Mechanical and durability behaviour of concrete with granite waste dust as partial cement replacement under adverse exposure conditions Saeid Ghorbani a , Iman Taji b , Jorge de Brito c,⇑ , Mohammadamin Negahban a , Sahar Ghorbani a , Mohammadreza Tavakkolizadeh a , Ali Davoodi b a Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad 91775-1111, Iran b Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad 91775-1111, Iran c Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georresources, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal highlights  Using up to 20% GWD as cement replacement does not significantly affect the mechanical properties of concrete.  Chloride attack, unlike acid attack, does not degrade the mechanical properties of concrete.  Using 20% GWD as cement replacement showed the least mass loss.  Using 10% and 20% GWD as cement replacement led to higher values of OCP and corrosion resistance.  The H 2 SO 4 solution is less aggressive than the NaCl solution in terms of corrosion behavior. article info Article history: Received 16 July 2018 Received in revised form 22 October 2018 Accepted 2 November 2018 Keywords: Concrete mix Mechanical properties Durability properties Granite waste dust Open circuit potential Impedance spectroscopy abstract In this research, the effect of granite waste dust (GWD) as partial replacement of cement (up to 20%) on the mechanical and durability behaviour of concrete mixes under adverse exposure conditions was inves- tigated. The specimens were tested after 28 days of curing in lime-saturated water and 91 days of expo- sure to 5% by weight of NaCl and H 2 SO 4 solutions. Compressive and splitting tensile strength, resistance to acid attack, water absorption, open circuit potential (OCP) and electrochemical impedance spec- troscopy (EIS) tests and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis were performed. The compressive and tensile strength results showed that using up to 20% GWD as cement replacement does not signifi- cantly affect the mechanical properties of concrete mixes. However, the concrete mix with 10% GWD dis- played the highest strength of all. It was also revealed that the concrete mix with 20% GWD showed a higher resistance to acid and chloride attack than the others. GWD did not have a significant effect on the water absorption of the concrete mixes. OCP and EIS measurements revealed that 10% and 20% GWD as cement replacement significantly improved the corrosion resistance of concrete. Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In recent years, sustainable construction became a big challenge for civil and environmental engineers because the construction industry is one of the main consumers of natural resources and also a massive waste producer [1,2]. Because most of these waste materials have serious environmental impacts, many researchers have recently tried to come up with much needed sustainable solu- tions [3]. The granite processing industry generates a large amount of granite waste, which form a colloidal waste in contact with water during the production process of these stones. As this wet slurry loses its water content due to the water evaporation, it gen- erates fine dry particle waste dust, which is blown away by wind and causes serious environmental impacts. GWD eventually settles down on the vegetation and crops around the granite processing industries and threaten the ecology of the environment [4]. In addition, the ground water level and surface waters are also affected by the GWD due to the prevention of water from reaching the ground water table and the pollution of surface waters, respec- tively [4]. Concrete is one of the most important materials in the building construction and other infrastructures around the world and it is reported as the second most widely used material by mankind https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.11.023 0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: Saeid.ghorbani@mail.um.ac.ir (S. Ghorbani), imantaji@um.ac. ir (I. Taji), jb@civil.ist.utl.pt (J. de Brito), Sahar.Ghorbani@mail.um.ac.ir (S. Ghorbani), drt@um.ac.ir (M. Tavakkolizadeh), a.davodi@um.ac.ir (A. Davoodi). Construction and Building Materials 194 (2019) 143–152 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat