Strength Performance of Different Mortars Doped Using Olive Stones as Lightweight Aggregate

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This work deal with a novel composite composed of light ground olive stone and traditional cement matrix. The idea is attractive and the contribution is well addressed. Before its acceptance, here are some revisions required to be made.

1.     In the abstract, the authors mentioned that 30% GOS achieved a decrease in density of 15%. What is the reference material here? What percentages of GOS is compared here? Also, in the following sentence, the author mentioned reference material. Then, what exactly the reference material is? The author should make it clear in the abstract.

2.     In the introduction part, the authors focused too much on the clay bricks, which is divergent from the topic of this work. The olive stones used in the clay bricks does act as an inspiration to the present work, but should not be the focus. To make the introduction organized in a more logic and concise way, the authors can shorten these descriptions and lay more emphasis on the previous works studying light aggregate in cement-based materials. Is there any other light aggregate used in the cement-based materials? If yes, what are the properties of these composites and what are the implications of these composites for the present work. In the whole introduction, the author wants to include too many elements, which make it a little bit confused to readers. The authors should consider how to reorganize the introduction part to make the logic clearer and more reasonable.

3.     The authors mentioned the fibers in the introduction, some newfiber-related studies could improve the introduction part, such as The influence of fiber type and length on the cracking resistance, durability and pore structure of face slab concrete; Comparison of fly ash, PVA fiber, MgO and shrinkage-reducing admixture on the frost resistance of face slab concrete via pore structural and fractal analysis

4.     Some units are not presented in a proper way, such as upper case and lower case, please check the whole manuscript. And there is an extra “y” in the line 158.

5.     It was stated that the size of fine aggregate ranged from 0-6 mm. However, in the Figure 1, the size distribution of fine aggregate covers from 0.01-10 mm. Please check and make them unified.

6.     In the line 177, what performance does “32.5, 42.5 and 52.5” represents?

7.     In figure 4, the evolution of the density should not be presented as a continuous line. There are only experimental results regarding to discrete compositions. So the trend should be presented by discrete dot.

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This work deal with a novel composite composed of light ground olive stone and traditional cement matrix. The idea is attractive and the contribution is well addressed. Before its acceptance, here are some revisions required to be made.

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments. Changes in the text are blue.

1. In the abstract, the authors mentioned that 30% GOS achieved a decrease in density of 15%. What is the reference material here? What percentages of GOS is compared here? Also, in the following sentence, the author mentioned reference material. Then, what exactly the reference material is? The author should make it clear in the abstract.

We have taken note of your comment and proceeded to revise the abstract. Changes in the text are blue.

2. In the introduction part, the authors focused too much on the clay bricks, which is divergent from the topic of this work. The olive stones used in the clay bricks does act as an inspiration to the present work, but should not be the focus. To make the introduction organized in a more logic and concise way, the authors can shorten these descriptions and lay more emphasis on the previous works studying light aggregate in cement-based materials. Is there any other light aggregate used in the cement-based materials? If yes, what are the properties of these composites and what are the implications of these composites for the present work. In the whole introduction, the author wants to include too many elements, which make it a little bit confused to readers. The authors should consider how to reorganize the introduction part to make the logic clearer and more reasonable.

We have taken note of your comment and proceeded to revise the introduction. Changes in the text are blue.

3. The authors mentioned the fibers in the introduction, some newfiber-related studies could improve the introduction part, such as The influence of fiber type and length on the cracking resistance, durability and pore structure of face slab concrete; Comparison of fly ash, PVA fiber, MgO and shrinkage-reducing admixture on the frost resistance of face slab concrete via pore structural and fractal análisis

We have taken note of your comment and proceeded to revise the introduction. Changes in the text are blue.

 

4. Some units are not presented in a proper way, such as upper case and lower case, please check the whole manuscript. And there is an extra “y” in the line 158.

Thank you, we have corrected this mistake in the article. Changes in the text are blue.

5. It was stated that the size of fine aggregate ranged from 0-6 mm. However, in the Figure 1, the size distribution of fine aggregate covers from 0.01-10 mm. Please check and make them unified.

Thank you, we have corrected this mistake in the article. Changes in the text are blue.

6. In the line 177, what performance does “32.5, 42.5 and 52.5” represents?

Thank you, we have corrected this mistake in the article. Changes in the text are blue.

7. In figure 4, the evolution of the density should not be presented as a continuous line. There are only experimental results regarding to discrete compositions. So the trend should be presented by discrete dot.

Thank you for your helpful comments, we have corrected this mistake in the article. Changes in the text are blue.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The idea is interesting and could be a judicious way to use the waste (GOS).

 As week elements

Please remove the abbreviations from the abstract.

Tables 1 and 3 must be resized to fit the page format. Figures 1 and 2 must also be resized to fit the format.

In table 3, the quantity of cement must also be entered. Figures 4, 5 and 6 do not have any size passed either on the abscissa or on the ordinate.

 As notable elements

With over 30 bibliographic references, with experimental tests appropriate to the research carried out but also with o lot of mechanical tests, you managed to demonstrate that the proposed solution is a good one.

I appreciate the fact that you stated the review of ways to recover and use GOS in the introduction.

I also appreciate the multitude of tests performed - a total of 378 mortar samples were made in the laboratory.

As a recommendation, in the future the number of samples can be reduced using the Design of Experiment method.

Kind regards,

 

Author Response

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Authors,

The idea is interesting and could be a judicious way to use the waste (GOS).

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments. Changes in the text are green.

As week elements

Please remove the abbreviations from the abstract.

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments. Changes in the text are green.

Tables 1 and 3 must be resized to fit the page format. Figures 1 and 2 must also be resized to fit the format.

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments. Changes in the text are green.

In table 3, the quantity of cement must also be entered. Figures 4, 5 and 6 do not have any size passed either on the abscissa or on the ordinate.

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments. Changes in the text are green.

As notable elements

With over 30 bibliographic references, with experimental tests appropriate to the research carried out but also with o lot of mechanical tests, you managed to demonstrate that the proposed solution is a good one.

I appreciate the fact that you stated the review of ways to recover and use GOS in the introduction.

I also appreciate the multitude of tests performed - a total of 378 mortar samples were made in the laboratory.

As a recommendation, in the future the number of samples can be reduced using the Design of Experiment method.

Thank you for your time and encouraging comments.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

It can be accepted now.