Comparison of Glass Powder and Fly Ash Effect on the Fresh Properties of Self-Compacting Mortars

Abstract

This study is aimed to determine effects of glass powder on fresh properties of self-compacting mortars. Self-compacting mortars incorporating glass powder (SCMGPs) were designed with a water/binder ratio of 0.40 and a total binder content of 550 kg/m3. At first, the control mixture was produced with 20% fly ash and % 80 cement of the total binder content without using the glass powder. Then, glass powder was used in the proportions 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% instead of fly ash in the mortars. Mini-slump flow and mini-v funnel tests experimentally investigated on SCMGPs to compare the effect of fly ash and glass powder. With increasing the amount of glass powder used in SCMGPs increased the amount of superplasticizer used to obtain the desired mini-slump flow diameter. So, the use of glass powder reduced the flow ability of SCMGPs in comparison to fly ash. Additionally, the compressive strength and flexural strength of the mortar mixtures were determined at the 28th day. The test results indicated that the mechanical characteristics of SCMGPs improved when the fly ash was replaced with glass powder in SCMGPs.