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Volume 14
Issue 23
10.3390/su142315699
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Article
Peer-Review Record

Performance Evaluation of Environmentally Sustainable Precast Cement Concrete Paver Blocks Using Fly Ash and Polypropylene Fibre

Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15699; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315699
by Suresh Sundaramurthy 1,*, Shashi Bala 2, Anil Kumar Sharma 2, Jyoti Verma 3, Sasan Zahmatkesh 4, S. Arisutha 5, Sarika Verma 6, Mika Sillanpaa 7,8,9, Nagavinothini Ravichandran 10 and Balamurugan Panneerselvam 11,*
Reviewer 1: Anonymous
Reviewer 2:
Babak Vafaei
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 15699; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315699
Submission received: 5 October 2022 / Revised: 9 November 2022 / Accepted: 18 November 2022 / Published: 25 November 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drinking Water and Wastewater Resilience)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

After reviewing the paper, the following are the comments

1. Plan area formula not clear. Give more details about that formula

2. Mention the number of specimens for each test. (only total specimens count mentioned)

3. Mention IS codes in References

4. Explain about how corrected compressive strength obtained.

5. In line 171 it is mentioned  'compressive and flexural and durability properties like water absorption and abrasion resistance are also deliberated'. But abrasion resistance results I didn't find.

6. It is better to give line or bar chart for each test results for comparison.

7. Included paver block testing photos. 

Author Response

  1. Plan area formula not clear. Give more details about that formula

Response: Typing error, Correction has been carried out

  1. Mention the number of specimens for each test. (only total specimens count mentioned)

Response: Correction has been carried out in the same paragraph

  1. Mention IS codes in References 15658

Response: Correction has been carried out in reference

  1. Explain about how corrected compressive strength obtained.

Response: Note has been given in table.4 and correction has been carried out

  1. In line 171 it is mentioned ‘compressive and flexural and durability properties like water absorption and abrasion resistance are also deliberated'. But abrasion resistance results I didn't find.

Response: Typing error, Correction has been carried out

  1. It is better to give line or bar chart for each test results for comparison.

Response: Compressive strength of results has been given in bar chart and we feel that remaining results are in the table is the easy way to represent the results.

  1. Included paver block testing photos.

Response: Correction has been carried out.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Please find my detailed comments attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reviewer :2

General comments:

  1. There are so many standards mentioned in this manuscript without a proper explanation and Here are some examples but not all: line 134: IS: 8112, Line 137: IS: 383, line 138, 144, 187, 247, 262-263, etc. all standards must be referenced properly in text and in reference section.

Response: Typing error, Correction has been carried out

  1. Authors have used the symbol @ in the text. replace all of them with ‘at’. Here are some examples but not all line 26, 98, 101, 102, 174, 210 etc.

Response: Typing error, Correction has been carried out

  1. Correct all the powers in the units properly: Here are some examples but not all: line 238 should be mm2. Line 264, 399, Line 256-286 is experimental procedure and is not Discuss this in the proper section. Check the entire manuscript for the font size/type/etc consistency.

Response: Typing error, Correction has been carried out

Abstract

  1. Line 23: what is IS: 15658: change it to Indian Standard (IS): 15685

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Line 24: why this type of cement has restricted use in India nowadays?

Response: In order to improve the strength and quality of the Indian roads, this type of cement is restricted to use to construct the Indian roads. 

 

Introduction

  1. Line 40 “Concrete paving blocks were first produced in the United States in 1960s, for application in sidewalks, courtyards, driveways and parking ” lacks reference.

Response: Correction has been carried out and reference added

  1. Line 49: IIT Kharagpur? If university, please mention the full name. leave it as it is if it is the full name.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 2 Line 60: The reference to this standard IS: 15658 is wrong. Page 2 Lines 60-65: You provided no citations to these statements. Page 2 Lines 68 to 73: No citations again.

Response: Correction has been carried out and reference added

  1. Line 69: “have limitations of low tensile strength” why plural form fo limitantions? Only one limitation was mentioned: tensile strength

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Line 69: again “To overcome these limitations” what are the limitations? Line 69: No citations.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 2 Line 75: Which literature are you talking about?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 2 Lines 76 to To enrich the literature review, cite the following recent papers as an example of waste materials: biochar and glass powder.

Farzanian, K., Vafaei, B., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2019). The behavior of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs)   in   cement   mixtures   with   glass   powders   as   supplementary    cementitious materials. Materials, 12(21), 3597.

Prabahar, J., Vafaei, B., Baffoe, E., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2021). The Effect of Biochar on the Properties of Alkali-Activated Slag Pastes. Construction Materials, 2(1), 1-14.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 2 Line 80: Using what percentage?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 2 Table 1: What is the percentage? Better caption the table well

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Table 1 caption: remove % fly ash and polypropylene fiber, and use It is already defined in line 80.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 5 Line 85: “During 1965, PPF was blended into concrete to construct blast-resistant structures for U.S. corps” no citation.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 5 Lines 96: Rephrase the sentence correctly

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 6: Metakaolin is spelt without “e”

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 6 Line 125: What are you trying to explain in respect of CO2 emissions?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 6 Line 128: small “o” for

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 6 Line 134 “results regarding the physical properties are tabulated in Table ” The table shows chemical properties not physical. Please revise.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 6 Line 134: What is the reference for IS: Please give references to all the standards you used.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Line 141:what is IS sieve?

