Strength Characteristics of Glass Fines, Fly Ash and GBFS

Containing Concrete
Sandy I. Yansikua,b,1,, Author Twoc , Author Threea,c
a
Address One
b
Address Two
c
Nusa Nipa University

Abstract
This study investigates the behaviour of concrete mixed with recycle based materials as
supplementary cements material. Compressive, split tensile and flexural strength are tested
various concrete mixed batch either as single or combination replacement, in which glass
powder, fly ash and granulated blast furnace slag are combined into certain proportion. Re-
sults show that the replacement of cement by the three materials in certain ratios achieves
comparable strength and physical properties in terms of replacing the conventional con-
crete. Single replacement method typically yields higher strength capacity compared to the
combination category. Concrete comprising lower alternative materials shows comparable
strength behaviour to the original concrete.
Keywords: concrete, strength, fly ash, slag

1. Introduction
Concrete is one of the most widely used material in building construction from a small
and simple resident paving block to an earth scale project due to its remarkably compres-
sive characteristic. It is known to be durable, low maintenance, non-combustible and the
most readily available and extremely affordable material compared to steel. Concrete, fur-
thermore, could be better option to improve building aesthetics offering limitless options
of desired shapes, textures and colours. A Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
and the European Commissions Joint Research Centre reported that large-scale exploitation
of concrete increasing cement production has contributed to 9.5% of global CO2 emission
which remain heavily dominated by China [? ].

I
This is only an example

I am corresponding author
Email addresses: sandyyansiku@yahoo.com (Sandy I. Yansiku), author.two@mail.com (Author
Two), author.three@mail.com (Author Three)
URL: author-one-homepage.com (Sandy I. Yansiku)
1
I also want to inform about. . .
2
Small city
Preprint submitted to Nuclear Physics B February 17, 2017
 Recycled and wasted based materials such as glass powder (GP), fly ash (FA), granulated
blast furnace slag (GBFS), and their characteristics have been proven to replace the conven-
tional concrete materials. The materials their own properties and their influence on concrete
have been studied deeply and widely in past two decades. Large number of studies have
been conducted to investigate the behaviour of above mentioned materials. These studies,
however, tended to exclusively concentrate on single replacement approach by which only a
certain type of material was used. No former experiments had been performed with respect
to multiple types of material as replacement in a single concrete specimen.
The investigations requiring strength parameters and incorporating various material com-
positions and numbers of specimens will be tested under compressive strength with respect
to normal strength concrete of 40 MPa, tensile strength, flexural strength.

