INVESTIGATING FOR POZZOLANIC ACTIVITY IN THE BLEND OF GROUND GLASS WASTE WITH CEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE CONCRETE

This research work investigates the tensile and flexural strengths of concrete containing ground glass as a partial replacement for cement. Sustainability is to be attained by the reduced volume and cost of disposing the glass wastes that would have been meant for landfills, reduce the cost of glass-cements blend because the glass are unwanted wastes that needs lesser heat to process as a pozzolan for use in concrete, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to the reduced use of cement needed per unit concrete due to the replacement. The ground glass was obtained from waste louver blades, pulverized and sieved with a 100µm sieve size. The physical properties such as moisture content, bulk density and specific gravity of the ground glass (GG) were determined. Sixty (60) cylinders of 150mm diameter and 300mm high were cast, three (3) samples for each of the percentage replacement groups of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% corresponding to the curing ages of 3, 7, 28 and 56 days for each test. Thirty-six (36) beams of 100x100x500mm were also cast for flexural strength test, three (3) samples for each of the percentage replacement groups of 0%, 20% and 40% corresponding to the curing ages of 3, 7, 28 and 56 days. The specific gravity of the GG was found to be 3.67 and the bulk density was 1275kg/m3 . The results of the findings show that as the partial replacement of cement with ground glass increases from 10% to 40%, the tensile strength of specimens for all curing periods of 3 to 56 days decreases. The flexural strength tests show a similar pattern of reducing flexural strength for all the curing ages as percentage replacement increases. However, it was observed that concrete with 10% replacement of cement with ground glass at 100µm fineness level had slight improved tensile strength of the concrete than the control (0% replacement with the GG) for the later curing period indicating the pozzolanic activity of ground glass.