The current research reports the development of a green lightweight engineered cementitious composite (GLECC) using local industrial wastes. Three types of industrial waste materials, including stone sludge powder, electric arc furnace dust and silica fume, were utilised fully or partially to replace ordinary constituent materials of engineered cementitious composite. Moreover, polypropylene fibres were substituted for polyvinyl alcohol fibres. The influences of different dosages of polypropylene fibres and silica fume on the mechanical properties of GLECC were experimentally tested. Then, the response surface method was employed for developing mathematical models of predicting mechanical properties and executing optimisation to obtain optimum combinations of polypropylene fibres and silica fume. The results revealed that the fresh and hardened densities and compressive strength declined with an increment in polypropylene fibres, while both flexural strength and toughness improved due to incorporating polypropylene fibres up to 2%. Adding up to 10% silica fume not only enhanced the strength and toughness but also reduced the fresh and hardened density of GLECC. The mathematical models developed to predict the mechanical characteristics were significant and accurate, with the highest error of 10%. The optimum dosage of variables was 14.2% silica fume and 2% polypropylene fibres with 79% desirability.

Keywords