Journal of Building Engineering 32 (2020) 101694 Available online 9 August 2020 2352-7102/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Building Engineering Properties of self-leveling mortars incorporating a high-volume of sugar cane bagasse ash as partial Portland cement replacement Marcos A.S. Anjos a, ** , Tomaz R. Araújo b , Ruan L.S. Ferreira c, * , Evilane C. Farias d , Antonio E. Martinelli b a Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraiba e PEC/UFRN, Civil Engineering Department, 58015-435, João Pessoa, Brazil b Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Materials Engineering Department, 59072-970, Natal, Brazil c Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Pernambuco, Civil Construction Department, 55200-000, Pesqueira, Brazil d Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte, Campus SPP, Edifcações, São Paulo de Potengi/RN, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Limestone powder Bagasse ash. mortar Supplementary Materials Mechanical properties ABSTRACT Self-leveling mortar (SLM) is a special mortar that can fow and fll under its own weight without the need for any compaction energy. To meet these characteristics and to ensure their stability (no segregation and exuda- tion) these mortars require, in addition to proper mixing design and the use of water reducing assets, a large quantity of fnes or viscosity modifying additives, which raises the cost for the production. The use of indus- trial by products such as sugar-cane bagasse ash (SCBA) is an interesting alternative because they are lower cost materials and act as viscosity modifying agent, providing improvements in the rheological, physical and mechanical properties for SLM. Thus, the infuence of SCBA on the rheological, physical and mechanical prop- erties of cement-based and limestone fller (LF) mortars will be investigate in this research. The mortars were produced with a water/binder (cement + LF + SCBA) volumetric ratio of 0.85 and 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% Portland cement (PC) replacement by SCBA. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of SCBA incorporation on the properties of fresh (viscosity, fowability and flling ability) and hardened mortars (fexural strength, compressive strength, dynamic modulus of elasticity, bond strength and water absorption by capillarity). The results show that the rheological, physical and mechanical behavior of mortars was im- proved, especially for contents of up to 25% replacement of PC by SCBA. For higher contents, the performance of SLM was reduced. 1. Introduction The construction sector is one of the pillars of the development of the global economy at the expense of being a major contributor to the high consumption of energy and materials [1]. In particular, cement production is associated with high environmental impacts due to the extraction of non-renewable raw materials (limestone and clay) and high carbon dioxide emissions. The production of 1t of Portland ce- ment (PC) emits 0.94t of anthropomorphic CO 2 and still consumes more than 1.5t of raw materials and 2.93 –6.28GJ of thermal energy, besides 65 to 141 kWh of electricity [2,3]. High energy and raw material consumption, as well as high CO 2 emissions during PC production, have been worrying society about sustainability. Some methods of mitigating these problems include mixing PC with pozzolans, which reacts with lime produced by PC hy- dration, to produce more cementing materials [4]. This alternative is quite appreciable since the cement productive chain remains an essen- tial driving force for human development [5] due to its high produc- tion which is from around 2 million tons annually [6]. The increased costs of fuels, carbon reduction targets and growing demand for more sustainable alternatives are driving cement manu- facturers to seek change and the creation of new technologies and products [5]. From this perspective, the use of industrial by-products emerges as one of the most effcient alternatives to sustainably de- velop the construction sector. * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: marcos.anjos@ifpb.edu.br (M.A.S. Anjos), ruan.ferreira@pesqueira.ifpe.edu.br (R.L.S. Ferreira). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101694 Received 7 January 2020; Received in revised form 2 June 2020; Accepted 21 July 2020