Recycling and reusing of waste fresh cement mortar through the dormancy-awakening method
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1
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Anhui University of Science and Technology, China
2
Anhui Key Laboratory of Mining Construction Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, China
3
Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, The University of Alabama, United States
4
State Key Laboratory of Mining Response and Disaster Prevention and Control in Deep Coal Mine, Anhui University of Science and Technology, China
Submission date: 2024-09-25
Final revision date: 2024-12-11
Acceptance date: 2025-01-14
Publication date: 2026-06-14
Corresponding author
Liang Wang
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Anhui University of Science and Technology, 232001, Huainan, China
Archives of Civil Engineering 2026;72(2):347-362
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ABSTRACT
This study develops the dormancy-awakening method for recycling and reusing of waste fresh cement mortar. Sucrose (SU, C12H22O11) is utilized as the dormancy agent to delay cement hydration, which can prolong the storage time of the waste fresh cement mortar. Aluminum sulfate (AS, Al2(SO4)3) and calcium formate (CF, C2H2O4Ca) serve as awakening agents to resume cement hydration. The results show that the addition of 0.1% SU in fresh mortar blocks cement hydration for the first 24 hours. AS and CF accelerate the cement hydration process and shorten the setting time. The combined use of AS and CF can further accelerate cement hydration, leading to the normal setting time of cement. The setting time can be flexibly controlled by using dormancy agent and awakening agents. Moreover, the awakened cement mortar has smaller volume of harmful pores compared to normal mortar. The addition of awakening agents can improve elastic modulus and packing density of the hardened mortar according to nanoindentation analysis. Compared to the normal mortar, the compressive strength of awakened mortar is enhanced by 21.0% and 18.3% at 3 days and 28 days, respectively. This study develops the method for recycling and reusing waste fresh cement mortar by using conventional admixtures.