Study of Alternative Materials

Work such as: buildings, roads, bridges, tunnels and slope coverings – amongst others, require great amounts of natural materials for their construction. The excessive use of these materials has caused diminishment of the sources that produce them. Additionally, reconstruction, keeping and improvement of works produce great amount of waste materials. These two aspects negatively affect the environment. Additionally, the improvement of the structural elements has been searches for, by way of substituting natural materials (such as Gravel and sand) for materials which are the product of the recycling of industrial, construction processes or of additive ones (named in this present article as alternative materials). In recent years, various institutions have investigated in the use of alternative materials for the improvement of hydraulic concrete properties. This article presents some of the investigative experiences of the research group for Pavement and Engineering Materials, during the study of the usage of alternative materials on hydraulic concrete. The result of the studies showed that the alternative materials tend to improve some of the properties of hydraulic concrete such as: compressive strength, tensile strength testing, and workability.