Comparison of Destructive Strength Testing with Non-Destructive Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity Testing for Waste Marble Aggregate Concrete: An Experimental and Statistical Investigation

In this study, the performance of eco-friendly concrete produced by utilizing waste marble as a total aggregate replacement was evaluated. The experimental findings indicated that the developed waste marble aggregate concrete (WMC) specimens successfully met the standardized strength requirements for structural applications. The main objective of this investigation was to determine the experimental and statistical correlation between destructive strength tests and the non-destructive ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) test, taking into account the content ratios of concrete. This study presents an experimental and statistical investigation to correlate destructive strength properties with non-destructive UPV measurements in eco-friendly concrete. A total of 300 concrete cubic specimens were produced by fully substituting conventional aggregates with waste marble aggregates across five distinct water-to-cement ratios (W/C = 0.20 to 0.40) and ten aggregate-to-cement ratios (WMA/C = 1.1 to 2.0). Compressive strength (fc), splitting tensile strength (ft), and UPV tests were conducted on the 28th day. The experimental results showed that fc ranged from 19.2 to 37.5 MPa, ft from 2.3 to 4.4 MPa, and UPV from 3580 to 4386 m/s, confirming the high structural quality of the waste marble aggregate concrete. Non-linear regression analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 to develop empirical models predicting destructive strengths based on mix design parameters and UPV data. The proposed statistical models demonstrated high accuracy with determination coefficients (R2) of 0.98 for fc and 0.97 for ft, backed by low mean absolute relative deviations (6% and 8%, respectively). The findings indicate that the developed empirical formulations can reliably evaluate the strength of WMC in a practical and non-destructive manner.