Antônio Correia Braga Filho (a) https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6819-1513
Aline Figueiredo da Nóbrega (b) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2327-8780
Adriano da Silva Félix (b) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5753-3276
José Augusto Gomes Neto (a) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2110-1882
Normando Perazzo Barbosa (a) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4497-8900
Camila Vitória Dantas de Souza (a) https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1230-0636
Raphaele de Lira Meireles Castro Malheiro (c) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6922-9813

a Federal University of Paraiba, Civil and Environmental Engineering, João Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil
b Federal University of Campina Grande, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Campina Grande, Paraiba, Brazil
c University of Minho, Center for Territory, Environment and Construction, Braga, Portugal

ABSTRACT

Brazil is one of the countries with the largest gypsum reserves in the world. However, per capita
consumption of this binder is much lower than that of other countries, even some neighbouring countries.
Hemi-hydrated gypsum is a material that can be considered much less impactful environmental than
products such as lime or cement, as it requires much lower temperatures to be obtained and, instead of
CO2, it releases water vapor in its manufacturing process. Therefore, this material de-serves many more
applications, including the construction of houses. At the Federal University of Paraíba, a type of block
was developed that complies with modular coordination, which allows the construction of buildings with
practically no loss of the composite used. A prototype was built and showed excellent performance.
Thinking about reducing the environmental impact of construction, the intention now is to reduce the
consumption of gypsum in the blocks, incorporating waste from stone crushing, the disposal of which
harms Nature. In this work, the innovative e construction process is presented. The influence of partial
replacement of gypsum by stone powder in levels that vary from 0% to 50% (by mass) and water/gypsum
ratio between 0.5 and 0.9 in compression and flexural strength, obtained according to Brazilian Standards,
are also showed and discussed. Results show that the replacement of gypsum by stone powder, increases
strengths, and the optimum percentage must be close to 20% – 30%. However, even 50% replacement
can lead to a composite with adequate strength (from 4 to 10 MPa, according to water/gypsum ratio) for
house building blocks.
Keywords: Gypsum; Stone powder waste; Constructive system