Recycled Glass as Partial Replacement for Fine Aggregates in Concrete for Marine Structure Application

Civil Engineering Education, University of Mindanao, Davao City, Philippines

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Abstract

The rapid rise in the generation of waste and the increased quantities of waste glass have created several environmental hazards. For effective remediation of the waste generated on a large scale, the prospects of using waste glasses within concrete have been explored. In marine environments, there is a high probability that concrete structures would degenerate. In concrete structures subjected to marine environments, the attack by sulfate and chloride ions causes degradation. To find effective alternatives for concrete components within marine environments, the feasibility of using recycled glasses has been explored. The feasibility and suitability of using waste glasses that have been recycled have been explored to replace the aggregate materials. Four different concrete mixes containing varying percentages of waste glasses that have been crushed have been investigated. The concrete specimens have been subjected to a marine environment for a period of 28 days. In the concrete specimens subjected to marine environments, the tidal wet-dry cycles lead to structural degradation by inducing internal microcracks due to salt crystallization. The main concerns of this study is the assessment for the chemical resistance based on the changes of mass and water absorption and to evaluate the compressive strength. From the experimental findings, it was evident that the increase in the amount of recycled glass resulted in the reduction of the compressive strength of the resulting concrete. On the other hand, the water absorption was found to be reduced with a steady rise in the rate of chemical resistance along with the increase of the recycled glass replacement. From the findings, it was evident that when the proportion of recycled glass was between 20 and 50 wt.%, there were substantial changes with regards to the performance of the resulting concrete. However, with the addition of recycled glass to the mixture, the strength was reduced; nonetheless, the durability was heightened, indicating that there was a balance of durability and strength at 30 wt%. This study illustrates the benefits to the environment with the utilization of recycled glass as partial replacement of fine aggregates in the concrete exposed in the marine environment.