Use of waste glass in alkali activated cement mortar

Abstract This paper presents a study on alkali activated cement (AAC) mortar produced with waste soda-lime-silica glass. The waste glass was used simultaneously as a precursor and fine aggregates in the alkali activated fly ash-slag mortar. The influences of waste glass in cullet and powder forms on workability, compressive and flexural strengths, fire resistance of the AAC mortar were investigated. The experimental results showed that the workability was gradually increased as the replacement level of natural sand by glass cullet was increased, and it was significantly improved with decreasing aggregates-to-binder ratios. The mechanical properties data indicated that the compressive strength was reduced as the glass cullet content increased. However, for the flexural strength, the optimum percentage of glass cullet replacement was 50%. Due to the low reactivity, a reduction in strength was observed when the glass powder was used to replace the fly ash and slag. Nevertheless, in terms of fire resistance, the incorporation of glass cullet could improve the resistance of the AAC to high temperature exposures (800 °C). In particular, the AAC mortar prepared with the glass powder as a precursor exhibited remarkable resistance to high temperature. The use of waste glass in AAC material was feasible from the mechanical properties and fire resistance points of view.