Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

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Construction and Building Materials

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Recycled glass as a partial replacement for ne aggregate in self

compacting concrete
Esraa Emam Ali a, Sherif H. Al-Tersawy b,
a
b

Housing and Building National Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Higher Technological Institute, 10th-of Ramadan City, Egypt

h i g h l i g h t s
" Recycled glass waste can be used as a partial replacement of ne aggregate.
" Eighteen concrete mixes % of ne agg. replacement were 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%.
" Slump ow of (SCC) increased with the increase of recycled glass content.
" Mechanical properties decreased with the increase in recycled glass content.
" Recycled glass aggregate can successfully be used for producing (SCC).

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 3 June 2011
Received in revised form 12 April 2012
Accepted 29 April 2012
Available online 2 June 2012
Keywords:
Self compacting concrete
Recycled glass aggregates
Compressive strength
Tensile strength
Flexural strength

a b s t r a c t
Glass has been indispensable to mans life due to its properties, including pliability to take any shape with
ease, bright surface, resistance to abrasion, reasonable safety and durability. Waste glass creates serious
environmental problems, mainly due to the inconsistency of waste glass streams. With increasing environmental pressure to reduce solid waste and to recycle as much as possible, the concrete industry has
adopted a number of methods to achieve this goal. Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) may lead to evolution
of a more quality controlled concrete, assuring a better workability and avoiding human errors with
regard to mixing and workability issues. On the other hand, it resolves the problem of noise and vibration
during installation. The object of this research work is to study the effect of using recycled glass waste, as
a partial replacement of ne aggregate, on the fresh and hardened properties of Self-Compacting Concrete
(SCC). A total of 18 concrete mixes were produced with different cement contents (350, 400 and
450 kg/m3) at W/C ratio of 0.4. Recycled glass was used to replace ne aggregate in proportions of 0%,
10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%. The experimental results showed that the slump ow increased with the
increase of recycled glass content. On the other hand, the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength,
exural strength and static modulus of elasticity of recycled glass (SCC) mixtures were decreased with
the increase in the recycled glass content. The results showed that recycled glass aggregate can successfully be used for producing self-compacting concrete.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Glass is one of the oldest man-made materials. It is produced in
many forms, including packaging or container glass, at glass, bulb
glass, and cathode ray tube glass, all of which have a limited life in
the forms in which they are produced. Hence, glass need to be reused/recycled in order to avoid environmental problems that can
be created, if they will be stockpiled or sent to landlls. Theoretically, glass is a 100% recyclable material; it can be indenitely recycled without any loss of quality, Sobolev et al. [1]. There are many

Corresponding author. Tel.: +20 1225626715.

E-mail address: al_tersawy@hotmail.com (S.H. Al-Tersawy).
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.04.117

examples of successful recycling of waste glass. It can be used as a

cullet in glass production, as a raw material for the production of
abrasives, as an aggregate substitute or pozzolanic additive in concrete, as raw material(s) to produce glass pellets or beads used in
reective paint for highways, as fractionators for lighting matches
and ring ammunition, also in sand-blasting, in road beds, pavement and parking lots to produce berglass, Chen et al. [2]. The
construction industry has realized great gains in the recycling of
industrial by-products and waste, including waste glass. Recycling
of this waste by converting it to aggregate, not only saves landll
space but also reduces the demand for extraction of natural raw
material for construction activity Rakshvir and Barai [3]. Because
these substitutes require extensive studies concerning their effect
on the properties of concrete, a number of research studies have

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E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

