Utilization of Basaltic Quarry Dust as a Partial Replacement of Cement for Hollow Concrete Block Production

This research was conducted to examine the potential of basaltic crusher dust as a partial replacement for Portland Pozzolana cement in hollow concrete block (HCB) production. Quarry dust is one of the waste materials abundantly available and pozzolanic material in the quarry industry. In doing so, physical tests of cement pastes and hollow concrete blocks of different classes, i.e., A, B, and C, were produced by partially replacing the cement content with 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight of basaltic crusher dust using vibrating block molding machine. The units without basaltic crusher dust (0%) serve as a control variable. The cement pastes were examined for consistency and setting time, and the blocks produced were tested to determine their compressive strength, water absorption rate, and density. Furthermore, the possible cost advantages of using basaltic crusher dust as a partial replacement of cement in the hollow concrete block were analyzed. The result indicates that the experimental HCB of classes A and C surpassed the required standard of compressive strength, water absorption, and density specified by the Ethiopian standard ES 596:2001; whereas, the compressive strength of class B fails at 40% cement replacement. It was concluded that hollow concrete blocks of classes A and C with up to 40% replacement and class B with up to 30% replacement can be used for load-bearing walls and save the e cost of hollow concrete blocks with comparable properties.