The aim of this research was to study the production of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement from several industrial waste materials including with marble dust waste, flue gas desulfurization gypsum, ceramics dust waste, and napier grass ash. The chemical composition, microstructure, and phase composition of raw materials were examined using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. All raw wastes were analyzed using their chemical composition to assign proportion for raw mixture. The raw mixture is calcined at controlled calcination temperatures ranging from 1200 °C to 1300 °C for 30 min. Subsequently, with analysis, their phase composition is calculated by the Rietveld refinement technique. The results suggested that phase composition of clinker calcined at 1250 °C shows the closest composition when compared to target phases, and was selected to prepare CSA cement. The FTIR analysis was performed to study the hydration processes of CSA cement. The Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) based with adding CSA cement between 20 wt.% and 40 wt.% were investigated for the effect of CSA cement fraction on water requirement, setting times and compressive strength. The results showed that rapid setting and high early strength can be achieved by the addition of 20–40 wt.% CSA cement to OPC.
An experimental program was conducted to ascertain the efficiency of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) in enhancing the flexural response of hollow section reinforced concrete (RC) beams. Nine beams were tested under four-point bending in three groups. Beams were categorized to reflect the presence or configuration of the CFRP sheet. Each group consisted of three beams: one with a solid section, one with a square 50×50 mm × mm opening and 1 with 100×100 mm × mm opening. Beams in 1st group were tested in as-built conditions. Beams in the 2nd group were strengthened with a single CFRP sheet bonded to their bottom sides. Configuration of CFRP sheet was altered to U-shape applied to the tension side of 3rd group beams. The inclusion of openings, regardless of their size, did not result in degradation of ultimate load and corresponding deflections. However, cracking loads were found to decline as the opening size increased. Regardless of the opening size and CFRP configuration, ultimate loads of beams increased with the application of CFRP. However, this improvement was limited to the debonding and rupture of CFRP in group 2 and 3 beams, respectively. A comparison in the behavior of group 2 and 3 beams revealed that the application of the U-shape CFRP sheet yielded better flexural performance in comparison with the flat-CFRP sheet bonded to the bottom of beams. In the end, In order to further evaluate the economic and performance benefits of these beams, the cost-benefit analysis was also performed. The analysis showed that the feasibility of the hollow section RC beams is more than the solid section RC beams.
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