been performed. Park et al. [4] reported that the compressive, tensile, and exural strengths of concrete containing waste glass as
ne aggregate demonstrated a decreasing tendency with increase
in the mixing ratio of the waste glass. Shayan and Xu [5] found that
30% glass powder could be incorporated as aggregate or cement
replacement in concrete without any long term detrimental effects.
Topu and Canbaz [6] found that compressive, exural, and indirect tensile strengths have tendency to decrease with the increase
of waste glass content as coarse aggregate in concrete mixtures.
Corinaldesi et al. [7] also reported that no alkalisilica reaction
had been detected with particle sizes up to 100 lm, thus reecting
the feasibility of waste glass reuse as ne aggregate in mortars and
concrete. Chen et al. [8] observed a signicant improvement in the
compressive strength of waste E-glass concrete mixes at late ages,
but the workability decreased as the glass content increased.
Shayan and Xu [9] recommended using glass powder and glass
aggregate together in 40-MPa concrete mixtures without any adverse effect. Metwally [10] also reported that the use of nely
milled waste glass in concrete mixes has an adverse effect on
workability, but considerably improved the mechanical properties
of concrete at later ages. Topu et al. [11] recommended the usage
of over 20% y ash and 2% Li2CO3 replacements to reduce the
expansion of waste glass-mortars occurring due to ASR.
Emam and Sherif [12] reported that the use of self-compacting
concrete has gained a wider acceptance in recent years. It not only
reduces noise due to a vibration free environment, but also increases the quality of concrete as a result of minimizing of human
participation in workability works. The term Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) refers to a new type of high performance concrete
mixture which ows under its own weight while maintaining sufcient resistance to segregation. Segregation resistance plays an
important role for SCC because weak segregation resistance would
cause poor deformability, blockage around congested reinforcement and non-homogeneous properties of the hardened concrete.
The lling ability and stability of self-compacting concrete in the
fresh state can be dened by four key characteristics: ow ability,
viscosity (assessed by rate of ow), passing ability and segregation
resistance. The concrete mixture will be classied as a self-compacting one, if all the mentioned characteristics are present. Such
properties are achieved by adding chemical additives to the concrete, such as superplasticators, most frequently combined with
the new type of additives for modication of viscosity and/or
through application of a certain amount of ne mineral additivepowder. Properties of self-compacting concrete depend on type
and amount of additives which are used. There are numerous research papers that dealt with that subject.
The objective of this research work is to examine the inuence
of waste glass when used as a direct replacement for natural ne
aggregate in concrete, and thereby to assess the fundamental engineering properties of recycled glass self compacting concrete.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Cement
The cement used in this investigation was delivered from El-Suez Cement
Company, Type CEM I 42.5N. Testing of cement was carried out per the Egyptian
Standard Specications ESS 2421/2005 [13]. The mechanical properties of the used
cement as determined by laboratory tests showed its suitability for concrete works.
The mechanical properties of the cement used in this investigation are given in
Table 1.

2.1.2. Aggregate
Local dolomite and sand from natural sources were used in the experimental
work. The used crushed dolomite has a nominal maximum size of 10 mm. Testing
of natural coarse aggregate and sand were carried according to the Egyptian Standard Specications ESS 1109/2002 [14]. The results are presented in Table 2.

Table 1
Mechanical properties of cement.
Properties

Measured values

Soundness (Le Chatelier) (mm)

Initial setting time (min)
Finial setting time (min)
Compressive strength (MPa)

1.2
120
165
21.8
50.5

2 days
28 days

2.1.3. Recycled waste glass

The crushed waste glass used in this work as ne aggregate is illustrated in
Fig. 1. It was collected from glass factory wastes in Egypt (10th-of Ramadan City).
The physical and chemical properties of the waste glass are presented in Tables 2
and 3, respectively. The sieve analysis of the recycled glass is given in Table 4.

2.1.4. Silica fume

Silica fume is a byproduct resulting from the reduction of high purity quartz
with coal in electrical core furnaces in the production of silicon. The fume, which
has high content of amorphous silicon dioxide and consists of very ne spherical
particles, is collected from the gases escaping from the furnaces. Table 5 presents
the physical properties and chemical analysis of the used silica fume.

2.1.5. Mixing water

Drinking water was used for mixing.

2.1.6. Super plasticizer

Super plasticizer is a powerful water reducing agent in concrete mixture. The
superplasticizer used is Sika Viscocrete 10, is a product of Sika Company. It has
the following properties: density = 1.08 kg/l, base = modied polycarboxylates,
and dosage = 0.32% by weight of cement.

2.2. Mixes features

A total of 18 concrete mixtures were produced. All the mixtures were essentially self-compacting concrete, characterized by the same key features:
W/C = 0.4, silica fume (SF) employment ratio (10%) addition to cement, and coarse
aggregate to sand ratio = 1:1.
The investigated mixtures were divided into three groups, Table 6. The employed cement contents were 350, 400, and 450 kg/m3, corresponding to the rst,
second, and third group, respectively. Each group comprised six mixtures corresponding to six replacement ratios of sand by waste glass (WG). These ratios were:
0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%. The rst mix of each group with 0% waste glass
(WG) replacement ratio was regarded as a control mix.

