Development of high-strength pervious concrete incorporated with high percentages of waste glass

Abstract

This study presents the use of waste glass (WG) in pervious concrete, aiming to maximizing the reuse of WG in concrete. The effect of WG aggregate replacement and aggregate to binder ratio (A/B) on the mechanical properties, permeability, thermal conductivity, volume stability and pore structure were determined. The microstructures with and without immersing in 1 M NaOH 80 °C solution were also characterized. The results showed that the compressive strength decreased with the increasing replacement of WG aggregate and A/B, but the water permeability was improved. The presence of WG aggregate was effective in improving the permeability due to the smooth surface of WG aggregate and broader pore size distribution. With 100% WG aggregate replacement with A/B of 2–4, the permeability and compressive strength of the pervious concrete were still higher than the requirement of JIS A 5371. Another encouraging result was that the incorporation of a large amount of WG aggregate showed limited alkali-silica reaction (ASR) expansion in the pervious concrete, which was attributed to the low water to binder ratio, high amount of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and accommodation effect of the porous structure to relieve the expansion pressure caused by ASR gel. Meanwhile, pervious concrete with a WG content of 80.95% could be produced with satisfactory functional properties and low thermal conductivity. Therefore, it is feasible to use WG aggregate to completely replace natural aggregate to achieve the maximum reuse of WG for producing pervious concrete.