Sustainable Construction Materials in Green Concrete: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

The use of green concrete has been identified as an environmentally-friendly method by using various industrial, agricultural, and construction wastes. Hence, this study is focused on a literature review of the use of fly ash, rice husk ash (RHA), dune sand, waste glass, and ceramic waste in concrete based on the properties such as physical, chemical, fresh state, and mechanical properties. Based on this literature review, it can be concluded that fly ash and RHA are very useful for enhancing long-term performance via pozzolanic reactions where optimum percentage replacement ranges between 10-25% and 10-20%, respectively. Dune sand was also effective for being utilized as a fine aggregate replacement material with the optimum percentage ranging between 20-40%. It was found that waste glass and ceramic waste were efficient when they were used as replacements at the optimum level of about 10-25%. When these materials are added moderately, compressive, flexural, and split tensile strengths could be increased, but otherwise their workability and mechanical strength may decrease because of their high porosity and low bonding strength. The use of these materials has helped in reducing CO₂ emissions, better waste management, conservation of natural resources, and the production of sustainable building materials. But there still needs to be more research conducted regarding their longevity, larger-scale uses, and combination with other green concretes.