Effect of Waste Glass as Partial Replacement for Coarse Aggregate in Concrete

Abstract

Decreasing of the natural resources is a common phenomenon in emerging countries like India due to increasing urbanization and Industrialization involving Construction of Infrastructure and other amenities. In view of this, professionals have started searching for suitable alternative materials for concrete so that the existing natural resources might be preserved to the possible extent, for the future generation. In this process, different industrial waste materials such as blast furnace slag, fly ash, tiles waste, quarry dust brick bats, fresh aggregates from destruction of structures, ceramic soundproofing waste, etc. have been tried as a feasible additional material in concrete and have also been successful. At present, although a small proportion of the post-consumer glass has been recycled and reused, a significant proportion, which is about 84% of the waste glass generated, is sent to landfill. Laboratory experiments were conducted on strength characteristics of concrete made with utilizing broken waste glass as 10%,20%,30% and 40% by weight of coarse aggregates for M-20 mix. These mixes were prepared following a specific W/C ratio of 0.5 and adding Alkali-silica reaction inhibitor agents. The concrete specimens were tested for compressive strength and durability at differ ages of concrete and the results obtained were compared with those of normal concrete. This results determined the permissibility of using waste glass as partial replacement of coarse aggregates up to 20% by weight glass can be used as an alternate construction material to coarse aggregates up to 20% by weight for glass as coarse aggregate size up to 12mm.This paper recommends that broken waste glass can be used as an alternate construction material to coarse aggregate in concrete without substantial change in strength and gives an overview of the current progress and recycling situation of waste glass and point out the direction for the proper use of waste glass as replacement of cement. These will not only help in the reuse of waste glass but also create a greener environment. Its use has advantage of being light weight and thus reducing the total cost of construction there by bringing economy in construction .