An Experimental Study on the Properties of Concrete by the Partial Replacement of Sand with Glass Powder

Abstract

Disposal of more than 300 tonnes waste glass daily derived from post-consumer beverage bottles is one of the major environmental challenges for India, and this challenge continues to escalate as limited recycling channels can be identified and the capacity of valuable landfill space is going to be saturated at an alarming rate. For this reason, in the past ten years, a major research effort has been carried out to find practical ways to recycle waste glass for the production of different concrete products such as concrete blocks, self-compacting concrete and architectural mortar. Some of these specialty glass-concrete products have been successfully commercialized and are gaining wider acceptance. This paper gives an overview of the current management and recycling situation of waste glass and the experience of using recycled waste glass in concrete production India. Glass is widely used in our lives through manufactured products such as sheet glass, bottles, glassware, and vacuum tubing. Glass is an ideal material for recycling. The use of recycled glass helps in energy saving. The increasing awareness of glass recycling speeds up inspections on the use of waste glass with different forms in various fields. One of its significant contributions is to the construction field where the waste glass was reused for concrete production. The application of glass in architectural concrete still needs improvement. Laboratory experiments were conducted to further explore the use of waste glass as coarse and fine aggregates for both ASR (Alkali-Silica-Reaction) alleviation as well as the decorative purpose in concrete. The study indicated that waste glass can effectively be used as fine aggregate replacement (up to 50%) without substantial change in strength.