2. Literature Review
Recent studies by [2-5] recommended a glass fineness of 20 m, 10 m, 10 m and 12.3
m, respectively as they observed increments in compressive strength of approximately 26%,
15%, 30% and 1%, respectively, with a strength activity index over 75%, as recommended
by ASTM C618. Furthermore, Reference [4] examined the long-term compressive strength
of 85.3 MPa by glass concrete after seven years curing age, which was comparable to that
by fly ash. Reference [6] suggested a wider range below 90 m for effectiveness of concrete
strength improvement. Reference [7, 8] reported that there was only a slight difference in
splitting tensile strength at around 7 MPa for control concrete and 20% replacement ratio of
glass powder, while Reference [9] proposed 35% replacement for the optimum development
of flexural strength of GPC.
High volume of Class F fly ash content over 50% drastically reduced compressive strength
by around 50% and lessened the tensile strength up to a third with or without superplasticiser
[10]. In opposition to this, the substitution beyond 50% led to the improvement of the
compressive performance by about 10% [11]. The strength of concrete with fly ash increased
at 10% ratio and improved significantly after 56 days of age [12, 13]. Water-binder ratio
should be adjusted to reduce the drastic drop in strength of 28- day concrete containing fly
ash [13]. The flexural strength, as claimed by Reference [10], increased just over 14% for 50%
replacement ratio and for 70% ratio, the flexural strength reduced almost 30% compared
with the strength of the control specimen regardless of the involvement of superplasticiser
in the mixture.
Reference [14, 15] adjusted the w/c ratio to observe the compressive strength behaviour in
concrete with varying GBFS content and both studies agreed that the compressive strength
of GBFS concrete slightly increases at the first 30% replacement ratio compared with the
control concrete. Despite the small change, the strength achieved an extreme value at 40%
ratios for all w/c ratios and reduced gradually for GBFS portion over 50%. Therefore,
the authors suggested 40% GBFS as cement replacement to obtain maximum compressive
strength at 28 days curing. In contrast, the result of tests by [16, 17] showed the opposite
compressive strength pattern, since it turned down more than 20% for a half replacement
ratio and the strength remained only 65% as 90% GBFS replaced the original cement. The
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contrasting behaviour appears to be a consequence of w/c ratio because the latter authors
attempted to maintain fixed slump values. The splitting tensile strength was significantly
impacted at replacement portions under 45%, whereas cement paste with more than this por-
tion could lead to a decrease in the tensile performance owing to the permanent diminution
of CaO caused by, for example, the utilisation of various plasticisers [18].
Research on the combination of recycled-based materials reviewed above have also been
conducted by several researchers. The main purpose of the investigations is to obtain the
optimum composition for concrete application on the basis of sustainable practices while
maintaining the consideration into the quality and safety aspect in construction. Reference
[19] combined GS and FA and maintained water-to-binder ratio (w/b) at 0.45. They varied
the composition of GS into 25%, 50% and 75% and 25% FA for each composition. The
composite concretes exhibited better compressive strength performance about 14%, 22% and
34% respectively. As can be seen into Table 1, the more the GS content with unchanged
FA content, the better the compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity,
although the drying shrinkage and expansion were worsened. Reference [7] incorporated
60% GBFS into the varying GS particle at 50% and 100% as presented in Table 1 section C.
The results indicated the decrease in mechanical properties due to the non-compact concrete
by the presence of GS. Thus, the more the GS content with unchanged GGBFS content,
the better the compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity, while the
drying shrinkage and expansion of 75% GS content were beyond the standard. GBFS is
superior to FA, while FA inclusion leads to a higher durability against ASR expansion.
Numbers of variation into the replacement ratio of FA and GBFS as depicted in Table 2,
from which can be seen that the combination of 30% FA and 30% GBFS exhibits the highest
compressive strength and the modulus of elasticity. Despite the loss around 40% at early
age, the compressive strength gradually raised and gained 14% higher than the strength of
original concrete at 168 days [16]. The combination of 25% FA and 100% RCA in the mix
with w/c= 0.55 was tested by [20]. The compressive strength of the combined specimen
decreased approximately 4% in 28 days and increased 10% in 90 days relative to the original
specimen. The drying shrinkage in 28 days reduced 1% and the creep strain reduced 16% in
120 days. They observed the 90-minute water absorption and found the decrement of 14% in
water absorption in comparison to the control specimen. They concluded that the utilisation
of FA replacing cement accelerated the compressive strength, the resistance against shrinkage
and creep and reduce the water absorption of the RCA thanks to the pozzolanic reaction of
FA. Reference [21] incorporated GBFS and RCA was utilised in experiment combining two
types of replacements. The first mix included 50% GBFS and 100% RCA while the second
mix used 70% GBFS and 100% RCA. Although the concretes of both mixes were less stiff
indicated by lower dynamic modulus of elasticity about 20% and had higher permeability
about 63%, the result indicate that the first mix exhibited better strength performance than
corresponding control mix since it led to 7% increase in compressive strength compared to
1% increase by the second mix. The tensile strength also improved 17% for the first mix
and stabled for the second mix.

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3. Experimental Program
3.1. Specimen
Silinder tes beton yang digunakan berukuran 100 mm (diameter) x 200 mm (tinggi)
untuk pengujian kuat tekan dan kuat tarik sedangkan untuk pengujian kuat geser digunakan
prisma berukuran 75 75 280 mm.

