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This study investigated the effects of combined utilization of wollastonite particles and recycled waste ceramic aggregate (RWCA) on high strength concrete (HSC) properties. Two groups of mixtures were manufactured: 1) concrete mixtures in which cement was partially replaced with wollastonite at values ranging from 10% to 50%, and 2) mixtures in which wollastonite was used at the aforementioned dosages and 50% of natural coarse aggregate was replaced with RWCA. In addition, 10% of cement weight micro-silica was added to all mixtures. The concrete behavior in terms of strength, durability, resistance against acidic environment, and performance under elevated temperatures ranging from 20 °C to... 

The authors regret that there was a minor error in the chemical composition of cement and micro-silica presented in Table 2 of the previously print version of the article. The authors have re-analyzed the materials for more accuracy of the presented information. Please refer to the corrected table as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

The authors regret that there was a minor error in the chemical composition of cement and micro-silica presented in Table 2 of the previously print version of the article. The authors have re-analyzed the materials for more accuracy of the presented information. Please refer to the corrected table as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

This paper investigates the influence of intumescent paint on the performance of FRP bars subjected to low (25–450 °C) and severe (450–800 °C) elevated temperatures. In this research, glass and carbon FRP bars with epoxy resin and coated with nitrogen-based intumescent paint were used. In addition to the temperature effects, a variety of FRP bar diameters were employed to determine its effect on the tensile behavior of FRP bars in the presence of intumescent paint. Further, Bayesian regression methods and ANOVA (ANalysis Of VAriance) were applied on the results to develop a predictive model form and quantify the contribution of the variables in the tensile performance of FRP bars,... 

In this paper, the optimum alkali activator solution properties in alkali-activated pastes based on ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and micro-silica (MS) were investigated. For this purpose, sodium hydroxide (NH) solutions with molarities of 8 M, 12 M, and 16 M were prepared and mixed with sodium silicate (NS) solutions at NS:NH ratios of 1.0, 2.5, and 4.0 to produce the final activator solution. Two sets of pastes were manufactured: (1) pastes based on GGBFS, and (2) pastes in which 10% by weight of GGBFS was replaced with MS. The fresh density increased with increasing NH molarity and NS:NH ratio; whereas, the final setting time reduced with an increase in the aforementioned... 

This study is aimed at optimizing the rice husk ash (RHA) content and bacterial concentration in self-compacting concrete (SCC). For this purpose, cement was partially replaced with RHA at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% by weight of cement. In addition, micro-silica (MS) was added to all mixes at a dosage of 10% by weight of cementitious materials. The mix with the optimum RHA content was supplied with bacterial cells with concentrations of 103, 105, and 107 cells/ml to reduce the formation of micro-cracks. The RHA concretes showed reduced workability with increasing RHA content. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were performed on... 

This paper studied the durability, microstructure, and fire behavior of lightweight mortars based on cement, metakaolin (MK), ultrafine ground granulated blast furnace slag (UGGBFS), ceramic waste powder (CWP), and clay brick waste powder (CBWP). Two sets of mixes were prepared with two types of lightweight aggregate including lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) and pumice aggregate. Regarding the durability assessment, the electrical resistivity and water absorption of the mortars were measured. The UGGBFS-based alkali-activated mortar with pumice aggregate exhibited the highest electrical resistivity and lowest water absorption, while CBWP-based geopolymer mortar with LECA showed... 

In this research, the mechanical properties of glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars with epoxy resin matrices embedded in concrete were investigated under an extensive range of elevated temperatures (i.e., 25–800 °C). Embedded FRP bars with various bar diameters were studied in order to determine bar diameter influence on the results. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the experimental results to investigate the contribution of exposure temperature and bar diameter to the tensile behavior of embedded in concrete FRP bars at elevated temperatures. The results show that the tensile strength of embedded FRP bars generally decreases with increasing... 

The authors regret that there was an error in the labels of Fig. 5. The authors have re-analyzed the XRD patterns of micro-silica for more accuracy of the presented information. Please refer to the corrected figure as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

The authors regret that there was an error in the XRD pattern for pumice shown in Fig. 8. The authors have re-analyzed the pumice to address the concerns over the reliability of the pattern due to the presence of noises, and the updated XRD pattern has been shown in Fig. 8 here for more accuracy of the presented information. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd  

The authors regret that there were minor errors in the labels of the XRD patterns of cement and micro-silica presented in Figs. 1 and 2, which have been corrected in the figures included here. In addition, due to concerns over the reliability of the XRD pattern of pumice shown in Fig. 9, as caused by a low signal count, the authors have re-analyzed the pumice and the updated XRD pattern has been included here. It is worth noting that these changes do not affect any of the conclusions. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. © 2021  

