Effect of waste glass and curing aging on fracture toughness of self-compacting mortars using ENDB specimen

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122711Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Fracture toughness parameters were determined for all waste glass self-compacting mortars using ENDB specimen.

  • WG aggregate (0% to 100%) and curing aging (14, 28 and 56 days) affect the fracture toughness of mortar.

  • The use of 20% and 40% WG aggregate will increase the fracture toughness and the critical load of mixture.

  • Increasing the curing age has the greatest effect on the pure mode 3.

  • The pure mode 3 is the most critical loading mode for mortars containing WG.

Abstract

The use of waste materials in the concrete industry has been a topic of interest for researchers around the world in recent decades. In this research, the fracture toughness (Kc) of edge-notched disc bend (ENDB) specimens of self-compacting mortars containing 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% waste glass aggregates (WG) under the pure mode 1, mixed mode 1/3, mixed mode 3/1, and pure mode 3 in ages of 14, 28 and 56 days have been studied. The results show that the use of 20% and 40% of WG will improve the fracture toughness of the mortars. On the other hand, increasing the curing age from 14 to 28 days, with and without WG, improves the fracture toughness of samples significantly. Increasing the curing age has the highest impact on the results of pure mode 3. In addition, due to the effective fracture toughness results, pure mode 3 is introduced as critical loading condition for self-compacting mortars containing WG.

Introduction

Concrete and its derivatives are used widely in the construction industry. The production of this large volume of concrete requires the continuous use of natural resources [1]. However, the continued use of natural resources and materials due to the exhaustion of natural aggregates, the negative effects of demolition, and the serious environmental controls on the construction process are limited. Therefore, introducing suitable alternative materials in this process can be helpful [2]. On the other hand, the increase in population and the expansion of cities, the significant progress of various industries, and the increase in the living standards have led to the production of large volumes of domestic and industrial waste materials. Isolation, treatment, and maintenance of this amount of waste materials are among the most discussed and important issues around the world. Hence, experts are looking forward to new strategies for using these materials [3]. Self-compaction will eliminate the noise and vibration problems and improve the concrete quality and flowability [4], [5], [6], [7]. A basic step in the self-compacting concrete (SCC) design is to study the properties of self-compacting mortars because it well reflects the characteristics and performance of its related concrete [8]. According to Puthipad et al. [9], using air-entraining agent (AEA) in self-compacting mortars will prevent air bubbles coalescence after adding the superplasticizer. Using zeolite and nano-silica will not only affect the hydration process and pozzolanic activities positively, but also reduce the ion penetration in self-compacting mortars [10]. Safi et al. [11] showed that replacing 100% of the natural fine aggregates of self-compacting mortars with seashells will improve the flowability and slightly reduce the compressive strength.

Since ancient times, humans have used glass in various industries. Mainly, glass is produced in the form of bottles, containers, windows, lamps, cathode ray tubes, etc. [12], [13]. This large volume of glass production has increased the amount of waste glass too. On the other hand, in order to preserve the environment and prevent the increase of the depot space, the glass must be recycled, as it has been theoretically proven that glass is completely recyclable and the quality reduction does not occur in it [14]. However, due to the high cost of cleaning, separation, and color differentiation, only a small amount of waste glass is recycled [15]. Waste glass is widely used in the production of concrete (aggregates and cement), asphalt (aggregates), fillers (back-filling), sub-base, building blocks, tiles, artificial stones, and glass ceramics [16]. Many attempts have been made in recent years to use waste glass in the production of cement-based materials. Most of these efforts are focused on replacing all or part of the cement and aggregates in concrete and mortar with the waste glass [17]. Waste glass has been used as one of the most ideal materials to replace aggregates due to its special physical and chemical structure [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23].

The low tensile strength of concrete plays an important role in the growth and development of cracks. The growth of cracks in concrete elements and reinforced concrete will accelerate the transfer of moisture, harmful gases, and ions, corrosion of rebars. The development of cracks will also increase the carbonation probability of hydration products, destruction of cement paste, and reduction of durability and life cycle of these materials. On the other hand, observing cracks in concrete elements and understanding its behavior is not easy and requires precise studies and monitoring [24]. To study the fracture parameters of different materials, use can be made of such methods as the size effect, work of fracture method, crack band method, effective crack method, two parameter model, cohesive crack method or fictitious crack method, double-G fracture method, KR-curve method, double-K fracture method, boundary effect method and simplified boundary effect method [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40].

