Study of Lightweight Mortars Made of Wooden Waste

In this work an attempt was made to reuse wooden waste for producing lightweight mortars by replacing natural sand. In fact, manufacturers of wooden product and furniture generate sawdust and offcuts. These are produced by cutting, drilling and milling operations where wood is removed from a finished product; they are often collected in filter bags or dust collectors. Three different percentages of substitution have been tried: 2.5%, 5% and 10% by volume of sand. Wooden waste was always pre-soaked in water and sometimes in calcium hydroxide aqueous solution in order to obtain wood mineralization before adding it to the mortar mixture. Mortars containing wooden waste were characterized by means of compression and bending tests, free drying shrinkage and thermal conductivity measurements.