Response:

  1. Page 6 Line 142: Stone cursed aggregates?

Response:

  1. Page 9 Table 4; Your headings are not arranged properly.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 9 Line 197: what is this ratio 1:3?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 10: line 206 fck?

Response: fck (characteristics of compressive strength) is the unit of compressive strength

  1. Page 11 Line 237: There is no “t” in the equation so what “t” are you defining? Define Wa and is it 106 or 106?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Line 235: “The plan area was calculated by equation” should be The plan area was calculated by equation ‘1’.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 11 257 to 273: Is just a repetition. Not necessary. Page 12 Line 283: For medium for or to?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 12 Line 291 to 293: How does the amount of air entrapped reduce the workability? You gave no reason and reference for this.

Response: Correction has been carried out and reference added

  1. Page 13 Lines 304 to 312: Should be moved to the experiment and method section. Table 5: what is WCR? I assume it is water to cement ratio? Replace it with w/c.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 15 Lines 390 to 392: Your reasoning for the lower % gain in compressive strength at 28 days is weak. Your explanation should be around the stage of hydration.

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 15 Line 410 : Did you investigate the pozzolanicity of the various fly ash replacement? Page 16 Lines 429 to 435: What Figure and or table did you use to illustrate the flexural strength results? Again, your discussion on PPF contribute to flexural strength recovery is How does PPF contribute to high flexural strength?

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Page 16 section 3.2. Present the water absorption values in tables or graph. And also, your discussion should focus on how these PPF contributed to the reduction in water

Response: Correction has been carried out

  1. Is there a link between the compressive strength, flexural strength, and water absorption? What is the optimum mix design to attain higher compressive strength and high flexural strength but low water

Response: Correction has been carried out

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

There are some references that do not match with the text. following are just examples.

Please go over ‘all’ the ‘references’ and ‘citations’ again to make sure there are no issues. This is critical.

 

1.      Please make sure all your references are well cited in the text. I noticed some of your references are missing in the text and that is creating confusion. For instance, cite [24] and [25] are missing in the reference section and that has distorted the reference and citations.

2.      These papers are in the reference section but are missing in the text. Please consult the first review comments and address this issue.

 

·         Farzanian, K., Vafaei, B., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2019). The behavior of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) in cement mixtures with glass powders as supplementary cementitious materials. Materials, 12(21), 3597. 561 25.

·         Prabahar, J., Vafaei, B., Baffoe, E., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2021). The Effect of Biochar on the Properties of Alkali- 562 Activated Slag Pastes. Construction Materials, 2(1), 1-14.

 

3.      Page 2 lines 69 to 70: Fly ash based concrete paver blocks have limitation(s) of low tensile strength. To  overcome these limitation(s) not these limitation.

4.      Page 5 Lines 94 to 97: Please check the subject-verb agreement in this sentence.

5.      Page 6 Line 126: CO2 not CO2. Same as Line 477

6.      Page 12 Line 290: Again, no reference for I5658(2006). Same as lines 23 and 432

 

7.      Page 11 Lines 272 and 275: No reference for these citations.

Author Response

  1. Please make sure all your references are well cited in the text. I noticed some of your references are missing in the text and that is creating confusion. For instance, cite [24] and [25] are missing in the reference section and that has distorted the reference and citations.

Response: Thank you for suggestion. The entire reference has been verified and all the reference are cited properly in the main text.

  1. These papers are in the reference section but are missing in the text. Please consult the first review comments and address this issue.
  • Farzanian, K., Vafaei, B., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2019). The behavior of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) in cement mixtures with glass powders as supplementary cementitious materials. Materials, 12(21), 3597. 561 25.
  • Prabahar, J., Vafaei, B., Baffoe, E., & Ghahremaninezhad, A. (2021). The Effect of Biochar on the Properties of Alkali- 562 Activated Slag Pastes. Construction Materials, 2(1), 1-14.

Response: Thank you for suggesting these articles. The articles area cited in the result and discussion section.

  1. Page 2 lines 69 to 70: Fly ash based concrete paver blocks have limitation(s) of low tensile strength. To overcome these limitation(s) not these limitation.

Response: Correction has been carried and highlighted

  1. Page 5 Lines 94 to 97: Please check the subject-verb agreement in this sentence.

Response: Correction has been carried and highlighted

  1. Page 6 Line 126: CO2not CO2. Same as Line 477

Response: Correction has been carried and highlighted

  1. Page 12 Line 290: Again, no reference for I5658(2006). Same as lines 23 and 432

Response: Correction has been carried and highlighted

  1. Page 11 Lines 272 and 275: No reference for these citations.

Response: Correction has been carried and highlighted

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

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