Replacement of the gravel by ceramic waste from the lost wax casting process in the high resistance concretes

This research aimed at the technical feasibility of gravel replacement by the residue from lost wax casting process in high resistance concrete of 500 kgf/cm² (50 MPa). This residue entails financial and environmental losses due to the difficulty of being reused in the production process and, therefore, consequently destined for industrial landfills. According to standards, the residue was tested and characterized to be mixed in samples with variations of 25%, 50%, 75% e 100% in gravel replacement. After that, compressive strength, consistency index, absorption of water by capillarity and immersion tests were performed. When compared to the standard without residue addition, the results showed that the residue can be used as gravel replacement in high strength concrete. Therefore, the present work shows that it is possible to reuse the residue from lost wax casting process in the construction industry. (author)