Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Co-utilization of waste glass cullet and glass powder in precast concrete

products
Jian-Xin Lu, Haibing Zheng, Shuqing Yang, Pingping He, Chi Sun Poon ⇑
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

An eco-friendly concrete product was

developed by using waste glass.

Waste glass was employed as both
aggregates and binder in the eco-
blocks.

Combined use of GC and GP in blocks
reduced water absorption and drying
shrinkage.

The addition of GP could successfully
address the ASR risk triggered by GC.

The glass-based block seems to be a
promising outlet for recycling of
waste glass.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study aimed at developing an eco-friendly precast concrete product by enhancing the application of
Received 29 March 2019 waste glass. The waste glass was utilized as both fine aggregates and a partial binder in the form of glass
Received in revised form 21 June 2019 powder (GP) in the paving blocks. The results showed that the strength was constant despite increasing
Accepted 30 June 2019
amount of glass cullet (GC) was used in the paving blocks. The combined use of GC and fine GP was ben-
eficial in reducing the water absorption and drying shrinkage of the paving blocks within permissible lim-
its. Moreover, the addition of GP could successfully address the concern of ASR expansion resulting from
Keywords:
GC.
Waste glass
Glass cullet
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Glass powder
Alkali-silica reaction (ASR)
Precast concrete
Paving blocks

1. Introduction is no glass manufacturing industry and the running out of landfill

sites in Hong Kong. Actually, the Hong Kong Government has taken
1.1. Waste glass in Hong Kong actions to expand the recycling outlets for waste glass to tie in with
the imminent implementation of the Producer Responsibility
The large amount of waste glass generation (329 tonnes/daily in Scheme on glass beverage bottles which aims at enhancing the
2016 [1]) has become a serious concern in Hong Kong due to there recovery rate of waste glass in Hong Kong. Even so, the recycling
rate of waste glass was only 7.7% in 2016 based on the Environ-
⇑ Corresponding author. mental and Protection Department (EPD) statistics [1], which
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.-X. Lu), [email protected] (C.S.
was much lower when compared to other countries, such as Swe-
Poon). den (99%), Switzerland (98%), Belgium (96%) and Germany (85%)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.06.231
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220 211

