Investigation of usability of Bayburt stone wastes in geopolymer brick production

Natural stones were used in monument and buildings by mankind because of durability and esthetics. Recently, especially, stones have been used as construction material, cladding stone, gravestone, decorative furniture, sculpture, and in porcelain production. Therefore, industrialized or industrializing natural stone production has been carry out in many regions. This process is occur waste product for both in quarry and in workshop. These wastes have been usually used in construction sector, have been stored or thrown out directly in environment. Particles moved by erosion of rain and wind from the waste fields affect domestic water and agricultural areas dramatically, and also nature pollution make up due to dusting. In this study, Bayburt Stone (BS) production wastes which has been used as cladding stone, window ledge and some restoration works such as bridge, mosque and fountain was used in geopolymerization method with an alkali activator like NaOH. Hence, it was aimed that has produced highly strength construction brick. In the experimental study, brick was produced using travertine and BS wastes in Bayburt region. In this scope, as soon as BS and travertine wastes were grinded, they were mixed in certain ratios with 5M and 10M concentrations of NaOH solution to make paste form. After the paste specimens were cured in laboratory condition, firstly they were hardened by 20, 40 and 80 oC heating process for 24 hours in incubator. The end of this process the maximum strength of 2 and 28 days were chosen to manufacture main specimen group to do some other tests. Curing temperature of 20oC had the best strength development values. Setting time, standard consistency tests were done on fresh pastes specimens, flexural and compressive strength, abrasion resistance, unit weight, water absorption, thermal conductivity constant and resistance of elevated temperature tests were done on hardened specimens. Properties of geopolymer brick produced with BS waste and travertine wastes was compared with traditional bricks. Produced brick as known green material has higher compressive strength, more eco-efficiency, and it has zero CO2 emission, and so it could be said it is eco-friendly material.