermal conductivity
Recycled rubber tests of mortar. The results showed that the metakaolin produced at 800
C exhibits more efficient silica
CO2 emissions fume replacement and that producing mortar with 40% rubber yields a compressive strength of 20 MPa.
Cement consumption Achieving this strength in lightweight concrete permits the production of materials with low cement
consumption, 486 kg/m3 for mortar (22.9 kg of cement per m3 per MPa) and 260 kg/m3 for concrete
(13 kg of cement per m3 per MPa). The concrete-rubber results showed the best thermal conductivity
indices, thus permitting the design of building systems with improved energy efficiency, which reduces
their operating costs.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction billion tons/year, roughly equal to the total emissions in Europe

today (including transport and energy industries) (Shi et al., 2011),
As concrete is the building material most commonly used for and for 2050 the estimated CO2 emissions from the cement
construction (Mehta and Monteiro, 2006), the guidelines for industry is 17% (World Business Council for Sustainable
sustainability, in the case of mortar or concrete materials, are based Development, 2009). Given the guidelines e questionable or not e
on the reduction of cement consumption, on recycling and on to reduce CO2, this amount is a high percentage for only one
designs with a rational use of raw materials that present adequate industry segment, even exposing all the social and economic
durability. With all the exceptions that may be between different importance of its development.
studies and the specific properties of the materials used, a techni- The production of Portland cement accounts for approximately
cally and economically vital point is the consumption of cement 5% of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions (Damtoft et al., 2008;
and the strength obtained, especially considering the application of World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2009). For an
lightweight concrete or aggregates, and the relation kg/MPa is efficient process y2/3 of the CO2 emission comes from the calci-
a performance index of the concrete with rubber that can be nation of limestone, which makes up about 80% of the raw mate-
comparable between different studies. Results of the 13th Inter- rials. This is referred to as the “raw materials CO2 emission” and
national Conference on Chemistry of Cement (2011) showed that accounts for 500e550 kg CO2 per ton of cement clinker. The other
global consumption of cement is increasing (Schneider et al., 2011). major contributor is the “fuel-derived CO2 emission” constituting
Overall, the cement companies are producing nearly 3 billion tons/ 250e300 kg CO2 per ton of clinker for an efficient kiln (Gartner,
year (U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Comodity Summaries, 2010) 2004). The demand for cement, especially in developing coun-
and, therefore, the emission of almost 2 billion tons of CO2 (6e7% of tries, is expected to at least double by 2050 (Damtoft et al., 2008;
global CO2 emissions) in the process (Marland et al. 2008). At this World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2009). In
rate, by 2025 the cement industry will emit CO2 at a rate of 3.5 order to reduce the greenhouse effect of cement production,
several studies have identified the improvement of process effi-
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ55 48 3431 4553. ciency and the increase in the use of supplementary cementitious
E-mail address: pelisser@hotmail.com (F. Pelisser). materials (SCMs) as achievable solutions (Moesgaard et al., 2011).

0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.10.010
 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74 69