3.2. Material properties and standards

The physical properties of FA dan GBFS are shown in Table 3 dan Table 4 while test
standards is provided in Table 5. The combination of 25% FA and 100% RCA in the mix with
w/c= 0.55 was tested by [5]. The compressive strength of the combined specimen decreased
approximately 4% in 28 days and increased 10 in 90 days relative to the original specimen.
The drying shrinkage in 28 days reduced 11% and the creep strain reduced 16% in 120 days.
They observed the 90-minute water absorption and found the decrement of 14% in water
absorption in comparison to the control specimen. They concluded that the utilisation of FA
replacing cement accelerated the compressive strength, the resistance against shrinkage and
creep and reduce the water absorption of the RCA thanks to the pozzolanic reaction of FA.
Berndt (2009) incorporated GBFS and RCA was utilised in experiment combining two types
of replacements [6]. The first mix included 50% GBFS and 100% RCA while the second
mix used 70% GBFS and 100% RCA. Although the concretes of both mixes were less stiff
indicated by lower dynamic modulus of elasticity about 20% and had higher permeability
about 63%, the result indicate that the first mix exhibited better strength performance than
corresponding control mix since it led to 7% increase in compressive strength compared to
1% increase by the second mix. The tensile strength also improved 17% for the first mix
and stabled for the second mix.

3.3. Test matrix

The target strength of normal concrete is 40 MPa comprising 375 kg/m3 cement, 740
kg/m3 natural sand, 1110 kg/m3 limestone and 232 kg/m3 water. The mix combinations is
shown in Table 5.

4. Result and Discussion

4.1. Slump and density
The mixes G1, G2 and G3 replacing 15%, 30% and 45% cement respectively result in
similar slump values of 65 mm. the slump value of concrete mixed with 50% fly ash (FA50)
as the supplementary cementitious material increased significantly compared to the original
mix. The workability of the fly ash mortar was 8% higher than the control mortar. The
change in the slump value of mix GBFS50 was much lower than FA50. The slump value of
50% GBFS mixture was 75 mm and this is 15% higher than the control mix CC40. The
result of this case is comparable to the result of [21]. In combination category, the slump
value decreased 8% for FA25G25 and increased 31% for FA25G50 relative to the control

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mix. Therefore, the first combination is less workable than the second combination due to
the higher percentage of GBFS in the mix.
The density of concrete with 15% glass powder was higher than the original concrete and
the replacement over 15% resulted in the gradual reduction in the concrete density. However,
the change was very small. For instance, the difference of the fresh density between the
original concrete and G1 was only 0.34% and between G1 and G2 was 1%. Hence, the more
the glass fines in concrete, the less dense the concrete is. The replacement of 50% cement with
FA lowered the density of both wet and hardened concrete up to 1%. The density of 50% slag
content in GBFS50 was similar to that of fly ash in FA50. The change in the density of both
FA25G25 and FA25G50 with respect to the control concrete were insignificant. Therefore,
it can be asserted that replacing 50% of cement by these supplementary materials hardly
affects the density of 40 MPa concrete since the presence of GBFS and FA reduces the
amount of void in the concrete. Moreover, the density change from fresh state to hardened
state was more obvious in the normal concrete than the glass powder concrete which refers
to the texture and properties of glass fines.

4.2. Compressive strength

It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the compressive strength of three specimens decrease
linearly in all cases of replacement whether at 3 days, 7 days, 28 days or 128 days. However,
the linear pattern is more obvious on G1 and G2 since the addition of 45% GP in specimen
G3 led to a slight difference in reduction for all curing ages. G1 exhibited fastest strength
development amongst three specimens due to the less amount of glass fines resulting in
higher pozzolanic reaction adhering materials in the concrete.
The compressive strength behaviour of single replacement is represented in Table 7.
Incorporating fifty percent of FA fines in FA50 batch has resulted in considerable drops of
compressive performance. The strength of modified concrete was 16.71 MPa, 45% lower
than the original specimen in 7 days, and improved to 29.66 MPa, just 26% lower in 28
days. The result appears to be consistent with the study of [11] which also could not gain
the target strength in 28 days, thereby 56 days of was used since high volume fly ash requires
longer period to gain maximum strength. It is seen in Table 7 that the compressive strength
of specimen GBFS50 in 40 MPa category reduced 9% in 7 days of curing. In 28 days, the
strength lost about 15.8% in comparison to the control specimen, which is slightly less than
the strength loss revealed by [17] thanks to unchanged w/c ratio at 0.57.
The compressive strength of specimen FA25G25 initially reduced 17% in 7 days and
the strength enhanced into just 8% below the conventional specimen in 28 days. As the
specimen was modified by increasing GBFS fine to 50%, the performance worsened to 29%
below CC40. All types of material combination and replacement ratio observed lead to the
decrease in compressive strength in both categories as illustrated in Fig. 2. However, the
combination of a quarter FA and GBFS fines substituting the original cement achieved the
most reliable strength to the conventional concrete for 40 MPa group.

