Recycling of waste glass powder and tyre fiber in the development of eco-efficient concrete for high-performance structural application

Abstract

Concrete suffers from several drawbacks due to the pollution associated with cement production, low tensile strength and low strain capacity that result in low resistance to cracks. Several attempts have been made to utilize waste materials for economical, sustainable construction and to improve concrete characteristics. This paper aims to investigate the effect of waste glass powder (WGP) as a partial replacement of cement and waste tyre fibre (WTF) as fibre reinforcement in the production of high performance concrete (HPC). ACI 211.1 was used to design a grade 50 HPC. At the first stage, WGP was introduced at a replacement level of 0 to 25 at a 5% interval by weight of OPC increment. Compressive strength at 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days of curing and slump flow was investigated, as well as establishing the optimum WGP content. WTF was then added to the optimal WGP-HPC in varying percentage addition of 0 to 2% at an increase of 0.4% by weight in the second stage. The compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths at 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days were investigated. Slump flow was also investigated. It was discovered that the WGP is a suitable material for use as a pozzolana as it satisfied the minimum requirement given in ASTM C618. The compressive strength of HPC increased up to a 10% OPC replacement level by WGP before it starts declining. This signifies that the highest compressive strength was obtained at 10% WGP replacement level. It was also shown that adding the WTF decrease the slump flow and enhanced the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths of WGP-HPC up to 1.2% and then dropped. Overall, an optimal HPC mix with 10% OPC replacement by GWP and 1.2% WTF addition outperforms all other mixes.