ABSTRACT
Mining activity in the town of Bechar in southwest of Algeria was definitively completed in 1975 by generating artificial mountains known as coal slag heaps. These heaps cumulate a volume of 3767330m3, and occupy an area of 167.71 ha. The development of urban fabrics has now resulted in some slag heaps being located very close to built-up areas, or squarely in the middle. The reuse of these slags heaps as materials in the field of civil engineering has been proposed as a solution to take charge of these slag heaps. The objective of this work is to carry out an experimental hygrothermal characterization of a mortar based on slag heaps by comparing it to an ordinary mortar. The results obtained demonstrated the good insulation of this material, as well as its good hygroscopic capacity.
