Characterization of recycled glass-cement composite: Mechanical strength

Abstract

The presented work summarizes the results for the mechanical strength of a recycled glass-cement composite. The composite material was fabricated using Portland cement CEM I 52.5 N. As the aggregate, 100-% recycled glass bottles were added. The novelty of the research was to fabricate a cement composite using only recycled glass as the aggregate. This type of glass has many imperfections in its structure. In addition, it also contains elements used as fluxes that chemically pollute the glass. Due to this, the described glass is very difficult to recycle and requires many pre-trial procedures before the recycling process. The final recipe was prepared with the experimental-laboratory method, using the following aggregates: 0/2 mm of glass bottles, 0/0.2 mm of glass flour, a deflocculant based on polyacrylate and a hydrophobic additive based on surfactants. In this work, three kinds of recycled glass-cement composite were compared (the reference one, a composite with a zeolite addition and a composite with a fly-ash addition to the matrix). The main purpose of this research was to increase the use of difficult-to-recycle materials such as bottle glass and fly ash in industry. After 28 days of curing, the mechanical properties including the compressive strength, bending strength and tensile strength were widely investigated. Light micrographs of the additives were characterized. Additionally, the thermal properties were measured. The used glass aggregates increased the mechanical strength and thermal properties of the fabricated composites. These kinds of composites are very suitable for future applications in civil engineering in special-building construction.