2.3. Casting and curing of test specimens

All the concrete mixes were mixed in the laboratory of The Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC). Tests were conducted on fresh concrete to
determine the slump ow, L. Box ratio, and V-funnel values. For each concrete
mix, six (150  150  150 mm) cubes were cast for the determination of compressive strength at 7 and 28 days. Six (150 mm  300 mm) cylinders were cast for the
determination of indirect tensile strength and modulus of elasticity at 28 days.
Three beams of dimensions (100  100  500 mm) were cast for the determination
of exural strength at 28 days.
After casting, all the cast specimens were covered by plastic sheets and water
saturated burlap and left in the laboratory at 20 3 C for 24 h. the specimens were
then demoulded and transferred to a saturated water curing tank at 25 C until
reaching the age of testing.

Table 2
Properties of crushed dolomite, waste glass and sand.
Test

Crushed dolomite

Waste glass

Sand

Specic weight
Bulk density (t/m3)
Clay and ne dust content (%)
Abrasion (Los Anglos)
Water absorption
Impact value (%)

2.6
1.62
2.2
14.62
1.23
11.6

2.2
1.34
0.42

0.57

2.62
1.75
1.4

E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

787

800 50 mm, Fig. 2 [15]. L-box test consists of the L shaped box, of a rectangular
cross section, with a horizontal and vertical parts separated by the movable partition (exit) in front of which vertical rebars are arranged, Fig. 3. The vertical compartment is lled with concrete, then the partition is removed to allow the ow
of concrete at the end of the horizontal part and of the remaining concrete in the
vertical part are measured (H2/H1). That is an indicator of the capacity of concrete
to pass through the rebars, and it should be as close to one as possible (the lowest
permissible value is 0.8) [15].
V-funnel test, the funnel is lled with concrete, and the ow time, that is between opening the orice and the rst daylight appearing when looking vertically
down through the funnel recorded and then lled the funnel after 5 min and recorded the time (Fig. 4).
2.4.2. Determination of the hardened properties
In this research work, the following tests on hardened concrete were carried
out:

Fig. 1. Recycled glass waste.

Table 3
Chemical composition of waste glass.
Chemical
composition

SiO2

Al2O3 + Fe2O3

CaO

SO3

Na2O + K2O

MgO

67.72

3.40

6.90

0.17

10.75

Table 4
Gradation of recycled glass.
Sieve

% of passing

5
2.36
1.18
0.6
0.3
0.15
0.075

100
99
64
35
20
10
1.4

(a) Compressive strength: The compressive strength test was carried out according to the Egyptian Standard Specications ESS 1658/2006 [16]. To evaluate
concrete compressive strength at test ages of 7 and 28 days, cubes specimens 150  150  150 mm were tested.
(b) Splitting tensile strength: The splitting tensile strength test was carried out
according to the Egyptian Standard Specications ESS 1658/2006 [16].
The splitting tensile strength of standard hardened concrete cylinders,
150 mm diameter and 300 mm long, was obtained to evaluate concrete
compressive strength at the age of 28 days.
(c) Flexural strength: The exural strength test was carried out according to the
Egyptian Standard Specications ESS 1658/2006 [16]. The exural strength
of standard hardened concrete beams 100  100  500 mm was tested to
evaluate concrete exural strength at the age of 28 days.
(d) Static modulus of elasticity: The static modulus of elasticity test was carried
out according to the ASTM C469 [17]. The static modulus of elasticity of
standard hardened concrete cylinders, (150 mm diameter and 300 mm
long), was determined at the age of 28 days.

3. Result and discussion

3.1. Fresh concrete properties

Table 5
Properties of silica fume.
Properties

Item

Value

Physical properties

Color
Specic weight
Bulk density (kg/m3)
Specic area

Light gray
2.1
350
16.7

Chemical properties

SiO2
total
Fe2O3
Al2O3
CaO
MgO
K2O
Na2O
SO3
Cl
H2O

97
0.5
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.5
0.5
0.2
0.15
0.01
0.5

2.4. Methods of investigation

2.4.1. Determination of the fresh properties
In this experimental work, the following fresh concrete tests were carried out:
(i) Slump-ow test for owability and viscosity, (ii) L-box test for testing passing
ability, and (iii) V-funnel test for testing the lling ability of SCC provided that there
is no possibility blocking and/or segregation to take place.
Slump-ow test procedure is a combination of Abrams cone settling test. After
lifting a lled and previously moistened metal cone, the nal diameter of the circle
formed by the spreading concrete is measured. The permissible diameter is 600