[2]. In Europe, the majority of waste glass bottles can be recycled the GC was incorporated together with TiO2 in paving block owing
back for making new beverage packaging to form a bottle-to- to the high light transmitting characteristic of the GC [17]. How-
bottle closed loop cycle. But in Hong Kong, the deposit- ever, in terms of using GC in cement-based materials, a major con-
and-return cycle has disappeared as all the local beverage cern is the potential alkali-silica reaction (ASR) expansion due to
manufacturers have moved their bottling plants outside the the presence of glass particles. According to a recent work [18],
territory. Thereby, the current way of managing the waste glass the larger pores in the dry-mixed glass concrete could accommo-
is normally disposal at landfills. To reduce the environmental date the ASR gel, which made it effective to mitigate the expansion
impacts and promote sustainable management of waste glass, of ASR gel than the conventional wet-mixed glass concrete. More-
further investigations are necessary to explore practicable means over, the addition of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs)
to increase the recycling of the waste glass. like fly ash and metakaolin could further suppress the ASR in the
glass-based concrete blocks [19].
More importantly, the dry-mixed method for the production of
1.2. Use of waste glass in concrete paving blocks concrete paving blocks is cost-effective because of its short produc-
tion cycle time. Based on these advantages, in Hong Kong, the dry-
Beverage glass container is an artificial product produced with mixed paving blocks prepared with waste glass have been widely
sand, soda ash and limestone, and is also called soda-lime-silica applied in various road maintenance contracts, public works and
glass. It is chemically inert and possesses high intrinsic strength, housing projects since 2010 [20]. The technology for production
therefore it has potential to be used as a secondary raw material. of dry-mixed concrete paving blocks in the local industry is
Besides reuse it for glass manufacturing, the utilization of waste demonstrated in Fig. 1.
glass in construction products is one of the most attractive At present, up to 25% of total aggregates (including coarse and
approaches because it is potential to recycle a large amount of fine aggregates) are replaced by waste GC (as part of the fine aggre-
glass [3]. A number of studies had been conducted to evaluate gates) for the production concrete paving blocks. Therefore, it is
the potential use of waste glass as aggregates in cement mortars needed to investigate the feasibility of increased an amount of
and concrete [4–8]. However, there are still some technical limita- waste glass in the paving blocks. The aim of this study was to
tions when using waste glass as fine aggregates in concrete. For design an eco-friendly concrete paving block by maximizing the
example, the replacement of natural fine aggregates by the glass application of waste glass. The waste glass was not only employed
cullet (GC) normally results in inferior mechanical performance as fine aggregates but also as a SCM (in the form of glass powder)
[9–11]. Furthermore, severe segregation and bleeding would be for replacing cement. The study focused on entirely replacing the
found as fine aggregates were fully replaced by GC [12]. Therefore, fine aggregates with waste GC, meanwhile, up to 20% of cement
more attention was paid to investigate the feasibility of using was replaced by waste glass powder (GP) to further improve the
waste GC as fine aggregates for the production of dry-mixed con- performance of the paving blocks. Physical properties (density,
crete paving blocks. water absorption), mechanical property (compressive strength)
Poon and Lam [13] prepared an eco-friendly concrete block and durability (ASR, drying shrinkage) of the developed paving
with 50% GC and 50% recycled aggregates. The result showed that blocks were determined.
the high water absorption of the concrete blocks resulting from the
incorporation of recycled aggregates could be reduced by the use of
GC. In addition, improvement of abrasion resistance was found in 1.3. Research significance
the concrete blocks prepared with glass aggregates incorporation
[14]. Ling and Poon [15] indicated that the use of discarded cath- A significant amount of waste glass is generated in Hong Kong,
ode ray tube glass as an alternate fine aggregate in the dry- which imposes tremendous environmental problems due to its
mixed concrete paving blocks was helpful to reduce the drying non-combustible and non-putrescible nature. Even worse, the
shrinkage and water absorption. But, the content of cathode ray shortage of waste disposal sites in Hong Kong poses a challenge
tube glass for producing concrete blocks should be limited to about to deal with this kind of solid waste. This study was conducted
25% glass due to the possible leaching of lead. The study of Lee to maximize the application of waste glass in the concrete paving
et al. [16] showed that the inclusion of the very fine GC increased blocks, which may help expand the recycling of local waste glass.
the compressive strength of concrete blocks due to the pozzolanic Furthermore, recycling the waste glass as a secondary raw material
reaction of the very fine glass particles. In addition, the photocat- like aggregates can also alleviate the demand for virgin resources
alytic performance for removing air pollutants was improved when since the local quarry sites for aggregates production are expected

Fig. 1. Technology for production of concrete paving blocks in local industry.

212 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220

Fig. 2. Particle sizes of fine aggregates and GP, gradation of GC and FA (a); and particle size distribution of GP (b).

Fig. 3. Transition from glass cullet to glass powder.

to be exhausted soon. In order to maximize the application of supplier. The GC used in this study was provided by a local waste
waste glass in the production of concrete paving blocks, this study glass recycling facility which collected and crushed post-consumer
proposed two strategies for enhancing the waste glass content, beverage bottles to produce the GC. The gradation curves of GC and
which were: (i) the use of GC from locally generated waste glass FA are presented in Fig. 2(a). The GP was obtained after grinding
bottles as fine aggregates, and (ii) the use of waste glass powder the GC with a laboratory ball mill for 2 h (as shown in Fig. 3).
ground from GC as partial cement replacement. The results of this The ball mill used was a cylindrical barrel with internal diameter
study were expected to provide a guidance to recycle waste glass of 260 mm and length of 330 mm. The rotation speed of ball mill
in the concrete paving blocks for footpaths and carriageways appli- was 60 r/min and the mass ratio of steel balls to GC was set to
cations (i.e. 30 MPa and 45 MPa, respectively). Previously, several 6:1. Fig. 2(b) shows the particle size distributions of OPC and GP,
studies [21–23] have been conducted on the performance of indicating that the mean diameter of GP (47.9 lm) was larger than
cement mortar and concrete prepared with GC and GP simultane- that of OPC (40.8 lm). The chemical compositions of OPC and GP
ously. But no investigation was done on using GC and GP simulta- were analyzed by X Ray Fluorescence and shown in Table 1. The
neously in the production of concrete paving blocks. densities of all the raw materials used in this study are listed in
Table 2. It can be noted that the densities of GP and GC were lower
than those of OPC and natural aggregates, respectively.
2. Experimental design