Regarding the SCMs, metakaolin is traditionally used to improve Habert et al., 2010; Milanez and Bührs, 2009; Sunthonpagasit and
the strength of cement-based materials, thus reducing cement Duffey, 2004, Pelisser et al., 2011). However, the replacement of
consumption (Wild et al., 1996). Metakaolin production can be mortar sand with recycled rubber resulted in a reduction in
performed by thermally treating the mineral kaolinite, according to compressive strength from 38 to 16 and 8 MPa with the use of 20
the following chemical reaction: and 30% rubber, respectively (Turatsinze et al., 2005). According to
Khaloo et al. (2008) and Turatsinze and Garros (2008), using
heat recycled rubber instead of sand increased both the resistance to
Al2 Si2 O5 ðOHÞ4 / Al2 Si2 O5 þ H2 O (1)
moisture migration and the toughness of the concrete. Even so,
Kaolinite is the reagent of this reaction and the products are a loss of compressive strength of 85% and 40% occurred following
metakaolinite and water. Some studies indicate that temperatures the addition of 50% and 10% rubber, respectively, in relation to
between 700 and 800
C (Schvarzman et al., 2003) or 650
C (Gleize concrete volume. According to Turatsinze and Garros (2008),
et al., 2007) are optimal for this transformation. However, thermal concrete produced with recycled rubber presents some improved
activation of clay minerals between 600 and 900
C by dehydrox- properties, including improved thermal insulation and sound
ylation leads to either partial or full breakdown of the structure and absorption, lower density, a theoretical decrease in permeability
thus forms a transition phase with high reactivity (Ambroise et al., (because rubber is a hydrophobic aggregate) and improved
1986; Sayanam et al., 1989). This reaction is known as dehydrox- concrete durability. But the main disadvantage was a reduction in
ylation and the metakaolinite formed has pozzolanic characteristics compressive strength due to the higher porosity of the rubber
(Vizcayno et al., 2010), and can be used for the production of aggregate in the concrete matrix (Tortum et al., 2005).
cement-based materials with improved mechanical properties or The use of recycled rubber tires in concrete is also an alternative
can be used for reduction of cement consumption. The use of to reduce the accumulation of discarded tires in the environment,
metakaolin as a partial replacement of cement in mortar and which is a major concern due to the difficult degradation of tire
concrete has been extensively investigated in recent years. rubber. Rubber accumulation causes problems due to the deposi-
There are three basic factors that influence the contribution of tion of these materials (Siddique and Naik, 2004; Jawjit et al., 2010).
metakaolin to concrete strength (Wild et al., 1996): the filler effect, Tire rubber can be used as an aggregate for concrete and asphalt
the acceleration of Portland cement hydration and the pozzolanic paving, providing a purpose for this solid waste, simultaneously
reaction of metakaolin with calcium hydroxide (CH). Thus, the minimizing the accumulation of tires and reducing the consump-
pozzolanic reaction is the reaction between pozzolan and calcium tion of natural resources (Sunthonpagasit and Duffey, 2004;
hydroxide to form CeSeH, as shown in the equation (3) Toutanji, 1996; Turatsinze et al., 2005; Ganjian et al., 2009;
Estevez, 2009). The economic and technical feasibility of
C3 Sðtricalcium silicateÞ þ H2 O/CeSeH manufacturing new products using recycled materials is funda-
þ CHðcalcium hydroxideÞ (2) mental to the problem of waste reduction (Vandecasteele and van
der Sloot, 2011). Nevertheless, the concrete material can be
Pozzolan þ CH/CeSeH (3) considered a “green” material because it uses large amounts of
waste from other industries, sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere,
During the pozzolanic reaction three main aspects are relevant: can be used for disposal of radioactive waste and can be infinitely
i) it is a slow reaction, thereby minimizing the rate of heat release; recycled. In this context, the search for special formulations of
ii) the consumption of calcium hydroxide increases the durability of concrete like the lightweight concrete with cement consumption
the final product in acidic environments; and iii) studies on pore reduction contributes to the sustainable development of the
size distribution in hydrated cements showed that the reaction construction industry.
products are more efficient in filling capillary voids, improving the Thus, for the production of lightweight concrete on one hand the
strength and permeability of the final product (Mehta and use of lightweight aggregates such as recycled tire rubber signifi-
Monteiro, 2006). In a recent work, De la Villa et al. (2010) have cantly reduces the strength of concrete, and on the other hand, the
studied metakaolin production from kaolinitic paper sludge with increased consumption of Portland cement for the recovery of this
heat treatments between 700 and 800
C. The authors reported resistance is a alternative economically and environmentally inap-
that replacement of 20% of cement by activated kaolinitic paper propriate, considering its synergy with mineral additions such as
sludge favored the formation of tetracalcium aluminate, with metakaolin. Considering the unavailability of other materials or
a decrease in portlandite content due to the pozzolanic reaction. In alternative technologies, the use of lightweight concrete facades is
addition to increasing strength and reducing permeability in important to alleviate the weight on the structures e thus reducing
cement-based materials, the production of metakaolin has a lower the amount of concrete used and therefore the consumption of
environmental impact than the production of cement. In a recent cement e and brings improvements for thermal insulation and the
study of the environmental balance of binder in pre-cast concrete cost of operating the building, thereby reducing the environmental
based on energy and CO2 release, Cassagnabère et al. (2010) when impact due to increased energy efficiency.
researching the effect of metakaolin for self-compacting concrete Regarding the problem of compressive strength decrease,
production, cited that the energy expended to produce 1 ton of previous studies have shown that loss of compressive strength
cement will be 4.69 GJ (CIPEC, 2001; United Nations Organization, caused by replacing 10% of the sand mass with recycled tire rubber
1990), and for the production of 1 ton of metakaolin will be was completely reversed by adding 15% silica fume through
2.95 GJ (obtained by the flash calcination process (Salvador, 1992)). chemical treatment with sodium hydroxide (Pelisser et al., 2011).
The environmental impact is also reduced in relation to CO2 There was a reduction in cement consumption with the use of silica
emissions, where a ton of cement produces 1 ton of CO2 emitted fume (260 kg/m3 of cement plus 39 kg/m3 of silica fume) and,
and to produce the same amount of metakaolin, 175 kg of CO2 are therefore, a reduction in the cost of the concrete produced
emitted into the atmosphere. compared to the reference (without silica fume) where cement
Another environmental problem with concrete is the large consumption was equal (Damineli et al., 2010). The concretes
resource consumption that can be difficult to handle in large cities showed variations in the water/binder ratio; however, the same
where the accessibility of natural resources is problematic (Chiu, workability class was maintained, as measured by the slump test
2008; Estevez, 2009; Hernández-Olivares et al., 2002, 2007; (10  2 cm) (Pelisser et al., 2011).
70 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74

