Development of Architectural Green Mortar Incorporating Waste Glass and its Impact on Energy Saving in Buildings

Abstract

Waste materials are deemed an environmental burden; although, they can be recycled in the production of sustainable building materials. The aim of this study is to develop an aesthetic architectural rendering green mortar with utilizing recycled waste colored glass as supplementary fine aggregate. Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) has been prepared as a green and sustainable binder by replacing 60 wt% of white Portland cement () with a blend of limestone (LS) powder and metakaolin (MK) with a LS: MK of 1:2 (wt%). LC3-based mortars were prepared in which the binder was combined with expanded polystyrene beads (EPS) as fine aggregate with aggregate volume content of 75%. EPS was partially replaced with recycled waste glass (RWG) at various percentages of 10, 20, and 30 vol.%. Bulk density, thermal conductivity, solar reflectivity and flexural strength of the hardened mortars were determined after 7days of curing. The contribution of the newly developed mortars into reducing internal thermal loads and energy use has been evaluated for administrative/ office building in EGYPT. The mortars incorporating 10 and 20vol.% of RWG possessed thermal conductivity values in the range of thermal insulation rendering mortars. The incorporation of RWG led to enhanced solar reflectivity, an increase by about 77% has been achieved relative to the traditional one coat - rendering mortar; in addition, the newly developed rendering mortar provided a reduction in electric cooling energy annual consumption by about 30%