In addition, comprehensive understanding of failure mechanical parameters such as fracture toughness in mode 1 (opening or tension mode), mode 2 (sliding or in-plane shear mode), and mode 3 (tearing or anti-plane shear mode) leads to a better understanding of the growth and expansion of cracks in concrete [41], [42]. Fracture toughness is generally defined as resistance to crack growth. Applying this parameter to determine the efficiency and behavior of different types of materials and composites during the design process and determining the service life of cracked materials by engineers, can be very useful [43], [44]. Cracking mainly occurs due to the combination of loading modes. However, the failure phenomenon occurs in the pure state or combination of these modes [41], [42]. The onset and growth of cracks in different parts of the structure are more common in the combination of mode 1–2 loading and 1–3 loading [45], [46]. Therefore, the use of reliable, repeatable, comprehensive, and inexpensive methods with available equipment and easy configuration will be helpful in examining the fracture toughness parameter [43], [47]. For this purpose, Aliha et al. [48] presented a new model called edge-notched disc bend (ENDB) to test and calculate the fracture toughness of composites such as asphalt and concrete. The loading process and sample preparation in this test are easier than other common methods of determining the amount of fracture toughness [43].

The use of glass powder as a substitute for cement in concrete or mortar and its positive effects on mechanical properties and durability, economic profitability, reduction of production costs, and reduction of environmental hazards have been reported by previous studies [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56]. Besides, replacing the aggregates with waste glass increases the impenetrability and improves the durability of the concrete. This happens due to the acceleration of the pozzolanic reaction process and the reduction of cement paste cavities [57], [58]. Afshinnia and Rangaraju [59] reported that the use of waste glass as fine aggregates in concrete has a negative effect on its mechanical properties. Concretes containing waste glass aggregates also have a higher ultrasonic pulse velocity [16]. The possibility of replacing all natural aggregates of architectural mortars with waste glass due to the inherent properties of glass aggregate such as impermeability, chemical resistance, cost reduction, and appearance has been shown in other studies [60], [61]. Ling and Poon [2] claimed that there is no significant change in density until 40% of the cement-based mortar aggregates are replaced with fluorescent lamp glass, but the fluidity of concrete increases and its shrinkage decreases significantly. Guo et al. [62] concluded that at room temperature and temperatures below 800 °C, the use of waste glass as an aggregate in architectural mortars causes a slight reduction in electrical conductivity, compressive strength, and elastic modulus. However, as glass melts at 800 °C and fills the cavities of cement paste, the growth of cracks decreases and the mechanical properties will improve.

Choi et al. [63] claimed that it is possible to use the waste glass as aggregate in cement mortar as their studies showed that it reduces the shrinkage of concrete despite a slight increase in ASR value. Tan and Du [64] stated that the use of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% waste glass as mortar aggregates increases the amount of air content at fresh phase and resistance to chloride ion penetration. However, the presence of cracks in the waste glass grains and the weak connection of the cement paste with the glass grains will reduce the mechanical parameters. They concluded that transparent glass has a higher ASR potential than the green and brown glass. The different performance of waste glass aggregates in cement-based materials has been reported depending on the particle size, including negative performance due to alkali-silica reaction and positive performance due to pozzolanic reaction [65]. Another study reported that the use of fine waste glass particles will increase the initial and final setting time of concrete setting [66]. Thus, the setting of mortars containing waste glass can be evaluated by examining the effects of curing age.

Zhang et al. [35] have reported that using polypropylene fibers will increase the strength of the cement treated crushed rock against the crack growth by up to 0.1%. Kumar et al. [36] believe that since most existing conventional experimental/analytical methods require the crack opening displacement at critical conditions to determine the fracture parameters, the peak load method can (nearly) accurately find both fracture parameters of the double-K method. In the cohesive crack model, the fracture energy, defined in the work-of-fracture method, as the work done to create a unit crack area, is very important and can be calculated by measuring the area under the load–displacement curve [67]. However, the initial fracture energy (in the size effect model) is the mentioned area before the maximum load and does not depend on the specimen geometry and size [68].