This work deals with an attempt to improve the use of

mortars made with Portland cement with the addition of recy- T1  T2
R ¼   (4)
cled rubber, considering the energy efficiency and cost. In this q1 þ q2
study the concentration of recycled rubber was increased e 2
regarding the previous study (Pelisser et al., 2011), the micro-
where, R is the thermal resistance (m2 K/W) of the material, q1 and
silica was replaced by metakaolin (in lower concentrations) and
q2 are the heat flow densities measured with flux meters 1 and
mechanical and thermal conductivity tests were carried out in
2 (W/m2) and T1 and T2 are the surface sample temperatures
order to evaluate the benefit of using rubber in order to improve
determined by type T thermocouples, displayed in a differential
the insulation for better energy efficiency in buildings (concrete
arrangement. Assuming a homogeneous sample, it is possible to
facade elements).
determine the thermal conductivity of the material using the
equation (5), as follows:
2. Materials and methods
L
l ¼ (5)
Metakaolin was produced by kaolin dehydroxylation at 400
C, R
600
C, 750
C, 800
C and 950
C annealing temperatures. The where, l is the thermal conductivity (W/m K), and L is the sample
thermal treatment was performed in an electric furnace at air thickness (m). The average temperature of the test was 25
C.
atmosphere and without flux. A 10
C/min heating rate was used, Portland cement type CPII-Z 32 (according ASTM II-MH stan-
and the samples were kept during 3 h at each annealing tempera- dard) and recycled tire rubber passed through a 4.8 mm sieve,
ture; the mass sample was 0.5 kg. obtained from the scrapping process performed by tire recycling
The chemical composition was determined by X-ray fluores- industries, were selected for these experiments. The rubber and
cence (FRX) (Philips PW2400, melted sample). The crystalline sand exhibited 4.0 and 2.8 fineness moduli, respectively. The
phases were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD). A Philips maximum characteristic size for both sand and rubber was 2.4 mm
Xpert instrument was used that operates with CuKa radiation (NBR 7211, 2005).
(l ¼ 1.5418 Å) at 40 kV and 30 mA output. Scanning was realized
from 2 to 80
(2q) in 0.05
steps, with a collection time of 2 s per
step. The particle size distribution was determined by laser 3. Results and discussion
diffraction (Cillas, 0.04e500 mm).
The initial composition of the mortar was 1:2.3 (cement/sand 3.1. Metakaolin production
ratio), defined in a prior study on concrete with a composition of
1/2.3/2.7 (cement/sand/gravel ratio) (Pelisser et al., 2011). The The annealing process was performed in order to alter the kaolin
mortars were produced with 20%, 40% and 60% rubber addition in crystalline structure, making it amorphous, which enhanced its
substitution of the sand aggregate (variable 1, Table 1). Silica reaction with calcium hydroxide present in the hydrated Portland
fume was replaced by metakaolin at 50% and 100% in mass cement to form calcium silicate hydrate (CeSeH), thus contributing
(variable 2, Table 1). Metakaolin was added in relation to the to the gain in strength. Fig. 1a shows the comparison between the
cement mass, and calcined metakaolin was also used at different XRD patterns of the kaolin and metakaolin at several temperatures.
temperatures (variable 3, Table 1). The rubber and metakaolin A noticeable decrease in the XRD pattern intensity occurred at 12.5

