A review of the research about gypsum mortars with waste aggregates

• Published in: Journal of Building Engineering 2022-01, Vol.45, p.103338, Article 103338
• Main Authors: del Río-Merino, Mercedes, Vidales-Barriguete, Alejandra, Piña-Ramírez, Carolina, Vitiello, Verónica, Santa Cruz-Astorqui, Jaime, Castelluccio, Roberto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggregates; Construction and demolition waste; Gypsum; Gypsum plaster
• ISSN: 2352-7102; 2352-7102
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103338

With the growing environmental awareness occurring worldwide, many industries, such as the construction sector, are setting their own measures to reduce their environmental impact. In addition, governments are forced to reduce emission and waste. For this reason, in the building sector, many efforts are being made to reduce the consumption of natural resources and energy in buildings and the materials manufacturers are introducing sustainable initiatives to achieve these objectives. In this sense, the current trend of the construction sector towards environmental impact reduction and protection involves the design and the manufacture of more sustainable and regenerative construction materials. In this context, many research works have been carried out on the mechanical characterization of new composites, specifically gypsum, aiming to improve the environmental performance of traditional materials used in building construction. Accordingly, it is essential to review previous works to understand the mechanical performance of these new gypsums so that they can be applied in building construction. This paper gives an overview of the mechanical characterization of gypsums containing waste and explores the effect of adding different waste categories in different percentages. Previous experimental studies on the mechanical characterization of recycled gypsum composites are presented as well as further suggestions for future works. •Gypsum is a material that has been used in constructions since ever for its excellent properties.•The sustainability of gypsum products can be improved, replacing a parto of the raw material with CDW.•Gypsum can be recycled back into the gypsum life cycle.•Circular economy strategies can be used with gypsum composites and/or prefabricated gypsum elements.•Gypsum mortars admit a wide variety of waste in the matrix: concrete, ceramic, glass, carpentry, thermal insulators, plastics, etc.