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Waste Glass Powder as Cement Replacement in Concrete

Hongjian Du, Kiang Hwee Tan

Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, volume 12 ( 2014 ), pp. 468-477

Effects of PFA and GGBS on Early-Ages Engineering Properties of Portland Cement Systems

Xiangming Zhou , Joel R. Slater, Stuart E. Wavell, Olayinka Oladiran

Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, volume 10 ( 2012 ), pp. 74-85
Estimation of strength, permeability and hydraulic diffusivity of pozzolana blended concrete through
pore size distribution

B. Kondraivendha , B. Sabet Divsholi , Susanto Teng

Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, volume 11 ( 2013 ), pp. 230-237
Effect of nano-CaCO3 on compressive strength development of high volume fly ash mortars and
concretes

Steve W. M. Supit, Faiz U. A.Shaikh

Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, volume 12 ( 2014 ), pp. 178-186

Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, November 2014 / Copyright 2014 Japan Concrete Institute

468

Scientific paper

Waste Glass Powder as Cement Replacement in Concrete

Hongjian Du1* and Kiang Hwee Tan2
Received 25 August 2014, accepted 2 November 2014

doi:10.3151/jact.12.468

Abstract
The pozzolanic reactivity of waste glass powder was experimentally studied at cement replacement levels of 0, 15, 30,
45 and 60% by weight. Results revealed that the concrete compressive strength was not decreased by the cement substitution after 28 days because of the pozzolanic reaction between glass powders and cement hydration products, if the
replacement is below 30%. Also, the resistance to chloride ion and water penetration continuously increases with increasing glass powder content up to 60% cement replacement. At 60% replacement level, the electrical resistivity and
water penetration depth were reduced by 95% and 80%, respectively, while the compressive strength was maintained as
85%. These improvements in durability properties are due to the refined microstructures, particularly at the interfacial
transition zone. Pore size distribution was measured to confirm the refinement in the capillary pores, which partially
block the pathways for water and chloride ions. This study also demonstrates that high performance concrete (improved
strength and impermeability against chloride and water) could be achieved by using glass powder as 15% additive,
which contributes to the pozzolanic reaction instead of being inert fines for compact packing.

1. Introduction
Due to the awareness on the need for environmental
protection, turning solid wastes or by-products into ingredients of concrete has drawn increasing attention.
Apart from material and energy conservation, reuse of
some solid wastes could result in better performances of
concrete in several areas. For example, use of waste
glass as fine aggregates provides concrete with higher
resistance to chloride penetration (Ling et al. 2011; Tan
and Du 2013; Du and Tan 2014a). Fine glass particles
(smaller than 75 m) can exhibit pozzolanic reactivity,
thereby improving the microstructure of paste and the
strength and durability of concrete in the long term
(Wright et al. 2014; Du and Tan 2014a). The amorphous
silica in the glass would dissolve in an alkaline environment such as due to OH- ions in the pore solution of
cement paste. Thereafter, it could react with calcium
hydroxide (CH) to form secondary calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), a process known as pozzolanic reaction
which can be expressed by CH + S + H C-S-H. Previous literature shows that the pozzolanic reactivity of
glass particle increases due to the larger surface area
available for the reaction (Shayan and Xu 2004; Du and
Tan 2014b). At the same time, with finely ground glass
powder (GP), no alkali-silica reaction has been observed
(Jin et al. 2000). According to the authors previous
work (Du and Tan 2013; Du and Tan 2014b), ASR ex1

Research Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore,
Singapore.
*Corresponding author, E-mail: ceedh@nus.edu.sg
2
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, National University of Singapore,
Singapore.