The authors regret that there was an error in the caption of Fig. 15. The corrected caption for Fig. 15 as presented here. It is noteworthy that this change does not affect any of the conclusions. Fig. 15. SEM micrograph of geopolymer mortar with clay brick waste: (a) with LECA and magnification of 60×, (b) with pumice aggregates and magnification of 2000×, (c) with pumice aggregates and magnification of 500×, (d) with pumice aggregates and magnification of 1000×. The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd  

The authors regret that there is an error with the caption of Figure 10 in the article. The magnification of the SEM image shown in Figure 10(b) is 100×. Furthermore, Ameri et al. [1] is the original source of the image. The correct caption is as follows: Fig. 10. Morphology of pumice aggregate: (a) 30× magnification, (b) 100× magnification [1]. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. [1] F. Ameri, P. Shoaei, S.A. Zareei, B. Behforouz, Geopolymers vs. alkali-activated materials (AAMs): A comparative study on durability, microstructure, and resistance to elevated temperatures of lightweight mortars, Constr. Build. Mater. 222 (2019) 49–63.... 

This paper investigated the combined utilization of recycled waste ceramic aggregate (RWCA) and waste carpet fibers (WCFs) in high strength concrete (HSC). Concrete mixes containing different percentages of RWCA including 20%, 40%, 60% (by weight) as partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) were prepared. To enhance the tensile and flexural strength of concrete, 1.0% (by volume) WCF was added to the mixes. The slump and density of the fresh concrete were evaluated, both of which demonstrated a decreasing trend with incorporation of RWCA and WCF. With regard to the hardened concrete, replacing 40% of NCA with RWCA led to the optimum mechanical properties and increased the... 

This study presents the results of an experimental evaluation of the performance of high strength concrete (HSC)with basic oxygen steel-making (BOS)slag and nano-silica respectively used as a partial replacement of sand and cement. The properties of fresh and hardened concrete specimens containing 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% BOS as partial replacement of sand and 2% of cement replaced with nano-silica were evaluated. According to the results, concrete samples containing nano-silica with higher BOS percentages, demonstrated improvements in strength and durability properties, while workability was reduced. For example, at 50% BOS content, about 18% increase in compressive strength and 50%... 

Copper slag (CS) is an industrial waste, which is generally disposed of in landfills, posing threats to the environment. Alternatively, it can be used as natural aggregate replacement in concrete/mortar, however, it results in a significant increase in material density, production and handling cost. The use of crumb rubber in combination with CS can overcome these problems, but there was no prior study on effect of such combination on the properties of alkali activated mortars (AAMs). The primary aim of this study is to address the problem stated above by replacing CS with 5, 10, 15% (by volume) crumb rubber in alkali-activated slag mortars. Furthermore, the effect of pre-treatment of crumb... 

Every year, about a thousand million tires reach the end of their service life, more than half of which are disposed of in landfills. The waste tire rubber has a great potential for application as aggregate phase in production of lightweight concrete/mortar. This study is aimed at evaluating the effects of using crumb rubber (CR) as fine aggregate at replacement ratios of 0–60% (by volume) in alkali-activated slag mortars. Furthermore, polypropylene fibre (PPF) was used at 0.5% and 1% of volume of the mix to enhance the properties of mortar mixes such as flexural strength and shrinkage behaviour. The compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption, thermal conductivity, drying... 

This study was aimed at evaluating the effects of alkali activator solution and utilization of silica fume (SF) on durability and microstructural characteristics of alkali-activated ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) pastes. The pastes were activated with sodium silicate (SS) blended with NaOH (SH) solution with molar concentrations of 8 M, 12 M, and 16 M and SS:SH ratios of 1.0, 2.5, and 4.0. The same mixes were prepared with SF as partial replacement of GGBFS at a dosage of 10% by weight. The initial and final water absorption as well as the electrical resistivity of the specimens were measured. The optimal paste fabricated with 12 M NaOH solution and SS:SH ratio of 2.5 showed... 

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief, following a complaint from a reader. The editors have been made aware of multiple instances of duplicate SEM images used in this and two other papers reported as showing different materials in different papers. Following investigation and expert review, the editors are no longer confident of the content of the SEM images in this paper. Regrettably, this issue is unlikely to have been revealed during the peer-review process; the journal editors apologise for the error.... 

Every year, about a thousand million tires reach the end of their service life, more than half of which are disposed of in landfills. The waste tire rubber has a great potential for application as aggregate phase in production of lightweight concrete/mortar. This study is aimed at evaluating the effects of using crumb rubber (CR) as fine aggregate at replacement ratios of 0–60% (by volume) in alkali-activated slag mortars. Furthermore, polypropylene fibre (PPF) was used at 0.5% and 1% of volume of the mix to enhance the properties of mortar mixes such as flexural strength and shrinkage behaviour. The compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption, thermal conductivity, drying...