2.1. Materials 2.2. Proportion of mix

The materials used to fabricate the concrete paving blocks were In order to produce concrete paving blocks with a maximum
ASTM type I ordinary Portland cement (OPC, 52.5), natural coarse content of waste glass, the recycled GC was used to replace 0%,
aggregates (CA, 5–10 mm), crushed fine aggregates (FA, 0–5 mm), 25%, 40%, 55% and 70% of the total amount of aggregates by weight.
waste glass cullet (GC, 0–5 mm) and waste glass powder (GP). It should be noted that since the particle size of waste GC was less
The OPC was supplied by Green Island Cement in Hong Kong. than 5 mm, it was only used to replace the fine aggregates. Fur-
The CA and FA were crushed granite sourced from a local aggregate thermore, 20% of OPC was replaced by the GP to address the ASR
 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220 213

Table 1 ambient temperature for 28 days to assess the various properties

Chemical compositions of cementitious materials. of the blocks.
Chemical composition, % OPC GP
SiO2 19.78 73.50 2.4. Properties of paving blocks
Al2O3 3.85 0.73
Fe2O3 3.15 0.38 The concrete paving blocks prepared were tested according to
CaO 65.21 10.45
relevant standards (British Standards or American Society for Test-
MgO 1.50 1.25
Na2O – 12.74 ing and Materials) with due reference to the relevant sections of
K2O 0.70 0.69 the Hong Kong General Specifications for Civil Engineering Works,
SO4 5.49 – 2006 Edition.
TiO2 0.27 0.09
MnO 0.06 0.01
Cr2O3 – 0.12
2.4.1. Density
The density of paving blocks was determined using a water dis-
placement method as per BS 1881 Part 114 for hardened concrete
paving blocks [24]. After curing, the blocks were placed on a stirrup
equipped in a balance, and fully immersed in water. The density
problem to enhance the dosage of the waste glass in the blocks.
was calculated using the following formula:
The mixes were prepared with only sufficient amount of water to
produce a cohesive mix but with no slump/workability, with the q ¼ Ma =ðMa  Mw Þ
water-to-binder (w/b) ratios was 0.24–0.32. The aggregates-to-
where:
binder (a/b) ratio of the paving blocks mixtures were fixed at 4.0.
q means the bulk density of the blocks after immersion (in
The mix proportions of the paving blocks produced are listed in
g/cm3);
Table 3.
Ma stands for the mass of the saturated specimen in air (in g);
Mw represents the mass of the saturated specimen in water (in
2.3. Preparation of paving blocks g).

The recycled GC was blended with the corresponding amount of 2.4.2. Water absorption
cement, CA, and FA in accordance with Table 2 to prepare the pav- The water absorption values were determined in accordance
ing blocks. Then, water was introduced to the dry mix of the with AS/NZS 4456.14 [25]. After completing the above density test-
cement-aggregates until a homogeneous mixture was formed. ing, the specimens were immediately transferred to a ventilated
The amount of water needed for blocks making were adjusted drying oven at a constant temperature of 105 °C for 24 h. After
according to the moisture content of the mixtures. It is worth to removing each specimen from the oven, they were allowed to cool
point out that the incorporation of waste GC slightly reduced the in dry air. The water absorption of each specimen could be
amount of water required to produce the same mix cohesiveness obtained using the formula:
since the water absorption of GC was negligible. Based on the A ¼ ½ðM a  M o Þ=Mo  100%
actual industrial production, the mixed material was fabricated
in steel moulds (100 mm  200 mm  60 mm). The freshly mixed where:
mixture cast into the moulds in two separate layer and each layer A = water absorption of sample after immersion;
was compacted by manual tamping in turn. Afterward, a maximum Mo = mass of oven-dried sample in air (in g);
compressive force of 600 kN was applied for about 60 s to mechan- Ma = mass of surface-dry sample in air after immersion (in g).
ically compact the mixture within the moulds. The fabricated
blocks in the steel moulds were covered by a wet towel to reduce 2.4.3. Compressive strength
the initial moisture loss. The paving blocks were then demoulded The compressive strength of concrete blocks was determined
after 24 h of casting. After demoulding, the mixes were cured in using a compaction machine with a maximum capacity of

Table 2
Densities of cementitious materials and aggregates.

Density (g/cm3) OPC GP CA FA GC

Value 3.03 2.37 2.59 2.59 2.48

Table 3
Mix designs of concrete paving blocks containing waste glass (kg/m3).

