Effect of the chemical composition of different types of recycled glass used as aggregates on the ASR performance of cement mortars

doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.011

Construction and Building Materials

Volume 154, 15 November 2017, Pages 804-809

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.08.011 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Glass chemical composition strongly influences the reactivity.
•
Different amounts of modifiers and stabilizer oxides influence the solubility of glasses.
•
The chemical composition of ASR gels depends on chemical composition of the original glass.
•
Cullets from fluorescent lamps expand without the contribution of external alkali.

Abstract

Glass with different chemical compositions, deriving from separate collection, has been used as fine aggregate to formulate cementitious mortars, substituting natural sand. Glass coming from cathode-ray tube monitors, fluorescent lamps, and crystal glass (from production of home décor items) along with glass deriving from soda-lime glass containers, which has been taken as a reference, have been investigated. Glass solubility has been determined in alkaline environment similar to the one inside the cementitious composite. Alkali silica reaction has been tested on glass modified cement mortar in different accelerated conditions. Mortar samples containing glass with chemical composition different with respect to soda-lime glass are subjected to alkali silica reaction. This behaviour is largely dependent on the ratio among modifier and stabilizer oxides in the glass. The same ratio affects glass solubility and consequently composition of expanding gels when alkali silica reactions take place.

Introduction

Glass recycling for new glass production is one of best-assessed and efficient processes in Europe compared to other types of materials (plastic, paper). The overall amount of collected post-consumer packaging glass is increasing. However, the quality of collected glass is becoming worse, because it contains different glass, such as glass from electronic equipment. This feature largely decreases the overall amount of effective recycled glass able to be included in new glass production. Seeking different recycling routes, glass waste has been investigated as a possible source of fine aggregates to be added in the formulation of mortar and concrete. This practice can give many environmental benefits, such as avoiding the extraction of natural sands, prevention of damps to exhaustion and reduced drawbacks deriving from long transport routes of wastes since sites are present throughout. Soda-lime glass used for packaging was the first type of material studied because of the large amount available. Park et al. studied the effect of mixed color packaging glass up to a 30% weight substitution [1]. Corinaldesi et al. [2] showed that below the threshold dimension of 100 μm, soda lime glass can be used as aggregate replacement without undesired alkali-silica reactions taking place. Limbachiaya found that, up to 20 wt% of fine aggregate content, substitution with mixed color post-container glass did not decrease the mechanical properties of concrete [3]. The fresh and hardened properties of glass waste modified cementitious composites have been discussed in details by Rashad [4], while the tendency towards the formation of expanding products, due to ASR, has been investigated as a function of soda lime glass composition [5]. Fewer studies have been published on the use of other types of glass, possibly containing also heavy elements such as lead, barium and strontium. Lead containing cullets, deriving from décor items have been used as fine aggregates in [6]. Cathode-ray tubes (CRT) have been investigated by Romero et al. [7]; at high glass contents, cementitious composites were affected by ASR, although leaching of hazardous ions could be controlled by proper mix-design. The expanding reaction can be also controlled through the use of pozzolanic addition as found in Ref. [8]. Surface chemical treatment of CRT cullets leads to a reduction of leaching and ASR expansion [9], or to high mechanical strength in combination with pozzolanic materials, such as fly ashes or granulated blast furnace slag [10]. Eventually, some researchers have studied [11] the use of liquid crystal display (LCD) up to an 80 wt% replacement, obtaining the best mechanical results at 20 wt% amount. Other types of cullet, such as those deriving from fluorescent lamps, have never been studied. It is thus important to investigate further the behaviour of these materials since the possibility to find glass waste streams having quite different and complex chemical compositions is getting higher every day. In order to provide a contribution to the analysis of this problem, this paper reports a detailed study on the use of different glass types. These glasses are characterized by a different content of lead oxide due to their origins and are used as fine aggregates. The investigated glasses are: i) flint packaging glass (hereafter defined as SoLi, PbO < 0.01 wt%) which is considered as the reference glass, since its use in concrete has been extensively investigated, ii) fluorescent lamps (Lamp, PbO = 0.8 wt%), iii) funnel glass from cathode ray tube (Funl, PbO = 18.0 wt%) and iv) crystal items (Crys, PbO = 27.0 wt%). All these glasses were used up to 40 wt% as natural sand replacement. Glass cullet solubility in an artificial environment, that should simulate the chemistry inside the mortars (pH > 12), has been assessed. Compressive strength tests on mortar samples containing different amount of substituted sand have been carried out. Accelerated ASR test have been performed in different conditions. An attempt to evaluate how the various former (SiO₂ + Al₂O₃), modifier (Na₂Oeq + PbO) and stabilizer (CaO + MgO) oxides influence solubility and the tendency to form expanding gels has been made. Indeed, according to the concept of the circular economy, wastes should be considered as new resources for different industrial cycles and this research aims at evaluating when it is safe the use of glass as fine aggregates replacement in traditional cement mortar and which are the limits in glass composition that must be taken into account for this purpose.

Section snippets

Materials

Four types of glass have been investigated: 1) crystal glass (Crys), coming from production of tableware, giftware and home décor items (supplied by CALP, Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI), Italy); 2) funnel glass (Funl) derived from cathode ray tubes (supplied by Relight (Milan, Italy); 3) glass coming from end-use fluorescent lamps (Lamp) (supplied by the National Consortium for collection and treatment of low consumption exhausted lamps, Ecolamp, Milan, Italy); 4) flint soda-lime glass (SoLi) derived

Results and discussion

The final solubility of the glass immersed in the alkaline solution at high pH values after 14 days (reported as weight loss% versus time) and its correlation with the content of modifier and stabilizers oxides (Na₂Oeq + PbO and CaO + MgO) are reported in Fig. 3, Fig. 4, respectively. The classification of oxides is based on Dietzel’s field strength criterion reported by Varshneya [17].

It clearly appears how the different glass composition changes the solubility behavior of studied glasses. High

Conclusions

Four glasses different by origins and chemical compositions have been tested as natural sand replacement in different amounts with the aim to understand their influence in promoting alkali silica reaction. From the obtained results the following conclusions can be drawn:

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fluorescent lamps glass when used as sand replacement exhibit the highest expansion values in all the accelerated curing conditions adopted. The expansive gel formed is the richest in Na₂Oeq/SiO₂ and the poorest in CaO.
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expansion

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Effect of the chemical composition of different types of recycled glass used as aggregates on the ASR performance of cement mortars

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Materials

Results and discussion

Conclusions

Cem. Concr. Res.

Waste Manage.

Constr. Build. Mater.

Cem. Concr. Res.

Waste Manage.

J. Clean. Prod.

Constr. Build. Mater.

Waste Manage.

Cem. Concr. Res.

Cem. Concr. Res.

Cem. Concr. Compos.

Constr. Build. Mater.

Cem. Concr. Compos.

Cem. Concr. Compos.

Constr. Build. Mater.