concentrations were maintained fixed at 40% and 10%, respec- and 25
(2q), when comparing the raw kaolin with the metakaolin
tively (Table 1). produced at several temperatures, corresponding to the dehy-
The following properties were analyzed: plasticity (EN 1015-3, droxylation of the Al2Si2O5(OH)4. Analyses of the XRD results also
2007), compressive strength (ASTM C-1231, 2010) and thermal show that the annealing temperature can be reduced to 600
C
conductivity using flow conductivity meter (ASTM C-177, 2010 and (Fig. 1b).
BS 874). The thermal test was performed in dry air conditions using The chemical compositions of kaolin and metakaolin and the
a 5 cm-thick plate. Isothermal calorimetry measurements were cement and metakaolin particle size distributions are presented in
conducted (TA Instruments TAM Air Calorimeter) at 22
C. The Tables 2 and 3. For metakaolin, 90% of the measured particle
cement pastes were mixed before measurement. The sample mass diameters were less than 19.53 mm, which meets the standard
was 11  0.1 g. specifications (ASTM C-618, 2005) for pozzolana fineness. The
The thermal resistance was determined by the Fourier Law chemical analysis also showed that the metakaolin contains an
(equation (4)) amount of SiO2 þ Al2O3 þ Fe2O3 greater than 70%, in accordance

Table 1
Mortar compositions.

Variables N
-Composition cem:sand: Plasticizera (%) % rubber Silica fume (%) Metakaolin (%) Flow-table (cm)
rub:w/c (in weight) (vol. sand)
Rubber concentration 1-1:2.30:0.00:0.45 0.70 0 10 0 27
2-1:1.84:0.14:0.45 0.70 20 10 0 26
3-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 10 0 28
4-1:0.92:0.42:0.45 0.70 60 10 0 29
Metakaolin concentration 5-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 5 5 (800
C) 27
and annealing temperature 6-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 5 5 (950
C) 28
7-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 0 10 (400
C) 26
8-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 0 10 (600
C) 28
9-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 0 10 (750
C) 28
10-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 0 10 (800
C) 29
11-1:1.38:0.28:0.45 0.70 40 0 10 (950
C) 28
a
Plasticizer based lignosulfonate.
 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74 71

Table 3
Particle size distribution of the ASTM II-MH cement and the metakaolin annealed at
800
C.

Particle diameters Cement ASTM II-MH (mm) Metakaolin (800
C) (mm)

10% less than 1.88 1.59
50% less than 14.30 6.08
90% less than 35.32 19.53
Average diameter 16.91 8.61

cement dissolution-precipitation. This is due to the metakaolin

physical effect, where the metakaolin particles act as nucleation
points that improve the dispersion of the matrix, and the meta-
kaolin chemical effect, due to its reactivity with calcium hydroxide
forming calcium silicate hydrate (CeSeH), which is the main phase
of hardened Portland cement and influences the physical and
mechanical properties of the construction materials. Reactivity
indices similar to the metakaolin obtained at 600 and 800
C were
observed, and a slightly lower value obtained for metakaolin at
900
C, due to particle sintering at this temperature. These char-
acteristics increase the materials strength, thus contributing to the
recovery of the resistance, which was damaged by the addition of
rubber particles, as shown in Section 3.3.

3.3. Mortar properties

The addition of metakaolin to lightweight concrete produced

with recycled tire rubber yielded a satisfactory strength level. Fig. 3
shows that the compressive strength decreases proportionally with
the addition of rubber. When substituting silica fume by meta-
kaolin with 40% rubber addition, concrete production showed
satisfactory strength, above 20 MPa. The effects of silica fume
substitution by 50% metakaolin addition caused a slight increase in
the compressive strength (Fig. 4), while a 100% substitution by
metakaolin produced at 950
C caused a compressive strength
increase of 15%. Even better results were observed for 100%

Fig. 1. X-ray diffraction patterns of kaolin and metakaolin annealed at: (a) 950
C and
800
C, (b) 750
C, 600
C and 400
C.

with ASTM C618 for pozzolana use. Table 2 shows the chemical
analysis performed with XRF for the raw kaolin sample before the
heating treatment compared to a sample annealed at 800
C.
The results show a chemical composition for the raw kaolin
sample that matches a theoretical sample. The calculated % mass
loss of the kaolinite mineralogical phase due to ignition was
determined to be 96.4%. The chemical analysis of the metakaolin
showed a 0.4% loss on ignition during the annealing process; this
indicates a sufficient annealing process.