ENDB samples have been used to investigate the characteristics and failure parameters of different materials and composites under the influence of pure mode 1, pure mode 3, and the combination of these two modes in the former studies [69], [70]. Golewski and Sadowski [71] stated that the use of 20% fly ash would cause a slight improvement in K3c. However, they concluded that adding 30% of fly ash reduces the fracture toughness. However, when the curing time of specimens containing 30% fly ash is>180 days, the fracture toughness will increase significantly [72]. Linear and nonlinear parameters of the fracture mechanics and the behavior of concretes containing such cement substitutes as the fly ash under different loading modes depend on the pozzolanic activity [73]. Safari et al. [74] showed that using rice husk ash will improve the fiber-cement paste bond and transfer loads well from fibers to the matrix. They believed that this mechanism had positive effects on the fracture energy absorption process when micro-cracks propagate.

Aliha et al., [75] examined the effects of Forta fibers on the fracture characteristics of concrete using ENDB samples. The results showed that the addition of these types of fibers will significantly increase the fracture toughness and fracture energy. On the other hand, they observed that when K1c > K3c, the fracture energy in mode three is higher than in mode one. Mansourian et al. [76] replaced the fine and coarse aggregates of concrete with the asphalt recycled aggregates and evaluate the fracture toughness of this type of concrete in pure mode 1, pure mode 3 and combined (1/3 or 3/1) modes under the temperatures of −25 °C, 0 °C, and + 25 °C using ENDB samples. Their investigations showed that the use of recycled asphalt aggregates reduces the fracture toughness of concrete in different modes. However, for the lower temperatures, higher values of fracture toughness were reported for the concretes containing asphalt recycled aggregates.

The reduction of strength and gradual deterioration of concrete depends on the initial defect, internal structure, and the applied loads. The characteristics and size of the aggregates also have a great impact on the performance of cement-based composites in the failure process [71], [77], [78]. The effect of using waste glass as aggregate on the mechanical properties and durability of concrete, mortar, and cement-based materials has been studied in detail in former studies [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]. In addition, most of these studies have tested the desired parameters at the 28-day curing age. However, no comprehensive research has been conducted to evaluate the effect of curing age and replacement of natural concrete or mortar aggregates with waste glass on fracture parameters, especially fracture toughness in different loading modes. Determining the fracture toughness parameter and behavior of different materials such as concrete or mortar, under pure and mixed loading modes, using ENDB specimens that have simple geometry and are easy to prepare and test, has several applications (e.g. studying properties of engineering material, determining proper retrofitting methods, optimizing and increasing the design process accuracy, producing concrete structures, preparing codes etc.). Therefore, in this study, the effect of replacing 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of self-compacting mortar aggregates with waste glass and curing age of 14, 28 and 56 days on the fracture toughness of pure mode 1, pure mode 3, and the combination of these two modes have been investigated using ENDB.

Section snippets

Material properties

The type-II cement has been used in this study. The specifications of this cement are presented in Table 1 accordance with ASTM C150 [79] regulations. Natural fine aggregates with a maximum size of 4.75 mm and physical characteristics according to Table 2 have been used in samples. The percentage of passage through each sieve for the waste glass aggregates used in this study is also shown in Table 2.

The waste glass materials used in this study were made from unused bottles collected from the

Experimental results and discussions

Fig. 7 shows the test set-up to investigate the fracture toughness of WG-containing samples in the pure mode 1, pure mode 3, and the combination of these two modes. The pattern direction of the failure for ENDB specimens under different loading conditions are shown in Fig. 8. According to Fig. 8, with increasing the load deviation angle from 0 to 63°, the rotation of failure direction and pattern, relative to the initial crack, are quite evident in all samples.

Conclusions

In this study, the effect of using waste glass (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%) and the curing age (14, 28 and 56 days) on the fracture toughness of pure mode 1, mixed mode 1/3, mixed mode 3/1, and pure mode 3 of self-compacting mortars have been investigated and the followings were obtained:

  • 1.

    Despite negative effects of using high percentages of glass waste replacements (>20%) on the compressive strength of self-compacting mortars, those containing 20 and 40% glass show improvements in the

CrediT authorship contribution statement

Seyed Roohollah Mousavi: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Iman Afshoon: Resources, Writing - original draft, Data curation, Software. Mohammad Ali Bayatpour: Writing - original draft, Software. Amirhossein Davarpanah T.Q. Writing - original draft, Software. Mahmoud Miri: Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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