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4.3. Split tensile strength
The initial strength without GP (control specimen CC40) material was 4.12 MPa, which
then decreased 8.25% to 3.78 MPa as 15% GP was added to the mix G1. The replacement of
30% cement by glass fines has significantly reduced the tensile strength about 28% from 4.12
MPa to 2.95 MPa, while 45% replacement reduced the strength around 31% as compared
to the conventional concrete. Since the particle size of glass fines was maintained, the
influence of GP portion on concrete mix on the tensile strength tends to require long term
development for optimum performance. The specimen FA25G25 generated 3.32 MPa tensile
strength, about 19% below the original concrete in the age of 28 days. This was slightly
better than the incorporation of 50% GBFS in mix FA20G50 which reduced 21% at the level
of 3.24 MPa.

4.4. Flexural strength

Low level of glass fines (15%) enhanced the flexural strength of G1 to 6.61 MPa, nearly
10% beyond the flexural strength of CC40 at 6.04 MPa. Similarly, by 30% replacement
ratio, the flexural strength of G2 also scaled-up 10%. Hence, the difference of 15% GP
particle between G1 and G2 is trivial. The flexural performance of specimen FA50 is vying
with that of control specimen. The flexural strength of the specimen is merely 1% below
the conventional strength. In 28 days, the flexural strength of FA50 only decreased 0.07
MPa and tend to improve in longer curing time. The deterioration in flexural strength of
GBFS50 has been found around 19%, which is 1.17 MPa lower than CC40. High volume
slag possibly reduces the flexural strength owing to the increase in the amount of unreacted
slag fines generating more void in the concrete. The flexural strength of FA25G25 is lower
than FA25G50. Result shows a reduction around 13% of FA25G25 to 5.27 MPa and around
9% of FA25G50 to 5.52 MPa. It then can be argued that fly ash fines successfully infiltrated
into voids created by high GBFS content thereby more resistant against flexural cracking.
The strength characteristics of the modified concretes are then finally plotted in Fig.4
with dual vertical axes in which specimens are categorised into single and combination
replacement and each category is ordered from the highest to the lowest compressive per-
formance.

5. Conclusion
The utilisation of recycled-based material as an alternative to conventional material for
developing 40 MPa concretes generally reduces the physical and mechanical properties of
concrete and the properties were adversely affected by the increase in non-conventional
materials contents. Certain combinations of either material or replacement ratio were able
to competitively demonstrate reasonable strength. Replacements with single material type
typically generate higher compressive, tensile and flexural strength than combination types.
Similarly, the split tensile strength performance of single replacement category outweighs
the combination category and most of the superior types in compressive strength are superior
against tensile cracking. FA25G50 is the most resistant against tensile cracking. The tensile
strength of FA50 and GBFS50 extend over FA25G25.
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 Flexural strength behaviour of recycled based concrete divers slightly from compressive
and split tensile strength. Specimens G2, G1 and FA50 are the best flexural strength per-
formers in single replacement category, while FA25G50 in combination category. Workability
tends to increase up to 50% for mortar with single replacement ratio and up to 200% for
combination. Mortar comprising high volume FA generated higher workability, while low
volume FA or low volume GBFS could maintain proportional workability.

Appendix A. Section in Appendix

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