The fresh properties of the 18 concrete mixes are summarized

in Table 7, it can be seen that the initial slump ow of recycled
glass SCC mixes was similar to control mixes although the dosage
of superplastizer was decreased (see Table 6). This attributed to the
weaker cohesion between the glass aggregates and the cement
paste due to their smooth surfaces. This result is similar to that
Kou and Poon [18] who reported that the slump of normal concrete
was the same as that of concrete with recycled glass waste.
It can be seen from Table 7, the higher slump ow at higher glass
replacements ratios could be also due to higher compactness of
concrete granular skeleton. Because the glass grains are ner than
the sand, it can ll better the porosity of the coarse aggregates,
and has a low water absorption and smooth surface. All the mixes
have slump ow over 650 mm and exhibit no segregation except
mixes (M5 and M6) as shown in Fig. 5 at cement content 350 kg/
m3 at percentage of replacements (40% and 50%) respectively, and
this may be attributed to the lower paste volume (viscosity)
achieved in these mixes. The importance of viscosity is generated
from the fact that, increasing the viscosity maintains good suspension of coarse aggregate during deformation of the mixture. This
can reduce inter-particle collision and coagulation of coarse aggregate particles. Hence, improve the ability of the grout mixture to
properly ll the formwork and offset blocking. Also, increasing
the viscosity enhances the bond between the mortar and coarse
aggregate and thus, minimizes the risk of segregation.
As shown in Table 7, the ow ratios varied from 0.83 to 0.89, the
results indicates that the recycled glass SCC mixes prepared in this
study achieved adequate passing ability and maintained sufcient
resistance to segregation around congested reinforcement areas,
this agree with Kou and Poon [18] who reported that the ow ratios varied from 0.84 to 0.87 for RG-SCC mixes.
V-funnel test measures the time required for concrete to ow
down through a funnel so as to evaluate cementing paste viscosity

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E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

Table 6
Mix constituents for concrete mixtures.
Group

Designation

Group 1

M1-350-0%
M2-350-10%
M3-350-20%
M4-350-30%
M5-350-40%
M6-350-50%

Group 2

Group 3

M7-400-0%
M8-400-10%
M9-400-20%
M10-400-30%
M11-400-40%
M12-400-50%
M13-450-0%
M14-450-10%
M15-450-20%
M16-450-30%
M17-450-40%
M18-450-50%

W/C

0.4

0.4

0.4

C (kg/m3)

350

400

450

SF (%)

10

10

10

SP (%)

1.5
1.3
1.2
1.2
1.1
1.1
1.8
1.7
1.7
1.7
1.5
1.5
1.8
1.7
1.7
1.7
1.5
1.5

CDA (kg/m3)

936

890

846

FA (kg/m3)
Sand

WG

936
842.4
748.8
655.2
561.6
468

79.2
158.4
237.6
316.8
396

890
801
712
623
534
445

75.3
150.6
225.9
301.2
376.5

846
761.4
676.8
592.2
507.6
423

71.6
148.2
214.7
286.3
357.9

W/C = Water to cement ratio, C = cement content, SP = superplastizier percentage of cement content, SF = silica fume, CDA = crushed dolomite aggregate, FA = ne aggregate
(sand), NFA = natural ne aggregate, and WG = waste glass aggregate.

Fig. 2. Slump ow apparatus.

Fig. 4. V-funnel apparatus.

prolonged with increasing glass sand and this agree with Wang
[19], who stated that because the recycled glass SCC mixes unit
weight is less than that of SCC after replacing part of the sand with
waste glass, thus decreasing the unit weight. Hence, the compacting effect cannot be attained by its dead weight. As a result, the Vfunnel test time was 610 s longer than that of the control group.
However, the results still meet the owability standard time.
3.2. Hardened concrete properties

Fig. 3. L-box apparatus.

in concrete and resistance to material segregation. As shown in

Table 7, the results followed to a great extent the trends observed
in the slump ow test. At initial mixing the passing time becomes

The test results of the compressive strength of the control and

recycled glass SCC mixes at 7 and 28 days are summarized in Table
8. Each given value is the average of three measurements. It is evident from Table 8 that the use of recycled glass waste as a sand
replacement decreases the compressive strength of the SCC mixes
compared with the control mixtures. As shown in Fig. 6, the reduction in 28 days compressive strength of recycled glass SCC mixes
were [6%, 10.4%, 12.7%, 17.5%, 23.2%], [4.5%, 14.4%, 17.2%, 22.2%,
23.6%] and [3.7%, 10.5%, 13.5%, 17.5%, 21%] at cement contents of

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E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791
Table 7
Fresh properties of concrete mixtures.
Designation

Slump ow (mm)

L-box (%)

