2017 journal article

Mechanical and radiation shielding properties of mortars with additive fine aggregate mine waste

ANNALS OF NUCLEAR ENERGY, 101, 600–606.

By: W. Gallala*, Y. Hayouni*, M. Gaied*, M. Fusco n, J. Alsaied n, K. Bailey n, M. Bourham n

author keywords: Barite-fluorspar mine waste; Radiation shielding mortars; Sand replacement; Fine aggregates; Concrete blending; Gamma ray shielding
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

Incorporation of barite-fluorspar mine waste (BFMW) as a fine aggregate additive has been investigated for its effect on the mechanical and shielding properties of cement mortar. Several mortar mixtures were prepared with different proportions of BFMW ranging from 0% to 30% as fine aggregate replacement. Cement mortar mixtures were evaluated for density, compressive and tensile strengths, and gamma ray radiation shielding. The results revealed that the mortar mixes containing 25% BFMW reaches the highest compressive strength values, which exceeded 50 MPa. Evaluation of gamma-ray attenuation was both measured by experimental tests and computationally calculated using MicroShield software package, and results have shown that using BFMW aggregates increases attenuation coefficient by about 20%. These findings have demonstrated that the mine waste can be suitably used as partial replacement aggregate to improve radiation shielding as well as to reduce the mortar and concrete costs.