pansion in mortar containing glass particle as fine aggregates would be negligible provided that the glass
particles were smaller than 0.3 mm. This finding is consistent with the threshold particle size of 0.3 mm as reported by Shayan and Xu (2004) and Rajabipour et al.
(2010).
Some studies have been conducted to characterize the
pozzolanic activity of finely ground GP in concrete
(Shao et al. 2000; Dyer and Dhir 2001; Shi et al. 2005;
Neithalath 2008; Schwarz et al. 2008; Jain and Neithalath 2010; Matos and Sousa-Coutinho 2012; Khmiri et
al. 2013; Carsana et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2014; Mirzahosseiniand and Riding 2014; Du and Tan 2014c). Depending on its fineness, GP would generally exhibit
pozzolanic reaction at a slower rate compared with the
cement hydration. Thus, the replacement of cement by
GP might decrease strength at an early age but would
increase it at a later age. Most of the previous research
works emphasized on the pozzolanic reaction of GP on
the mechanical characteristics of mortar/concrete with a
fixed glass powder to the binder ratio. Shao et al. (2000)
found that concrete with 30% glass powder finer than
38 m did not exhibit higher compressive strength until
after 90 days of curing. Shi et al. (2005) also observed
that mortar with 20% glass powder could give a higher
compressive strength from 28 days onwards, provided
that glass powders are close to or smaller than Portland
cement in size. A similar conclusion has been recently
reported by Khmiri et al. (2013). Shayan and Xu (2004)
reported that the use of glass powder (smaller than 10
m) as cement replacement up to 40% can reduce the
ASR expansion for concrete. However, all the concrete
mixes with cement partially replaced by GP showed
continuously reduced compressive strength. Also, the
influence of GP as a supplementary cementitious material on the hydration and the microstructure of paste has

H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

rarely been reported (Shi et al. 2005). They found that

curing temperature have a more obvious accelerating
effect on the pozzolanic reactivity of glass powder than
on that of fly ash. Both the hydration and pozzolanic
reaction greatly govern the structure formation and
hence all properties like strength development and durability.
As reviewed above, the properties of concrete with
glass powder as cement replacement in higher proportion remains an unexplored area. Therefore, this research aims to study the pozzolanic reaction of GP up to
60% cement replacement and its influence on the microstructure of cement paste, which has not been investigated before. The hydration rate and rheological properties of paste were also characterized. The chemical
composition and calcium hydroxide content of the hydrated products were analyzed at different ages. Also,
the microstructure development of cement paste was
determined by measuring the pore size distribution. At
the same time, the compressive strength and resistance
to chloride and water penetration were investigated for
concrete with the same cement replacement levels as the
paste. The influence of pozzolanic reaction on the transition zone between aggregate particles and cement
paste is discussed. Based on the results, the optimum
cement replacement content by glass powder is suggested.

2. Experimental program
2.1 Materials
The crushing process of recycled waste glass can be
found in the authors previous work (Tan and Du 2013;
Du and Tan 2014a, 2014b). Waste bear bottles (soda
lime glass) were collected from a local recycler in Singapore. To finely grind the sand-sized particles, a ball
miller was used. The size distributions of ground GP
and cement used in this study are shown in Fig. 1. Both
cement and GP show the same median particle size of
around 10 m. The chemical compositions of GP and
OPC are displayed in Table 1. The specific gravities of
cement and GP are 3.15 and 2.53, respectively. The surface appearance of GP and OPC are compared in Fig. 2.

Percentage passed, %

100
80
60
40
20
0
0.1

OPC
Glass powder

10

100

Size, m
Fig. 1 Particle size distribution of OPC and glass powder.

469

Table 1 Chemical compositions of OPC and glass

powder.
Composition, %
OPC
Glass powder
SiO2
20.8
72.08
Al2O3
4.6
2.19
Fe2O3
2.8
0.22
CaO
65.4
10.45
MgO
1.3
0.72
2.2

SO3
Na2O
0.31
13.71
0.44
0.16
K2O
TiO2

0.1

0.01
Cr2O3
Table 2 Mix proportion of concrete with different glass
powder replacement levels.
Content, kg/m3
Mix No.
Glass
Coarse
Water Cement
Sand
Powder
aggregate
OPC
185
380
0
960
825
15GP
185
323
57
955
825
30GP
185
266
114
947
825
45GP
185
209
171
940
825
60GP
185
152
228
933
825
OPC+15GP 185
380
57
907
825

