Abstract
This study evaluates the effects of high percentages of different by-products, including blast furnace slag (BFS) and fly ash (FA), on the structural performance, energy requirement and environment impacts of a concrete heavy-duty pavement (HDP) at various curing temperatures. The results of the structural performance indicate that HDP containing up to 70% BFS and HDP containing 30% FA can be comparable in controlling the HDPs designed for highways and airports. Moreover, the results of the environmental impact assessment indicate that the synergy of the by-product and warm water can reduce the energy requirement and CO 2 footprint by 5.77%-56.54% and 8.16%-55.5% for the highway and airport HDPs, respectively. Although the elevated curing temperature improves the structural performance and sustainability of the concrete pavements, any delay in concrete production increases energy consumption accordingly. Moreover, a new parameter (∇ TE), which is the time gradient per unit energy consumption developed based on the Laplace transformation, is proposed to characterize the effect of the time delay in concrete production. This parameter indicates that the time required for a unit energy consumption (1 TJ) decreases by 50%, as the curing temperature increases. In conclusion, analysis of the structural design, carbon footprint, and the results of ∇ TE indicate that 35 °C can be proposed as the optimum water curing temperature for the HDP incorporating by-products.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1507-1520 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
Volume | 166 |
Publication status | Published - 10 Nov 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- energy consumption
- environmental impact analysis
- factory and trade waste
- greenhouse gases
- sustainable development
- waste products