Thermal and mechanical performance of cool concrete pavements containing waste glass

Abstract

Elevated pavement temperature leads to urban heat island (UHI) and thermal distress in pavements. Moreover, the disposal of non-biodegradable waste materials such as glass is a major research problem and a serious environmental threat. Contrasting to most of the past studies that mainly concentrate on the mechanical properties of concrete containing glass aggregates, the current study evaluates their thermal properties. The key aim of this study is to assess the possibility of developing cool pavements by incorporating waste glass. Utilizing these waste materials for constructing road pavements, without compromising desired structural properties, is the best possible method for disposing them. Further, the incorporation of lighter colored glass particles in concrete reduces the pavement temperature. Glass was added as a partial replacement to fine aggregates, and zeolite was added as supplementary cementitious material to minimize the alkali-silica-reaction (ASR) expansion. The result of the study indicates that there is no significant reduction in mechanical strength up to 10% replacement dosage of fine aggregates with glass. Moreover, with 10% replacement of fine aggregate with glass and cement with zeolite respectively, the pavement was found to be 7.9 ℃ cooler than that of the control mix. Furthermore, for this replacement dosage, a reduction up to 75.15% in the maximum warping stresses was reported with respect to the control mix.