Behavior of sustainable Reactive Powder Concrete by Using Glass Powder as a Replacement of Cement

Every year, the world produces one million tons of glass garbage. Once the glass has been broken down, it is dumped in landfills, where it will remain inert for hundreds of years. glass is mainly made of silica. For long-term infrastructure development, ground glass as a partial cement substitute may be a major advance (environmentally friendly, energy-saving, and economic). Secondary calcium silicate hydrate is expected to be produced when glass waste is crushed into microscopic particles and then reacts with cement hydrate through pozzolanic interactions (C-S-H). There were experiments done on concrete utilizing (0-35 per cent) ground glass and superplasticizer, silica fume, fine sand and fibres, with the water to binder (cement + glass) ratio maintained constant for all degrees of replacement on compressive strength, modulus of elasticity and tensile strength. Steel is a fixed quantity that applies to all conceivable configurations. Concrete cube samples were made and tested for strength (28 days curing). It was discovered that the recycled glass concrete outperformed control samples in compressive strength tests. Compressive strength, tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity are all greatest in the 25 per cent glass powder. It was decided that using recycled glass trash in place of 25 per cent of the cement was a good idea because of the economic and environmental advantages.

The Use of Glass from Photovoltaic Panels at the End of Their Life Cycle in Cement Composites

This article deals with the use of photovoltaic panels at the end of their life cycle in cement composites. Attention is focused on the properties of cement composite after 100% replacement of natural aggregate with recycled glass from photovoltaic panels. This goal of replacing natural filler sources with recycled glass is based on the updated policy of the Czech Republic concerning secondary raw materials for the period of 2019–2022, which aims to increase the self-sufficiency of the Czech Republic in raw materials by replacing primary sources with secondary raw materials. The policy also promotes the use of secondary raw materials as a tool to reduce the material and energy demands of industrial production and supports the innovations and development of a circular economy within business. The research has shown that it is possible to prepare cement composite based on recycled glass from solar panels, with compressive and flexural strength after 28 days exceeding 40 MPa and 4 MPa. Furthermore, a possible modification of the cement composite with different pigments has been confirmed, without disrupting the contact zone.

Development of lightweight structural concrete with the use of aggregates based on foam glass

Lightweight concretes are increasingly being used in the construction industry, either for the overall lightweighting of the structure itself, reducing material consumption for construction and thus CO2 emissions, or for specific reasons such as improving the thermal insulation properties of the structure or acoustic properties. Today, lightweight concretes with lightweight expanded aggregates (expanded clay, agloporite) are most commonly used. This paper deals with the production of lightweight concretes lightweighted with foamed glass-based aggregates. Foamed glass is a lightweight material characterised by a very good ratio of thermal insulation and mechanical properties. Foamed glass is made of approximately 90% recycled glass waste (mostly mixed), which cannot be used in any other way, as well as water glass and glycerine. When concrete is lightened with foamed glass, these concretes achieve unique properties while conserving primary aggregate resources, avoiding landfilling of glass waste and efficiently using the waste material to produce lightweight concrete with higher added value. The paper discusses the possibilities of developing lightweight structural concretes using glass foam-based aggregates to achieve higher strength classes while reducing the weight and thermal conductivity of the concrete. As part of the research work, new types of lightweight concrete with a bulk density in the range of 1750–1930 kg/m3 and a thermal conductivity from 0.699 to 0.950 W/(m·K) were developed.