Mix OPC GP CA FA GC Water a/b w/b

Density (g/cm3) 3.03 2.37 2.59 2.59 2.48
0GC 480 0 533 1387 0 153.6 4.0 0.32
25GC 480 0 533 907 480 153.6 4.0 0.32
40GC 480 0 533 619 768 134.4 4.0 0.28
55GC 480 0 533 331 1056 124.8 4.0 0.26
70GC 480 0 533 43 1344 115.2 4.0 0.24
70GC + 20GP 384 96 533 43 1344 115.5 4.0 0.24

Note: The notations in the mix designations correspond to the percentages of waste GC/GP present in the aggregates/binder. For example, 25%GC means that 25% of the total
amount of aggregates were replaced by GC (by weight), and the GC were only used to replace the fine aggregates due to their similar gradation and density. Based on practical
experience in the industry, the maximum percentage of fine aggregates was 70% of the total aggregates in the blocks. Therefore, the levels of GC as aggregates replacement
were based on such a level. GP was used as a supplementary cementitious material to replace 20% of OPC by weight although the density of GP was lower than that of OPC.
214 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220

3000 kN. The testing method was in accordance with BS EN 12390-

3:2009 [26]. The load was increased at a rate of 0.6 MPa/s until fail-
ure and the maximum force was recorded. For the rectangular
blocks (100 mm  200 mm  60 mm), prior to the loading test,
the thickness of each block was measured for calculating the com-
pressive strength. The calculation equation for compressive
strength was based on the Hong Kong General Specification for
Civil Engineering Works [27], the compressive strength value was
an average of measurements of two specimens.
C ¼ 2:5F=½A  ð1:5 þ L=HÞ
where:
C is the compressive strength (MPa);
F is the breaking load (N);
A is the nominal gross plan area (mm2);
L is the minimum size of the two plan dimension (mm);
H is the thickness of the block (mm).
Fig. 4. Effect of GC and GP on the density and water absorption of paving blocks.

2.4.4. Drying shrinkage

The drying shrinkage of the block specimens was determined
according to British Standard (BS ISO, Part 8: 1920) method [28]. 3. Experimental results
The blocks were fabricated in steel moulds with internal dimen-
sions of 25 mm  25 mm  285 mm. The specimens were 3.1. Density and water absorption
demoulded after 24 h casting, then placed into the water tank for
7 days curing. The initial lengths of the block specimens were mea- Fig. 4 presents the density and water absorption values of the
sured immediately after removing them from the curing tank. glass-based paving blocks. It is observed that both the density
Then, the specimens were conveyed to a drying chamber at 25 °C and water absorption of the paving blocks decreased when the
and a relative humidity of 50% until further measurement at 1st, amount of GC was increased. This can be attributed to the soda-
4th, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day. lime-silica glass aggregates having a lower specify gravity (see
Table 2) as compared to the crushed aggregates. Similar results
2.4.5. Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) were reported by Ismail and AL-Hashmi [30], who found that the
In order to measure the ASR expansion for glass-based paving density of concrete incorporating GC as fine aggregates was lower
blocks, an accelerated block bar test was carried out in accordance than that of the control concrete without GC. Furthermore, the
with ASTM C1260 [29]. The specimens with dimensions of replacement of cement by GP could decrease the hardened density
25 mm  25 mm  285 mm were cast. After demoulding, the block of the paving blocks. This can also be explained by the lower inher-
specimens were transferred into 80 °C water tank for 24 h and the ent density of glass as compared to that of cement [31] which was
length was recorded as the zero reading using a length comparator. also shown in Table 2.
Then, the specimen bars were transferred and immersed in 1 M As required by the Hong Kong specifications [27], the water
NaOH solution at 80 °C. The expansion values of the specimens absorption of the concrete paving blocks should be less than 6%.
were measured at 1st, 4th, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day. Apparently, the water absorption of the blocks incorporating GC
did not exceed 6%, and the water absorption was significantly
2.4.6. Microstructure tests reduced when the GC content increased. This trend was due to the
Scanning Electron Microscopy and coupled with Energy Disper- impermeable property of the GC [32]. The replacement of cement
sive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) analyses (Tescan VEGA3) were by GP further reduced the water absorption of the paving blocks.
conducted to evaluate the mechanism on the effect of GC and GP The reason for this behavior was attributed to the denser
on the ASR expansion of the paving blocks. After the ASR test, microstructure of the cement mortar in the mixture owing to the
the block samples were broken into pieces and the cement mortars pozzolanic reaction of GP (to be discussed in Section 4). This trend
except the coarse aggregates were collected for morphology obser- of reduction in the water absorption was also found by previous
vation. The prepared mortar pieces were first immersed into etha- studies on cement mortar [33] and concrete [34] incorporating
nol for two weeks to stop further reaction, followed by drying in a 20% GP.
vacuum chamber at 60 °C for another two weeks to remove the
residual ethanol. Before testing by SEM-EDX, the mortar pieces 3.2. Compressive strength
were coated by Au for conduction purpose. Both the SEM images
and EDS were obtained in a vacuum condition with a voltage of Fig. 5 shows the influence of different GC contents and GP incor-
20 kV and a working distance of about 10 mm. The magnification poration on the compressive strength of the paving blocks. It can
of each image was selected based on the sizes of GC and GP. The be noticed that the 28-day compressive strength kept relatively
detailed information on the setting of SEM equipment was showed constant at above 50 MPa when the amount of GC was increased
in the bottom side of SEM images. Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry from 0% to 70%. In other words, the increasing content of GC had
(MIP, Micromeritics AutoPore IV 9500 Series) was employed to no adverse effects on the compressive strength when it is used in
understand the influence of GP incorporation on the pore structure concrete paving blocks which is contrary to the decreasing trend
of glass-based paving blocks and explore the underlying mecha- found in normal concrete [9–11]. The difference may be explained
nism of GP in ASR suppression. The samples prepared for MIP test by the different casting methods of the concrete mixtures. As
was the same as the SEM test. The pore sizes measured by this known, normal concrete is commonly cast by the wet-mixed
method ranged from 150 mm down to 7 nm. A maximum mercury method, which normally has a good workability to facilitate cast-
intrusion pressure of 207 MPa was performed for determining the ing using normal means of compaction (e.g. vibrating table or
pore structure. poker vibrator). Using the wet-mixed method, the aggregate
 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220 215

