Mechanical and durability properties of epoxy mortar incorporating coal bottom ash as filler

Abstract This paper presented an experimental investigation on epoxy mortar produced using industrial wastes, namely coal bottom ash as filler to replace sand, fly ash and silica fume as micro fillers. Four parameters investigated were: (i) the epoxy resin to filler ratio, (ii) particle size of coal bottom ash, (iii) types of micro filler, and (iv) proportion of micro filler. Experiments were carried out to determine the physical properties, mechanical properties and shrinkage of epoxy mortar with different proportions of epoxy resin, filler and micro fillers. The results demonstrated that the epoxy resin to filler ratio significantly impacted the properties of epoxy mortar. Moreover, the epoxy mortar with ground coal bottom ash showed higher mechanical properties and lower water absorption and shrinkage than the epoxy mortar with coal bottom ash. Mechanical properties were improved as the content of micro fillers increased up to 20% in the epoxy mortar. The mechanical strengths of epoxy mortar with ground coal bottom ash were about 30% lower than epoxy mortar with sand at the same epoxy resin and micro filler content. However, epoxy mortar with GCBA demonstrated 50% lower shrinkage than epoxy mortar with sand.