Analysis of the Life Cycle and Properties of Concrete with the Addition of Waste Car Glass

Abstract

Sustainable construction aims to reduce the negative environmental impact of buildings throughout their life cycle, which includes design, construction, use, demolition and recycling. Taking into account the successive stages of the concrete life cycle and the elements of sustainable construction, the need to carry out research and analysis of the properties of concrete with additives was noticed in aspects of the concrete life cycle, e.g., the production stage, its durability during operation and the possibility of re-use after demolition. It was also noticed that the use of additives in the form of waste materials brings many benefits, including improvement of some parameters of concrete while saving natural resources. The article presents a detailed analysis of all four phases of the assessment of the life cycle of concrete modified with the addition of waste car glass: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. The progressive increase in the amount of glass waste produced each year around the world made it necessary to start the search for new recycling methods. During the research, concrete mixes were prepared according to a new, laboratory-calculated recipe containing glass fibers, natural aggregate (sand with a fraction of 0–2), crushed aggregate (basalt with a fraction of 2–8) and Portland cement (52.5 MPa). Concrete has been designed in four variants, which differ based on n the amount of tempered glass added. The first variant W1 was modified with 66.67 kg/m3, the second variant W2 contained the addition of 111.11 kg/m3 and the third variant W3—155.56 kg/m3. After 28 days, volumetric densities, values of the modulus of elasticity and thermal properties were determined; strength tests were also carried out during which the compressive strength (Reference = 70.30 MPa; W1 = 68.18 MPa; W2 = 70.13 MPa; W3 = 68.60 MPa), tensile strength in bending (Reference = 5.70 MPa; W1 = 5.63 MPa; W2 = 5.70 MPa; W3 = 5.27 MPa) and tensile strength in splitting were determined. On the remains of the samples from the strength tests, microstructure tests were performed. The conclusions and considerations on the further direction of the research were included in the discussion. The novelty of our research is related to the elimination of the glass waste processing process, which was described in detail in the Introduction.