Investigating the Impact of Treated Sawdust and Additional Materials on the Mechanical Strength and Thermal Insulation of Cement Mortar | ||
| Port-Said Engineering Research Journal | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 03 November 2025 | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/pserj.2025.413749.1433 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Abdellatif E. Abosen* 1; Abd Elmoaty M. Abd Elmoaty2; Walid H. Shalaby3 | ||
| 1structural engineering department, faculty of engineering, Alexandria university. | ||
| 2Structural engineering department, faculty of engineering, alexanderia university, Egypt | ||
| 3Civil Engineering department, Higher Institute of Engineering and technology, King Marriott, Alexandria, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Recently, research around the world has shown increasing interest in a sustainable environment field,and particularly in eliminating manufacturing by-products for use in building materials, with the potential to improve the properties of these products, including their thermal properties. Nevertheless, manufacturing low strength concrete or mortar with better thermal insulation properties requires a major step in this field. Hence, this study aims to use by-product sawdust to develop low strength cement mortar thermal properties. This work investigates the effect of treatment processing of sawdust by using two solutions, calcium hydroxide and sodium silicate, regarding physical, mechanical and thermal properties. In addition, the effect of adding silica fume, latex and polypropylene fiber on these properties were studied. The replacing of fine aggregates with varying amounts of sawdust 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% by volume of sand in cement mortar are considered. This study demonstrates that increasing sawdust content in cement mortars significantly decreases density and increases water absorption, while causing substantial reductions in compressive and flexural strengths (up to 89% and 84.4% respectively at 75% replacement). Thermal insulation, however, improves notably (up to 31%). Lime (calcium hydroxide) treatment enhances early compressive strength (~38% at 7 days) and slightly lowers water absorption, whereas sodium silicate treatment greatly reduces compressive strength (up to 51%) and sharply raises thermal conductivity (up to 430%). Among additives, silica fume increases compressive strength, polypropylene fibers decrease compressive strength but slightly improve flexural strength and increase thermal conductivity, while latex moderately enhances both strengths and reduces water absorption. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Thermal conductivity; Modified Lee–Charlton’s Disc apparatus; sawdust; lightweight mortar and sand replacement | ||
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