GP is amorphous and its X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern is compared with OPC in Fig. 3. GP has a negligible water absorption capacity of 0.07%. Coarse aggregate with a maximum size of 10 mm was used in concrete. The fineness modulus of natural sand was 2.80.
2.2 Specimens
The microstructure of cement paste with various contents of GP was investigated. The water to cement (w/c)
ratio for the paste is 0.485 by weight. The mix proportion for concrete is listed in Table 2. Cement was replaced by GP at 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60% by weight. An
additional mix (OPC+15GP) was cast in which the GP
was used as an additive, instead of replacing cement at a
content of 15%. Compared to the use of cement replacement, the addition of GP in this mix leads to a
lower water-to-binder (w/b) ratio of 0.42. This could
help examine the utilization of GP as additive in high
performance cementitious composites. For each paste
mix, three 50 mm cube specimens were prepared. For
each concrete mix, nine 100 mm cubes and five
100200 mm cylinders were cast for compressive
strength and durability tests, respectively. Paste and
concrete were mixed in Hobart and pan mixers respectively. All the specimens were compacted on a vibration
table and covered by plastic sheets to prevent moisture
loss. After demolding on the next day, the paste specimens were cured in saturated lime water and concrete
samples were cured in water until the test age. The curing method for paste is following ASTM C 109 (2005)
to prevent calcium leaching and curing method for concrete specimens is following ASTM C 39 (2005).

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H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

(a) OPC particles.

(b) Finely ground glass powder.

Fig. 2 Particle morphologies using SEM.

A,
B

A,

A,
B,

A=alite, C3S
B=belite, C2S
Alu=aluminate, C3A
F=ferrite, C4AF
G=gypsum, CaSO4
P: Periclase, MgO

AB

G
A,B

P F

Al
u
A,
F

F,

A,
B

OPC

B,
G

A,
Al

A,

GP

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

2
Fig. 3 XRD patterns for OPC and GP.

2.3 Test methods

The rheological properties of cement paste containing
GP were determined by a coaxial-cylinder viscometer
named RotoVisco 1. After mixing the cement paste in
the Hobart mixer for about 3 minutes, a sample weighing about 150 g was taken out and placed in the outer
cylinder of the viscometer, followed by inserting the
inner cylinder immediately. The sensor then started to
rotate at different shear rate while the torque was recorded. Isothermal calorimetry was performed on triplicate paste samples by using an eight-channel microcalorimeter (TAM AIR).
Paste samples were taken from the center of 50 mm
cube specimens for the purpose of mercury intrusion
porosimetry (MIP), XRD and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). For MIP test, paste samples (around 1 cm in
cubic shape) were dried in dessicator at 50 C for 1 day

before testing, at the age of 7 and 91 days. Micromeritics AutoPore III with a maximum mercury pressure of
412.5 MPa was used to measure the pore size distribution. For XRD and TGA analyses, paste samples were
cured in 105 C oven for 24 hours and then finely
ground to be less than 75 m. Shimadzu XRD-6000
diffractometer was employed to qualitatively determine
the influence of GP on the chemical composition of the
hydrated production. The XRD scan was between 10
and 60 with a speed of 0.5/min. TGA was carried out
using LINSEIS L81-II. The powder sample was heated
from ambient temperature up to 950C at a rate of
10C/min while the weight loss was recorded during the
TGA test. The content of CH could be obtained from
two different intervals in the weight loss curve, corresponding to the decomposition of Portlandite and calcite,
respectively.

H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

For concrete specimens, compressive strength and

rapid chloride penetration test (RCPT) were carried out
according to BS EN 12390-3 (2009) and ASTM C 1202
(2005), respectively. RCPT is commonly criticized for
its drawbacks including temperature rise due to the applied high voltage of 60 V (McGrath and Hooton 1999).
Thus, a reduced voltage of 20 V was applied for 24
hours, to minimize the side effects of RCPT. At 28 days,
water penetration depth into concrete was determined
using a water pressure of about 0.75 MPa for 7 days, in
accordance to BS EN 12390-8 (2009). The side and top
surfaces were both coated with impermeable epoxy
while the bottom surface was exposed to the water pressure. After removed from the test rig, the concrete cylinders were axially split and the average depth water
front measured.

3. Test results and discussion

3.1 Rheological properties
The shear stress () was recorded with shear rate (  )
decreasing from 50 to 0.5 s-1 during the descending
branch of the test loop. Test results are shown in Fig.
4(a). Yield stress (0) and plastic viscosity () of fresh
cement paste are linearly related using Bingham model
(Mindess et al. 2003).

Shear stress, (Pa)

100

OPC
15GP
30GP
45GP
60GP
OPC+15GP

80
60

40
20
0

10

20

30

40

50

Rate of shear, (1/s)

(a) Relationship between shear stress and shear rate for cement
paste with varying contents of glass powder.
1.5

25

1.2

20

0.9

15
0.6

10

5
0

0.3

15

30

45

Plastic viscosity, (Pas)

Shear yield stress, 0 (Pa)

30

0.0
60 15%
75Addition

GP content, %
(b) Glass powder effect on the rheological parameters.
Fig. 4 Test results of rheological properties of paste.

