Effect of crushed glass aggregate on the physico-mechanical properties of micro-concrete

Abstract

Demand for aggregates is growing considerably in line with the development of construction in Algeria. To overcome it, it will be necessary to ensure a rational exploitation of the aggregates available to the country by aevaluation of the existingresources. According to the statistics, the glass wastes accounted for 7% of the world’s solid wastes. The glass wastes can be used in concrete production in two forms: replacing part of aggregate or using as supplementary cementmaterial to replace cement. Using glass wastes to produce recycled aggregates for the production of new concrete reduces the consumption of natural resources as well as landfills.This work consists in formulating a micro-concrete with a substitution of 5 to 25% by weight of crushed calcareous aggregates of fraction 3/8 by glass aggregates of the same fraction 3/8. The incorporation of glass wastes as an aggregate in the micro-concrete plays a role of skeleton and improves its compressive mechanical strength.The compressive strength is considerably improved by substitution of crushed calcareous aggregates by recycled glass aggregates. The optimum has been reached for a value of around 46 MPa for a substitution of 10% of crushed limestone aggregates. The substitution of 10% crushed gravel by crushed glass allows improving the strength of more than 27%.The results obtained provedthat waste glass can be used as an aggregate for producing micro-concrete with a relatively high strength which will not deteriorate with time.