3.3. Drying shrinkage

The effects of the maximum GC content and GP incorporation

on the drying shrinkage of the paving blocks are presented in
Fig. 6. Apparently, the blocks without the GC had high drying
shrinkage values with above 1000 micro-strains. When the maxi-
mum content of GC was used to fully replace the fine aggregates,
the drying shrinkage decreased effectively and the ultimate value
was half of that of blocks prepared without GC. The shrinkage of
the blocks was largely caused by moisture loss from the hydrated
cement materials upon exposure to the external drying conditions.
A previous study [38] reported that a lower water to binder ratio
led to a lower drying shrinkage value in the concrete. In this study,
the negligible water absorption capacity of glass particles would
result in less amount of evaporable water in the cementitious paste
because a lower water to binder ratio was required in the mixture
preparation. Therefore, the drying shrinkage of the paving blocks
was reduced as the GC was introduced as fine aggregates. Similar
reductions in the drying shrinkage were also reported for cement
Fig. 5. Effect of GC and GP on compressive strength of paving blocks.
mortars [39] and normal concrete [40] incorporating GC. As recom-
mended by the Australian Standard (AS1012.13 [41]), the drying
shrinkage value of concrete should be less than 1000 micro-
strains. Therefore, the introduction of the maximum amount of
particles are wrapped relatively uniformly by the cement paste.
GC as fine aggregates in this study could successfully render the
Hence, the bonding between the aggregates and cement paste
shrinkage of the paving blocks within the permitted limit.
would be a principal factor in controlling the strength. For the case
The replacement of cement by GP further reduced the drying
of normal concrete prepared with GC incorporation, the weak
shrinkage of the blocks. Moreover, most of the shrinkage on the pav-
bonding between the cement paste and the GC due to the smooth
ing blocks took place before 7 days of drying. Therefore, the poz-
surface of glass particles was mainly responsible for the reductions
zolanic effect of the GP occurring at the late age was not the key
in strength. A pervious study [21] also verified the weak interfacial
factor in controlling the drying shrinkage. On the one hand, the dilu-
transition zone in the vicinity of the GC. Furthermore, it was also
tion effect due to the addition of GP was beneficial to reduce the
found that the higher porosity near the GC might cause a decrease
shrinkage as the replacement of 20% cement by GP reduced the
in strength because the non-absorbent nature of the glass resulted
amount of cement hydration, which mitigated the volume contrac-
in localized bleeding of water around the GC.
tion of the hydration products due to chemical reactions [6]. Fur-
But in this study, the concrete paving blocks were produced by
thermore, the beneficial effect of reduction in shrinkage may be
a dry-mixed casting method. The mixture was prepared with only
related to the irregular shapes and high aspect ratios of the glass par-
a minimal amount of water with no workability and compacted via
ticles [21], which might act as micro-fibers in restricting the shrink-
a specified compressive force into the moulds. Therefore, the pack-
age of the cement mortar in the paving blocks.
ing of the concrete mixture associated with the gradation of aggre-
gates might played a more important role in determining the
strength. As showed in Fig. 2(a), the particle size of GC was finer
3.4. ASR expansion
than that of the replaced fine aggregates, making it easier to fill
up the gaps between the coarse aggregate particles. Thus, the mix-
As expected, the high content of GC in the paving blocks would
tures prepared with GC could be compacted to produce a denser
cause excessive expansion when subjected to the accelerated test
matrix than those prepared with FA. This beneficial effect would
counteract the adverse effect brought by the weak bonding
between the GC and the cement paste. In addition, the lesser
amount of water required for producing the block mixtures with
the increase of GC content was also conducive to compensating
the strength loss. Therefore, the better packing efficiency and low
water to binder ratio may be the reasons why the compressive
strength of paving blocks remained almost consistent when the
GC percentage was increased up to the maximum content.
More importantly, it is found that all the compressive strengths
of the paving blocks could satisfy the minimum limit of the Hong
Kong requirements (as shown in Fig. 5), irrespective of the GC con-
tent. The sufficient strength strongly supports the feasibility of
using more glass for making the concrete paving blocks. Moreover,
it is interesting to notice that the replacement of 20% cement by GP
only led to a slight reduction in the compressive strength. For using
GP in cement-based construction materials, extensive studies [35–