= 0 + 

471

(1)

The values of 0 and for pastes with various GP

contents are displayed in Fig. 4(b). Both the yield stress
(0) and viscosity () decrease with higher cement replacement level. Yield stress indicates the minimal
strength to make the mixture flowable. The reduced
yield stress implies that the inter force between cement
and glass particles is less than that between cement and
cement particles. With increasing GP contents, the particle density of cement is diluted and hence lesser interaction between cement and water, leading to a smaller
yield stress and plastic viscosity. This could also be due
to the negligible water absorption and the smooth surface of GP (as shown in Fig. 2). Previous studies also
indicate that the bond between cement paste and fine
glass particles was decreased due to the surface smoothness of glass powder (Taha and Nounu 2009; Ali and
Al-Tersawy 2012).
In this study, the cement has been replaced by weight
instead of by volume. As the specific gravity of glass
power is lower than cement, the solid-to-water ratio by
volume is higher for GP blended paste compared with
pure cement paste. However, this adverse effect at a
higher solid-to-water volume ratio is less pronounced
compared to the dilution of cement and smooth glass
surface, as mentioned earlier. The continuously decreased yield stress and plastic viscosity represent a
better workability of paste mixture with higher content
of GP. It is also noted that both the yield stress and viscosity increase substantially for the mix with 15% additional GP, attributed to the increased amount of solid-towater ratio.
3.2 Heat of hydration
The heat evolution rate and cumulative amount of heat
for pastes with varying contents of GP are shown in Fig.
5. It is clear that the maximum heat evolution rate and
the total heat generated reduced continuously with
higher OPC replacement level because of the dilution of
cement and the slower rate of pozzolanic reaction of GP.
The results in this study are consistent with previous
findings (Dyer and Dhir 2001; Mirzahosseini and Riding 2014). The benefit of lower hydration heat is helpful
in preventing the temperature cracking, especially for
structure members with large thickness and mass concrete.
In the presence of GP, the time to reach the peak hydration rate is shortened, possibly because fine glass
powders can accelerate the cement hydration via the
adsorption of calcium ions from the liquid phase and
play as nucleation and growth sites for C-S-H and other
hydrates. At the same time, the high content of alkalis
(Na2O) in GP may act as catalyst in the formation of
calcium silica hydrate at an early age (Jawed et al.
1978; Khmiri et al. 2013). The time corresponding to
the peak rate reduces from 418 minutes for OPC paste
to 377 minutes for paste with 60% glass powder paste.

472

H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

(a)

OPC
15GP
30GP
45GP
60GP
OPC+15GP

5
4
3
2
1
0

(b)

300

Cumulative heat, J/g

Rate of heat evolution, mW/g

OPC

250

15GP
30GP

OPC+15GP

200

45GP

150

60GP

100
50

12

24

36

48

60

72

12

24

36

48

60

72

Time, h
Time, h
Fig. 5 (a) Rate of heat evolution, and (b) cumulative heat of cement paste with various replacement levels with glass
powder.

(a)

91-day

10

15

20

25

30
2

7-day

35

40

(b)

CH

CH

CSH

CH
CSH

CH

28-day

45

50

91-day

10

15

20

25

30
2

7-day

35

40

(c)

CH

CH

CSH

CH
CSH

CH

28-day

45

50

91-day

10

15

20

25

30

35

7-day

40

45

CH

CH

CSH

CH
CSH

CH

28-day

50

Fig. 6 XRD patterns of cement paste with different contents of glass: (a) OPC, (b) 30GP and (c) 60GP.

3.3 XRD
The XRD patterns for paste with glass powder at age of
7, 28 and 91 days are shown in Fig. 6. The compositions
of the hydration product for Portland cement paste are
C-S-H and CH and their principal peaks do not change
from 7 to 91 days. CH peaks tend to be weakened with
increasing glass powder and longer curing time, especially for 60% glass powder paste at 91 days in which
the CH peaks almost disappear. The XRD results directly reveal that CH is consumed to form the additional
C-S-H in paste with glass powders.
At 91 days, peaks corresponding to CH can be obviously seen for OPC and 30GP paste, which means that
CH remains even after 91 days of pozzolanic reaction
with glass powder. However, it is not true for paste with