3.2. Cement hydration with metakaolin

The use of metakaolin enhanced the kinetics of Portland cement

hydration. It is also apparent from the normalized heat flow (Fig. 2)
that the addition of metakaolin increased the hydration heat during

Table 2
Chemical composition (% mass) of kaolin and metakaolin annealed at 800
C in
comparison with theoretical kaolin.

Elements Kaolin Theoretical kaolin Metakaolin (800
C)

Al2O3 39.1 39.5 45.2
SiO2 46.7 46.6 53.4
Loss on ignition 13.4 13.9 0.4
Fig. 2. Normalized heat in cement mortars with metakaolin.
72 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74

aggregate. It was possible to achieve compressive strength levels

greater than 20 MPa at 35 days (Table 4). The study was conducted
with mortar instead of concrete, to enable the production of
thinner plates. Another advantage of metakaolin is that the unde-
sirable effects of shrinkage are minimized (Gleize et al., 2007;
Turatsinze et al., 2007) compared to the silica fume.
In contrast, in a recent comprehensive study (Benazzouk et al.,
2007) using mortar with 40% rubber addition (by volume) and
without metakaolin, a mortar compressive strength of about
17 MPa was obtained with cement content of 775 kg/m3. Using
rubber aggregate with rubber content ranging from 0 to 50% by
total aggregate volume, Uygunoglu and Topcu (2010) reduced the
compressive strength of a self-compacting mortar from 17 to
10.4 MPa and from 14.5 to 5.3 MPa for the w/p ratios (water/
cement þ fly ash) of 0.40 and 0.51, respectively, at 7-day age. The
use of rubber aggregate decreases the 7-day compressive strength
by 40e64% and the 28-day compressive strength by 48e58%, at
a w/p ranging from 0.40 to 0.51, respectively. The consumption of
Fig. 3. Substitution of sand content by recycled tire rubber in mortars. cement and fly ash for the mixtures was 600 kg/m3 (450 kg of
cement and 150 kg of fly ash). The finesses of sand and rubber
particles were 2.07 and 1.5, respectively. Despite the consumption
substitution of silica fume by metakaolin produced at 800
C. of cement was approximately 7% lower than this work (486 kg), the
Metakaolin produced at 600
C showed the same compressive resistance obtained was 50% lower. Considering the efficiency ratio
strength as metakaolin produced at 800
C. of kg of cement per MPa, it was obtained a consumption of 22.9 kg/
The replacement microsilica by metakaolin in the studied MPa, compared to a consumption of 45 kg/MPa obtained by
mortars maintained the same plasticity, but because of the greater Benazzouk et al. (2007) and 43 kg/MPa obtained by Uygunoglu and
volume occupied by the metakaolin particles, the real water/ Topcu (2010). Khaloo et al. (2008) when using a high volume of tire
cement ratio may have reduced, contributing to the resistance rubber (12.5%, 25%, 37.5% and 50% addition) in place of sand found
recovery. The porosity reduction achieved with the addition of a decrease in resistance from 30.77 (without rubber) to 6.36 MPa
metakaolin due to particle size and pozzolanic effect has a synergy with 12.5% rubber addition and to 1.22 MPa with 25% rubber
with the cement, so that the mixing ratio used allowed the recovery addition, respectively, obtaining a rate of cement consumption of
of the lost strength with the addition of rubber, thus contributing 55 kg/MPa (350 kg/m3 of cement).
for their use. The substitution silica fume by metakaolin proved to One of the most efficient consumption of cement/MPa was ob-
be an efficient way to lower the cost and the environment impact of tained by Aiello and Leuzzi (2010), using concrete, reaching
mortar/concrete-rubber production, permitting the reduction of a strength of 20.4 MPa (the reference with no rubber achieved
cement consumption for mortar/concrete with a lightweight 27.1 MPa) for 30% substitution of sand for tire rubber (a decrease of

Fig. 4. Effect of substituting silica fume by metakaolin in mortars produced with 40% rubber addition.
 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74 73