37] had demonstrated its pozzolanic reactivity. The relatively low
pozzolanic activity of GP at the early age [21] was the main reason
for the slight reduction of strength. However, the compressive
strength achieved could still exceed the requirements for practical
applications. Fig. 6. Effect of GC and GP on the drying shrinkage of paving blocks.
216 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220

due to the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) expansion (as shown in SEM equipped with EDX studies were conducted. Fig. 8 presents
Fig. 7). Although the ASR expansion within 14 days was below per- the morphology and elemental compositions for the block speci-
missible limit, the severe expansion at later ages is still a concern. mens after the ASR test for 28 days. In the cases of the paving
Indeed, the expansion of 70G specimen increased rapidly after blocks prepared without GC, there were micro-cracks present
immersion in the alkali solution for 14 days. This is because the within the aggregate particles (as seen in Fig. 8(a)). These cracks
process of silica dissolution from glass was slow under the attack were likely associated with the dry-mixed fabrication process
of hydroxyl ions at the early age. After 14 days, the reaction [18]. Also, cracks were found in the vicinity of the fine aggregates
between the alkali and the silica developed intensely in the glass (see Fig. 8(b)) due to the poor bonding with the cement paste.
aggregates and the accumulated swelling pressure due to the However, it is obviously noticed that no expansive ASR gel was
ASR gel incurred excessive expansion (to be discussed in Sec- found within the cracks both in the interior and the surface of
tion 3.5). Apparently, deteriorated ASR cracks were observed on the aggregates. This means that little ASR risk was associated with
the surface of the block specimen when 70% of total aggregates the use of crushed granite as fine aggregates. In addition, the result
was replaced by GC. This is attributed to the increased volume of correlated well with the low ASR expansion of the paving blocks
ASR gel in the region of reaction sites resulted in expansive stress, prepared without GC.
which had exceeded the tensile strength of the cement paste [42]. Fig. 8(c) shows the microstructure of the block specimen pre-
By contrast, no ASR crack was observed in the control mixture pared with 70% GC after 28 days of immersion in 80 °C NaOH solu-
(0GC) prepared without GC and the 70GC + 20GP specimen in tion. It can be clearly observed that larger cracks were formed in
which GC and GP were used simultaneously. The results show that the interior of the GC. Generally, ASR is considered to form on
the use of GP as a replacement of cement was very effective in the surface of the reactive siliceous aggregates, which is dissolved
reducing and eliminating the potential ASR risk triggered by GC by hydroxyl ion and the dissolved silicate react with the alkaline
when 20% GP were cooperatively used with the maximum content ions to form ASR gel [44]. However, in the case of the dry-mixed
of GC in the paving blocks. This encouraging result was consistent paving blocks, internal micro-cracks were likely to be generated
with previous findings [6,43] that using 20% GP in the binder could initially within the glass aggregates due to the high pressure com-
successfully inhibit the ASR when cement mortars was prepared paction procedure. The original micro-cracks inside the interior of
with 100% GC as aggregates. The reason for such high effectiveness the large glass particles provided a favorable condition for the for-
might be due to the favorable composition of GP and its fine parti- mation of ASR gel because the dissolved silica and sodium ions pre-
cle size. The explanation will be further elaborated in the following sent in the small space of the micro-cracks could hardly diffuse
section. It can be concluded that the combined use of GC and GP away [42,45], leading to very high concentrations of silica and
can effectively eliminate the potential risk of ASR in the concrete sodium and a low concentration of calcium in the cracks. Hence,
paving blocks and further contribute to the durability and sustain- the ASR gel was formed and accumulated within the GC.
ability of the blocks. To validate this assumption, EDX was used to analyze the ASR
gel on the surface of the GC. Fig. 8(d) and Table 3 illustrate the
3.5. Microstructure analysis elemental compositions of zones 1–5 of Fig. 8(c). Fig. 8(d) shows
similar elemental distributions in zones 1 and 5 with a relatively
In order to better understand the underlying deterioration low sodium content. The high silica concentrations as indicated
mechanism of the ASR expansion due to the GC incorporation in Table 3 confirm that the zones 1 and 5 were the glass particles.
and the beneficial roles of the GP in mitigating the ASR of the GC, In contrast, it can be seen in Fig. 8(d) that the zones 2, 3 and 4