60% glass powder in which the CH seems to be insufficient for glass powder to be fully reacted.
3.4 Ca(OH)2 content
The CH content was calculated from the TG and DTG
curves, as illustrated in Fig. 7(a). Derivative curve was
used to find the beginning and the end of the derivative
peak and measure the weight loss correspondingly (Kocaba 2009). In the temperature range of about 425 and
550 C, the amount of CH can be calculated by determining the water loss during the CH decomposition:
Ca(OH)2CaO+H2O. Also, the influence of carbonation on the CH content could be evaluated by the mass
loss in the temperature range of 650 and 800 C, where
the
calcite
decomposes
and
release
CO2:
CaCO3CaO+CO2. Hence, the content of CH was calculated taking into account molecular weight of each
component and were calculated as percentage of the dry
weight at 105 C.
As shown in Fig. 7(b), the CH content in the reference OPC paste remained at above 20% of the total
weight after 28 days of curing, which is similar to previous findings (Jawed et al. 1978). With higher cement
substitution level, the CH content drops, especially at
later age such as 91 days. At the beginning, the reduction is caused by the dilution of Portland cement in the
total cementitious material content. With longer curing
and hydration time of 28 days, more CH is consumed in
the pozzolanic reaction of glass powder. The initial percentage drop in CH content was higher for 30% GP
paste than in 60% GP paste. After 28 days, the reduction
in CH content slowed down for 30% glass powder paste
and stabilized at about 11%, indicating the pozzolanic
reaction was almost completed. In contrast, the CH content in 60% GP paste continued to drop and was less
than 4% at 91 days. This depletion in CH reveals that
60% might be the maximum practical glass powder content since the CH content is insufficient for the further
pozzolanic reaction of glass powder. Dyer and Dhir
(2001) has reported that the amount of CH continuously
decreased with increasing GP replacement up to 40%, at
the age of 28 days, but no information for higher GP
replacement.

473

H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

100

0.00

90
-0.04
Portlandite

80

-0.06
Calcite

75
70

-0.08

20

% Ca(OH)2

TG weight loss, %

-0.02

DTG, dm/dT (mg/C)

OPC

95

85

25

15
30GP

10
60GP

(b)

(a)

65
-0.10
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

0 7

28

56
91

84 91
91

Temperature, C
Curing time, days
Fig. 7 (a) TG and DTG curves for OPC paste at 28-day and (b) Portlandite content at different ages.

3.6 Compressive strength of concrete

The compressive strengths of concrete with varying
contents of GP, at different ages, are shown in Fig. 9. At
7 days, the strength generally decreases with GP content
more than 15%. However, at 28 and 91 days, no reduction in strength was observed for concrete with 15 and
30% GP, due to the pozzolanic reaction between GP and
cement hydration products. Instead, concrete with 15
and 30% GP possessed higher compressive strengths.
This increase in later age strength was not observed for
concrete in which more than 30% cement is replaced by
GP. The pozzolanic reaction requires the hydration
products, CH, whose amount is governed by the cement

100

7-day

% of total intrusion volume

80
60
40
20

0
100

90-day

80
60

OPC
30GP
60GP
OPC+15GP

40
20
0
1E-3 0.01

0.1

10

100

Pore size, m
Fig. 8 MIP curves for paste containing different contents
of glass powder at 7 and 91 days.
70

Compressive strength, MPa

3.5 Microstructure
The pore size distribution of cement paste containing
glass powder at 7 and 91 days are shown in Fig. 8, from
which the change in the microstructure of paste can be
seen clearly particularly for paste with 30 and 60% glass
powder. The pore structures become more refined, as
indicated by the reduced threshold and critical pore diameter, as well as the higher fraction of the micro-pores.
For paste with 60% glass powder, the threshold and
critical pore diameter was reduced from 488 and 140
nm at 7 days to 139 and 74 nm at 91 days, respectively.
Moreover, the volume fraction of capillary pores (10 m
50 nm) in the total porosity (10 m 3.7 nm) was
lowered from 44.6% at 7 days to 30.7% at 91 days. According to Mindess et al. (2003), it is the capillary pores
that govern the permeability and diffusivity of paste.
Thus the MIP results reveal that the permeability of high
volume glass powder paste is likely to be reduced. Pozzolanic reaction between glass powder and CH is a
slower chemical process compared with OPC hydration.
Since glass powder is inert in the initial stage, the effective w/c ratio is actually higher than that of the OPC
paste. This results in a more porous microstructure for
mix with glass powder as OPC replacement. However,
at later age, most of the glass powders in 30GP and part
of it in 60 GP mix have reacted with lime to form the
secondary C-S-H. The pore structures are almost identical for each paste mix, regardless of glass powder content at 91 days.

