Deformation of concrete made with crushed recycled glass cullet fine aggregate

Abstract

Only around a third of waste glass is used in the production of new glass products, so alternative applications are needed to deal with the huge amount remaining. At the same time there is a growing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of concrete production, and use of recycled and secondary aggregates offers one of the best solutions. Deformation properties, in the form of elastic, creep and shrinkage strains of concrete made with glass cullet as fine aggregate are examined. The modulus of elasticity of concrete is increased by 10·5% when glass cullet fine aggregate of a similar grading to natural fine aggregate is used. Its inclusion in concrete does not change the relationship between strength and modulus of elasticity. The creep of glass cullet fine aggregate concrete is suggested to be similar to that of natural fine aggregate concrete. The shrinkage of concrete decreases at a decreasing rate with increasing glass cullet fine aggregate content, giving 16% reduction at 100% replacement of natural fine aggregate. The restraint effect provided by glass cullet fine aggregate in concrete can be affected by the strength of the concrete and the water absorption of the fine aggregate used. The estimations of deformation of concrete containing glass cullet fine aggregate using Eurocode and ACI models are also described.