Cracks

5 cm

No crack

5 cm

No crack

5 cm

Fig. 7. Effect of GC and GP on the ASR expansion of paving blocks.

 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220 217

Fig. 8. Morphology observation of ASR expansion in paving blocks, 0GC (a, b); 70GC (c, d); 70GC + 20GP (e, f).

contained much higher sodium contents. These results are verified of ASR gel is close to those of normal CASAH. On the contrary,
in Table 3, which shows that the sodium concentrations in zones 2, the lower Ca/Si ratios of the ASR gel formed inside the GC could
3 and 4 were more than twice of those in zones 1 and 5. Mean- increase the potential expansion due to its lower stiffness. Subse-
while, the amounts of calcium in zones 2, 3 and 4 were less than quently, cracks would propagate from the GC [18] and extend to
half than in zones 1 and 5 (GC). Therefore, it is highly likely that the surrounding cement paste matrix causing more cracking once
these alkali-calcium-silicate products in the interior of GC with the swelling stress exceeded the tensile strength of cement paste.
extremely high Na/Si and Na/Ca ratios (see Table 4) were the For the paving block prepared with GC and GP (Fig. 8(e, f)), it
expansive ASR gel, which led to excessive expansion by adsorption can be noticed that no observable ASR-induced cracks were found
of water. within and on the surface glass particles. This indicates that the
Another interesting result obtained was the low Ca/Si ratios addition of fine glass particles (i.e. GP) could effectively suppress
(<0.2) in zones 2, 3 and 4 (ASR gel). As reported in previous studies the ASR expansion caused by the coarse glass particles (i.e. GC).
[46,47], ASR gel with Ca/Si ratios higher than 0.5 might have a high The observation also supports the beneficial effect of GP as shown
stiffness which did not expand as the composition and properties in Fig. 7. The possible explanations could be due to the composition
218 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220

Table 4
Compositions of zones 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 by EDX.