60
91-day

50
40

28-day

30
7-day

20
10
0

15

30

45

60 15%
75Addition

GP content, %
Fig. 9 Compressive strength of concrete with glass powders at different ages.

content. Therefore, there is an upper limit for cement

replacement level, beyond which no further pozzolanic
reaction of GP can occur. In that case, GP can only play

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H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

the role of inert filler without being activated. The results in this study indicate that GP will exhibit obvious
pozzolanic reaction provided that the replacement level
is lower than 30%. Mix of OPC+15GP exhibited much
higher increase in compressive strength, that is 32%,
25% and 24% at 7, 28 and 91 days, respectively. It
would be readily for the added fine GP to react as pozzolans instead of being inert fillers.
The pozzolanic reaction improves not only the pore
structure in the bulk cement paste but also at the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between coarse aggregates
and cement paste. This ITZ governs the mechanical and
transport properties of concrete since it is more porous
compared to the bulk paste. CH content is also relatively
higher at ITZ which favors the pozzolanic reaction of
glass powder. The enhanced microstructure at ITZ has
contributed to the compressive strength with up to 30%
GP content.

3.9 Interfacial transition zone in concrete

The microstructures of paste at ITZ are compared for
plain concrete and 30% GP concrete in Fig. 12. It is
clear to find CH (plate crystals) and ettringite (needle
shape) in the paste of the OPC concrete. Large pores
30

6000
7-day
28-day
91-day

5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0

3.8 Water penetration resistance of concrete

The water penetration depth into concrete with different
contents of GP is shown in Fig. 11. Consistent with the
RCPT results, the depth of water penetration continuously decreases with higher glass powder content. Relative to the plain concrete, the water penetration depth
was reduced by 54, 65, 68 and 80% for cement replacement level of 15, 30, 45 and 60%, respectively.
Concrete with 15% GP additive showed much lower
water penetration depth compared to the plain concrete.
The refined pore structure, particular the ITZ is the main
reason for this reduced permeability. The reduction in
the total charge passed in the RCPT tests at 28 days was
60, 81, 89 and 95% for 15, 30, 45 and 60% of glass
powder content, respectively. Contrary to RCPT results,
the resistance to water penetration can accurately reflect
the pore structure. Hence, both accelerated and nonaccelerated tests demonstrate the better resistance
against chloride ions and water ingress, for concrete
containing glass powder as cement replacement and
additive.

15

30

45

60 15%
75Addition

GP content, %
Fig. 10 RCPT results of concrete with glass powders at
different ages.

Water penetration depth, mm

Total charge passed, Coulombs

3.7 RCPT result of concrete

The total charge passing the concrete with different
OPC replacement levels are shown in Fig. 10, at 7, 28
and 91 days. Due to the low voltage applied in this study,
the temperature rise during the 24 hours test was less
than 3 C. The RCPT results show that the total charge
passed decreased significantly with increasing glass
powder content, regardless of the test age. RCPT is essentially an indication of the electrical conductivity,
instead of a direct measurement for chloride permeability. Therefore, the result depends on not only the pore
structure but also the chemistry of the pore solution,
such as ions (Ca2+, Na+, K+, OH-, etc) concentrations.
However, it is the pore structure and not the pore chemistry that govern the transport of ions in cement composites. Therefore, it is also questionable to use RCPT
to assess the permeability of concrete with supplementary cementitious materials such as silica fume and fly
ash (Shi et al. 1998).
At 7 days, the total charge passed reduced almost
linearly with decreasing OPC content. The primary reason could be the dilution of OPC in the concrete, as a
result of which there are fewer ions in the cement paste.

With longer curing time, all the concrete mixtures exhibited reduction in the total charge passed due to the
further hydration of OPC. The reduction caused by glass
powder became more distinct, especially for OPC replacement between 15 and 45%. This further reduction
is attributed to the pozzolanic reaction between GP and
cement paste, resulting in a more refined microstructure
of secondary C-S-H especially at the ITZ as well as a
lower concentration of ions. Glass powder has a similar
effect on the RCPT result whether it adds to or replaces
OPC as cementitious material, particularly in the long
term. At an early age, concrete mix with 15% GP addition has a higher resistance possibly because of the hydration acceleration effect of GP, as discussed earlier.