After mixing

After 5 min

Group 1

M1-350-0%
M2-350-10%
M3-350-20%
M4-350-30%
a
M5-350-40%
a
M6-350-50%

640
670
710
730
860
880

0.86
0.83
0.84
0.85
0.87
0.89

7
8
6
6
5
4

9
9
8
7
9
10

Group 2

M7-400-0%
M8-400-10%
M9-400-20%
M10-400-30%
M11-400-40%
M12-400-50%

660
670
690
710
730
740

0.84
0.86
0.86
0.87
0.87
0.88

8
8
9
6
8
7

10
11
11
8
10
10

Group 3

M13-450-0%
M14-450-10%
M15-450-20%
M16-450-30%
M17-450-40%
M18-450-50%

670
690
710
750
760
780

0.85
0.87
0.87
0.85
0.84
0.87

6
7
7
8
9
8

8
10
9
11
11
10

V-funnel

Segregation appeared at the edge of ow.

Compressive strength
(N/mm2)

Group

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

C.C=350
C.C=400
C.C=450

10

20

30

40

50

60

% of Replacement of recycled glass

Fig. 6. Relationship between compressive strength and% of replacement of recycled
glass for W/C = 0.4 at 28 days.
Fig. 5. Typical segregation on slump ow.

350, 400, and 450 kg/m , respectively. Where the high smoothness
of recycled glass waste leading to cracks was determined to lead to

incomplete adhesion between the recycled glass waste and cement

paste inter-phase. Due to the poor geometry of waste glass a
homogeneous distribution of aggregates could not be achieved,
accordingly an increase in the amount of glass waste used in

Table 8
Hardened properties of concrete mixtures.
Compressive strength (N/mm2)

Splitting strength (N/mm2)

Flexural strength (N/mm2)

Youngs modulus (N/mm2)

46.3
43.5
41.5
40.4
38.2
35.6

4.7
4.2
4.2
4.1
3.9
3.2

5.5
5.2
4.9
4.8
4.5
4.2

26047.3
25247.4
24660.2
24331.2
23659.4
22840.1

47.6
46.1
42.3
39.2
36.9
36.1

62.2
59.4
53.2
51.6
48.4
47.5

6.8
6.2
5.8
5.7
5.2
4.9

7.4
7.2
6.6
6.5
5.7
5.6

27761.2
27129.2
25674.3
25285.3
24488.7
24259.9

51.5
47.6
46.1
46.1
32.3
37.6

67.7
65.2
61.6
58.5
55.8
53.6

7.1
6.8
6.5
6.4
6.2
5.5

8.2
7.6
7.5
7.2
6.3
5.8

28962.6
28422.8
27626.9
26922.8
26294.2
25770.6

Group

Designation

7 days

28 days

Group 1

M1-350-0%
M2-350-10%
M3-350-20%
M4-350-30%
M5-350-40%
M6-350-50%

35.3
33.1
31.5
30.7
29.2
26.9

Group 2

M7-400-0%
M8-400-10%
M9-400-20%
M10-400-30%
M11-400-40%
M12-400-50%

Group 3

M13-450-0%
M14-450-10%
M15-450-20%
M16-450-30%
M17-450-40%
M18-450-50%

E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

Splitting tensile strength

(N/mm2)

790

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

C.C=350
C.C=400
C.C=450

10

20

30

40

50

60

% of Replacement of recycled glass

Flexural strength (N/mm 2)

Fig. 7. Relationship between splitting tensile strength and% of replacement of

recycled glass for W/C = 0.4 at 28 days.

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

C.C=350
C.C=400
C.C=450

10

20

30

40

50

60

% of Replacement of recycled glass

Fig. 8. Relationship between exural strength and% of replacement of recycled
glass for W/C = 0.4 at 28 days.

Modulus of Elasticity
(N/mm2)

35000
C.C=400

C.C=350

30000

C.C=450

25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

% of Replacement of recycled glass

Fig. 9. Relationship between modulus of elasticity and percentage of replacement
for different cement contents.

concrete decreased the compressive strength. Park et al. [4] found

that addition of 30% of waste glass to concrete caused a decrease of

4% in compressive strength, compared with its control mixtures.

