IMPACT OF GLASS POWDER AND AGGREGATES ON CONCRETE

Concrete, the main building material, is constantly evolving. This development raises issues related to the acquisition of raw materials that enter into its production, including cement. The production of the latter is associated with environmental problems. In this same spirit, glass waste being solid and generally non-biodegradable (life 4000 years), and given their composition rich in silica, we lead to recover them by recycling them into concrete. This work therefore aims to evaluate the effects that can have the substitution (5%, 10% and 15%) of cement and natural aggregates, respectively, by glass powder and glass aggregates. For this reason, a masonry formulation was applied with a sand/binder ratio (S/B) equal to 1 for the preparation of concrete specimens in order to determine the mechanical and physical characteristics of the hardened specimens. The results showed that glass powder concrete (GPC) with respective substitution rates of 5%, 10% and 15% generally had superior characteristics to other recycled concretes glass aggregates concrete (GAC) and concrete containing powder and glass aggregates (CAGP). This would be due to the effect of the pozzolanic reaction of the glass powder. However, unlike glass aggregates concrete (GAC), the addition of glass powder in concrete aggregate and glass powder (CAGP) for substitution rates of 5% and 10% tended to improve these characteristics. Also, it was noted that glass powder in concrete aggregate and glass powder (CAGP) reduced the expansion of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) (“concrete cancer”) to 5 and 10%. However, concretes made from recycled glass have superior properties to traditional concrete.