20

10

15

30

45

60

15%
75 Addition

GP content, %
Fig. 11 Water penetration depth into concrete with glass
powder at 28 days.

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H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

CH
C-S-H

ettringite

(a) OPC concrete.

C-S-H

Cumulative pore volume, mL/g

(b) 30GP concrete.

Fig. 12 SEM images of paste microstructures.
0.12

OPC
30GP
60GP
OPC+15GP

0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04

4. Conclusions

0.02
0.00
1E-3

comes smaller for glass powder concrete. Therefore, the

effect of glass powder pozzolanic reaction on the concrete is distinct in comparison to that on paste. The reason is attributed to the existence of ITZ where the concentration of CH and water was higher and it was therefore easier to react with glass powder to form secondary
C-S-H, as mentioned above.

0.01

0.1

10

100

Pore size, m
Fig. 13 MIP results for GP concrete at the age of 91
days.

exist between different hydration phases. In contrast, a

dense and more homogenous structure is found for concrete with 30% glass powder. The pozzolanic reaction
over 91 days turned crystal CH into amorphous C-S-H.
Large pores were much less noticeable. This change in
the chemical compositions (more C-S-H formed) and
pore size distribution (refined pore system) is the reason
for the better mechanical and durability performances
for concrete with glass powder as OPC substitution.
The pore size distribution of the microstructure was
also investigated for concrete including the ITZ, as
shown in Fig. 13. It is clear that with OPC partially replaced by glass powder, the pores are more refined, indicated by the downwards shift of the curve. From the
figure, it can be seen that the critical pore diameter be-

This study reported experimental results on the use of

recycled glass powder as supplementary cementitious
material in paste and concrete. Unlike previous work,
this study examined the effects of a higher glass powder
dosage of up to 60%. Based on the newly obtained results, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. The rate and total heat generated during hydration
consistently decreased with higher GP content due to
the dilution of cement in the mix. Owning to its negligible water absorption capability, higher glass powder content results in a smaller shear yield stress and
plastic viscosity of the paste.
2. Calcium hydroxide content decreases with glass
powder content and curing age, because of the reduced cement content in the initial stage and its consumption by glass powder pozzolanic reaction at the
later stage. Calcium hydroxide was almost depleted
at 91 days when more than 30% cement was substituted by glass powder.
3. An optimum cement replacement of 30% by glass
powder was observed with respect to the development of compressive strength of concrete after 7 days.

H. Du and K. H. Tan / Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology Vol. 12, 468-477, 2014

However, with respect to the resistance to water and

chloride penetration, 60% seems to be the optimum
replacement. Compared to the reference concrete mix,
the mix with 60% glass powder exhibited 75%
strength at 7 days and 85% strength at 91 days.
4. Resistance to chloride ion and water penetration resistance were greatly improved by replacing cement
with glass powder, due to the refined microstructure
of paste, particular at the ITZ where calcium hydroxide concentration is higher and more readily available
for pozzolanic reaction. With 60% cement replacement, the electrical resistance and water penetration
depth of concrete decreases to 5% and 20% of the
reference concrete.
5. When used as additional supplementary cementitious
material at 15% level, glass powder can obviously
reduce the porosity and the pore size distribution.
Thus, large increases in compressive strength, resistance to water and chloride penetration were observed.
This study only investigated finely ground glass
powder as cement replacement or additive in concrete
based on soda lime glass, which is the most common
type of glass and accounts for 90% of manufactured
glass. It is a open question as to whether the results
could apply to other types of glass like lead glass and
borosilicate glass. The pozzolanic reactivity depends on
the chemical composition and properties of the glass. To
understand the pozzolanic performance of a specific
glass powder, it is recommended to (1) carry out chemical composition analysis to meet the minimum chemical
requirement for pozzolans; (2) determine the strength
activity index; and (3) investigate the different replacement levels on mechanical and durability performances
on concrete.
Acknowledgements
The technical assistance of Ms. Li Wei and Mr. Ang
Beng Oon from the Structural Engineering and Material
Laboratory, National University of Singapore, in the
conduct of TGA and XRD tests, is gratefully acknowledged.
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