Atomic% Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 5

Ca 8 3 3 3 6
Si 43 17 17 17 35
Na 7 17 17 16 8
Ca/Si 0.19 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.17
Na/Si 0.16 1.00 1.00 0.94 0.23
Na/Ca 0.88 5.67 5.67 5.33 1.33

and particle size effects of GP. As reported by Shehata and Thomas 4. Discussion
[48], the efficacy of fly ash in controlling ASR expansion increased
as its silica content increased. Based on this mechanism, the addi- The experimental results showed that the use of aggregates
tion of GP with a high silica content would play the same role in with a low water absorption (i.e. GC) as fine aggregates signifi-
reducing ASR expansion. In addition, the alkali hydroxide would cantly reduced the water absorption of the concrete paving blocks.
preferentially react with the small GP particles (large specific sur- This indicates that the water absorption of the aggregates itself
face area) to form mature alkali silicate, which could further com- also played an important role in affecting the water absorption of
bine with calcium ions to form solid calcium alkali silicate, thus the produced concrete products. Poon and Lam [13] found that
avoiding the formation of reaction rims around the reactive glass the water absorption value of the concrete mixes was closely asso-
aggregate [49]. This explanation was supported by the study of ciated with the corresponding water absorption of the aggregates
Kamali and Ghahremaninezhad [50], which indicated that the dis- used. Therefore, the result of this study provides guidance to
solution of large-sized glass was significantly reduced in alkaline design concrete or paving blocks with specific water absorption
solution (1 N NaOH solution at 80 °C) with GP addition. The through the selection of aggregate types. Moreover, it is encourag-
reduced concentration of hydroxyl ions available near the coarse ing to find that the replacement of cement by 20% GP can further
glass aggregates due to the prior reaction with the fine glass parti- result in the reduction of the water absorption of the paving blocks.
cles may be responsible for the reduction in the rate of silica disso- Based on the pore structure analysis, the reduced large pores and
lution from GC. Therefore, the incorporation of GP with finer increased number of small pores due to the introduction of GP
particle size was effective in reducing ASR of the glass aggregates. may contribute to the reduced water absorption.
The Fig. 9 shows the characteristics of pore structure in the It is noteworthy that the drying shrinkage value of the paving
maximum GC incorporating paving blocks with and without 20% blocks prepared with the maximum content of GC used in this
GP. The refinement of pore size due to the introduction of GP can study was far below the limit of 1000 micro-strains as recom-
be observed. The dense microstructure induced by the GP could mended by the Australian Standard (AS1012.13) for concrete. On
be a reason for the reduced water absorption. Moreover, the num- the basis of using the maximum amount of GC as fine aggregates,
ber of finer pores was increased as the cement was replaced by the a further decrease in the drying shrinkage was found by partially
GP. This beneficial effect was mainly attributed to the formation of replacing cement by GP. Due to most of the recorded shrinkage
additional hydration products by the pozzolanic reaction between occurred in the early age, the physical characteristics (including
the GP and the calcium hydroxide. A previous study [21] also found irregular shape, higher aspect ratio and negligible water absorp-
that many fibrillar hydrates were formed in the cement-glass pow- tion) of the glass particles were thought to be responsible for this
der matrix due to the high amorphous silica content in the GP. beneficial effect. Therefore, in terms of shrinkage performance,
These fibrillar shaped hydration products were conducive to filling using the glass materials as fine aggregates and a binder would
the large pores and strengthening the matrix. be able to reduce the shrinkage. More significantly, the experimen-
tal results showed that the compressive strength of the paving
blocks did not decrease as the GC content was gradually increased
to the maximum content. Moreover, the further use of 20% GP to
replace cement did not affect the mechanical strength. Overall,
the percentage of the glass materials that can be used in the con-
crete paving blocks can reach 60% of its total mass.
The major concern on using a large amount of glass materials in
concrete products is the potential structure damage caused by the
deleterious ASR expansion. As shown in the accelerated ASR test,
the 14-day expansion of the paving block prepared with the max-
imum GC proportion as fine aggregates did not exceed the stan-
dard limit (0.1%). This was ascribed to the porous structure of the
dry-mixed paving blocks, which could accommodate the volume
increase caused by the formation of ASR gel [18]. However, due
to the original micro cracks formed in the GC during the fabrication
process, the paving blocks with GC still exhibited high ASR expan-
sion because the ASR gel with high Na/Si and Na/Ca ratios prefer-
entially formed in the original cracks. This was found to be
potentially deleterious at the later age when only GC was used to
replace nearly 100% of the fine aggregates. In order to prevent
the ASR expansion, 20% of cement was further replaced by GP.
Although soda-lime-silica GP also contains a high alkali content,
Fig. 9. Effect of GP incorporation on the pore structure of paving blocks prepared the use of milled GP as cement replacement in the concrete paving
with 70% GC as aggregates. blocks could greatly suppress the ASR induced by the GC. The
 J.-X. Lu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 223 (2019) 210–220 219

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