Flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beams using waste marble powder towards application of sustainable concrete

The performance of waste marble powder as a partial replacement for cement is examined with the aim to achieve more sustainable concrete. Pursuant to this goal, a total of 15 specimens were manufactured and then tested to examine the bending behavior. The effects of longitudinal reinforcement ratio and waste marble powder ratio were selected as variables. The experimental results showed that different proportions of tension reinforcement and waste marble powder had different crack and bending impacts on reinforced concrete beams. As the waste marble powder amount in the concrete mixture is increased from 0% to 40%, it was detected that the crack type changes from a shear crack from to a flexural crack as the amount of waste marble powder increases in the mixing ratio. The experimental findings revealed that the waste marble powder can be successfully used as 10% of the partial replacement of cement. Increasing the waste marble powder ratio by more than 10% can significantly decrease the capacity of the beams, especially when longitudinal reinforcement ratio is high. The influence of waste marble as partial replacement on the capacity decreases as the longitudinal reinforcement ratio decreases. Therefore, 10%–20% marble waste can be utilized as a replacement for cement when the longitudinal reinforcement ratio is close to the balanced ratio and more than 20% waste marble ratio should be avoided for any cases.