Table 4 Table 5
Mechanical properties of mortar with 40% rubber addition and 10% metakaolin Thermal conductivity and thermal resistances presented by the mortars.
addition at 800
C annealing.
Material Mortar þ 0% rubber Mortar þ 40% rubber
Properties Results (average (mix. 1 e Table 1) (mix. 10 e Table 1)
values) Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 0.855 0.737
Composition Mix (cement:metakaolin: 1:0.1:1.38:0.28 Thickness (cm) 10 10
sand:rubber-in weight) Thermal resistance of 0.117 0.136
Water/cement 0.45 mortar (m2 K/W)
Rubber (% sand) 40 External surface thermal 0.04 0.04
Cement consumption (kg/m3)a 486 resistance (m2 K/W)
Flow (cm) 28 Internal surface thermal 0.13 0.13
Mechanical Compressive strength (MPa) 21.2  1.2 resistance (m2 K/W)
Elastic modulus (GPa) 18.5  1.3 Total thermal resistance (m2 K/W) 0.287 0.306
Dry unit weight (g/cm3) 1.823  0.021 Thermal transmittance (W/m2 K) 3.48 3.27
Limit e NBR 15575 (W/m2 K) 3.70 3.70
a
Ccement ¼ g mortar/(1 þ a þ w/c) / (g mortar ¼ 1.823 g/cm3; a ¼ sand þ rubber
¼ 2.3).

This value is lower than the recommended thermal transmittance

25% of sand consumption) and a cement consumption of 16.4 kg/ limit index (thermal transmittance 3.7 W/m2 K) and the reference
MPa with concrete density of 2195 kg/m3. Also, the study of Ganjian mortar (Table 5). This improved thermal isolation characteristic
et al. (2009) showed the least loss of concrete strength with rubber contributes to building energy efficiency, reducing operating costs
addition: the compressive strength was reduced with the through lower power consumption. These results were not inten-
increasing percentage of rubber addition in concrete, although with ded to determine an estimate of the heat load in a building using
5% of aggregate replacement by rubber addition in cement the this concrete or to quantify the overall operating costs involved, but
decrease in compressive strength was low (less than 5%), without rather to show that the lightweight aggregate concrete with rubber
noticeable changes in other concrete properties. The highest addition improves the insulating capacity of the material,
reduction was related to 7.5% and 10% of rubber addition (in mass). enhancing its use in facades.
The reduction in compressive strength at 28 days of age was about Sukontasukkul (2009) have studied the thermal conductivity,
10e23% with the replacement of 20e40% of the aggregates by thermal resistivity and heat transfer in pre-cast concrete with
rubber addition (Ganjian et al. 2009). Considering the research of recycled tire rubber. The tire rubber showed a fineness modulus of
Ganjian et al. (2009), with a cement consumption of 380 kg/m3 and 3.77 and was used to replace sand in 10%, 20% and 30% additions (in
a compressive strength of 25 MPa for 10% (by mass) of sand mass). The author produced concretes with bulk density of
replacement (replacement of sand by rubber), the consumption 2530 kg/m3, 2100 kg/m3, 1930 kg/m3 and 1900 kg/m3 related to
ratio was 15.2 kg/MPa. plain concrete, plain concrete with 10% rubber addition, plain
However, both studies worked with concrete, where the ob- concrete with 20% rubber addition, plain concrete with 30% rubber
tained resistance is higher. In a research on strength and deform- addition. The thermal conductivities were 0.531 W/m K, 0.313 W/
ability of reinforced concrete columns filled with waste tire rubber m K, 0.304 W/m K and 0.296 W/m K, respectively. The methodology
(Son et al., 2011), it was obtained an index of 14.7 kg/MPa (329 kg/ used by Sukontasukkul (2009) was the same used here (ASTM
m3/22.4 MPa), with a reduction in compressive strength of 20%, C177), with concrete specimens in form of square shape
using 1 mm waste tire particles with a mass fraction of 1% rubber. In (300  300  25.4 mm3) showing thermal conductivity indices 40%
comparison with the use of rubber in concrete (Son et al., 2011), this lower than the plain concrete for 10% rubber addition, and 44%
work showed an index of cement consumption in mortar of lower than the plain concrete for 30% rubber addition, respectively.
22.9 kg/MPa (Son et al., 2011). For concrete, Pelisser et al. (2011) The tendency of improved thermal insulation by the use of rubber
found a ratio of 13 kg/MPa (260 kg/m3/20 MPa) using the same addition is similar in both studies, but the results of thermal
mortar composition, but applied to concrete with 45% coarse conductivity of concrete made by Sukontasukkul (2009) and the
aggregate (1:2.3:2.7 for cement/sand/gravel in mass), with alkaline thermal results for the mortar studied in here show distinct
activation and microsilica addition. As a reference, the cement differences. These results may have been influenced by test
consumption rates considered efficient range from 10 to conditions, sample geometry and other properties of the constit-
14 kgclinker/MPa (Müller and Palm, 2011, for conventional concrete uent materials. Sukontasukkul (2009) obtained a cement
with an average strength class of 20 MPa). consumption of 478.7 kg/m3 for a resistance of 23 MPa, using 10%
In this work an attempt to improve the use of mortars made recycled rubber addition, achieving a rate of cement consumption
with Portland cement with the addition of recycled rubber was for the concrete of 20.8 kg/MPa.
tried, considering the energy efficiency and cost. The concentration
of recycled rubber was increased regarding a previous study 4. Conclusions
(Pelisser et al., 2011), microsilica was replaced by metakaolin (in
lower concentrations) and mechanical and thermal conductivity The use of recycled tire rubber in concrete is a good method for
tests were carried out in order to evaluate the benefit of using facade panel construction with improved thermal efficiency. This
rubber in order to improve the insulation for better energy effi- construction process was made possible with the addition of 10%
ciency in buildings (concrete facade elements). metakaolin in order to compensate the decrease in compressive
Another interesting feature is the thermal resistivity of the strength due to the use of rubber waste. Concrete with the addition
lightweight concretes with rubber addition, mainly for use in of lightweight aggregates, particularly recycled tire rubber, gener-
facades and signs. This property was evaluated and the concrete ally loses more than 50% compressive strength with the addition of
with rubber aggregate addition proved to be 15% more efficient 20e40% rubber, leading to higher consumption of cement to ach-
thermally (Table 5). Considering a panel-form mortar, a total ieve the same level of compressive strength. The economic impact
thermal resistance index of 0.306 m2 K/W and a thermal trans- of the addition of metakaolin is justified by the increase in
mittance limit of 3.27 W/m2 K can be achieved in a 10-cm-thick compressive strength and improved thermal isolation. The
facade with a bioclimatic zone 3 classification (NBR 15575-4, 2008). production of 1 m3 of mortar with recycled rubber will require
74 F. Pelisser et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 23 (2012) 68e74