This is in agreement with the results obtained in this research
work. Also, it can be noticed from Fig. 6 that as the cement content
increase from 350 to 450 kg/m3, the rate of loss in compressive
strength is lowered compared with the control mixes at the different percentage of recycled glass replacements. This may attributed
to the effect of pozzolanic reactions which evolve as the cement
content increases with the addition of silica fume and the high percentage of nes produced as the percentage of recycled glass waste
increases. A similar observation was reported by Metwally [10]
who concluded that high degrees of strength enhancement were
obtained when the pozzolanic effect became signicant at the late
age of 28 days.
The obtained splitting tensile strengths after 28 days are presented in Table 8. Each value is the average of three measurements.
Fig. 7 shows that the splitting tensile strength tends to decrease
with the increases of the percentage of recycled waste glass
replacement in the concrete mixture, compared with the control
mixes. According to the test results the 28 days splitting tensile
strength values are observed to decrease by [10.6%, 10.6%, 12.7%,
17%, 23.4%], [8.8%, 14.7%, 16.2%, 23.5%, 27.9%] and [4.2%, 8.5%,
9.9%, 12.7%, 22.5%] at cement contents of 350, 400 and 450 kg/m3
for replacement ratios of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%, respectively.
Evidently, these results agree with Park et al. [4], who reports that
for 60% recycled glass replacement, the splitting tensile strength of
recycled glass concrete decrease by 5% at 28 days.
The results of exural strength after 28 days are presented in
Table 8, each value is the average of three measurements. As
shown in Fig. 8, the exural strength tends to decrease as the percentage of recycled waste glass replacement increases in the concrete mixture compared with the control mixes. According to the
test results, the 28 days exural strength values are observed to
decrease by [8.8%, 14.7%, 16.2%, 23.5%, 27.9%] and [4.2%, 8.5%,
9.9%, 12.7%, 22.5%] at cement contents of 350, 400, and 450 kg/
m3 for replacement ratios of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%, respectively. These results agree with those obtained by Topu and Canbaz [6] who reports that the exural strength of recycled glass
concrete decreases by 8% at 28 days.
The results of static modulus of elasticity after 28 days are presented in Table 8. Each presented value is the average of three measurements. As shown in Fig. 9 the static modulus of elasticity tends
to decrease with the increase of the percentage of recycled glass
waste replacement in the concrete mixture compared with the control mixes. According to the test results the 28 days static modulus
of elasticity values were observed to decreased by [3%, 5.3%, 6.6%,
9.2%, 12.3%], [2.2%, 7.5%, 8.9%, 11.8%, 12.6%] and [1.8%, 4.6%, 7%,
9.2%, 11%] at cement contents of 350, 400, and 450 kg/m3 for
replacement ratios of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%, respectively.

Fig. 10. (a and b) SEM micrograph of concrete sample (without recycled glass).

E.E. Ali, S.H. Al-Tersawy / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 785791

791

Fig. 11. (a and b) SEM micrograph of concrete sample (with recycled glass).

These results agree with those given by Kou and Poon [18] who
states that the static modulus of elasticity decreases with the increase of the recycled glass content.

the decrease in bond strength between the cement paste and

the recycled glass as a result of relatively high smoothness of
waste glass, leading to cracks, hence, weak adhesion between
the waste glass and cement paste.

3.3. Micro-structural analysis

Fig. 10a and b show the SEM micrograph of the concrete sample
without glass waste after loading up to failure. It is noticed from
Fig. 10 a how the cement paste is still bonded to the aggregate even
after fracture, it could be seen the very strong bond between the
aggregate and the cement paste; disappearance of transition zone;
whereas no cracks appear in the cement matrix Fig. 10b.
Fig. 11a and b shows the SEM micrograph of concrete sample
containing glass waste after loading up to failure. Fig. 11a illustrates poor contact between the cement matrix and both the coarse
aggregate and the recycled glass being a partial replacement of ne
aggregate. Although some pieces of cement matrix appeared in
contact to coarse aggregate particles, there is a negligible adhesion
of cement matrix to the recycled glass aggregate. Also it is noticed
from Fig. 11b that a poor homogeneity in the concrete matrix due
to the smooth surface texture of the recycled glass waste. Also it is
evident from the SEM micrograph that the percentage of voids and
cracks start to increase in the concrete matrix as the percentage of
recycled glass waste increases.
4. Conclusions
1. The slump ow, ow ratio, and V-funnel of recycled glass SCC
mixes increases with the increase of recycled glass content.
The ow ratios varied from 0.83 to 0.89.
2. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, exural
strength, and static modulus of elasticity of recycled glass SCC
mixes decrease with the increase of recycled glass content.
3. From the SEM micrograph, it is evident that there is poor contact between the cement matrix and the recycled glass being
a partial replacement of ne aggregate. This is attributed to

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