486 kg/m3 cement and 49 kg/m3 of metakaolin, reaching the Jawjit, W., Kroeze, C., Rattanapan, S., 2010. Greenhouse gas emissions from rubber
industry in Thailand. Journal of Cleaner Production 18, 403e411.
compressive strength of 21.2 MPa and consequently reducing the
Khaloo, A.R., Dehestani, M., Rahmatabadi, P., 2008. Mechanical properties of
Portland cement consumption, with a consumption index of concrete containing a high volume of tire-rubber particles. Waste Management
22.9 kg/MPa. Using this mortar, it will be possible to build techno- 28, 2472e2482.
economically viable concrete panels with reduced environmental Marland, G., Boden, T.A., Andres, R.J., 2008. Global, Regional, and National CO2
Emissions, Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide
impact. The use of tire rubber and metakaolin in lightweight mortar Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. DOE, Oak
or concrete contributes to the reduction of raw materials Ridge, TN. cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/meth_reg.html accessed 09.19.11.
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building materials with improved thermal efficiency. Milanez, B., Bührs, T., 2009. Extended producer responsibility in Brazil: the case of
tyre waste. Journal of Cleaner Production 17, 608e615.
Moesgaard, M., Herfort, D., Steenberg, M., Kirkegaard, L.F., Yue, Y., 2011. Physical
Acknowledgments performances of blended cements containing calcium aluminosilicate glass
powder and limestone. Cement and Concrete Research 41, 359e364.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the construction company Müller, C., Palm, S., 2011. Cement grades with a low Portland cement clinker ratio
for the concretes of the future. In: Bundesverband Deutsche Beton- und Fer-
Norberto Odebrecht for providing partial financial support for this tigteilindustrie (Ed.), Sustainable Innovation: Proceedings 55th BetonTage, Neu-
research, the laboratory NANOTEC-UFSC for the isothermal calo- Ulm, pp. 86e89.
rimetry tests, and the company Elittec and LaserComp, partnership NBR 15575-4, 2008. Residential Buildings up to Five Floors. Performance Part 4:
Systems of External and Internal Partition Walls. ABNT, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (in
for the measurement of thermal conductivity using the equipment Portuguese).
FOX300. NBR 7211, 2005. Aggregates for Concrete: Specifications. ABNT, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(in Portuguese).
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