Concrete Incorporating Glass Powder in Aggressive Environments

It has been demonstrated in recent studies that, unlike general-use cement (GU), glass powder (GP) performs better in concrete mixtures with high water-binder ratios (w/b) in terms of both mechanical properties and chloride ion permeability. This paper aims to deepen investigations on the behavior of concrete incorporating GP in aggressive outdoor environments such as chloride ion diffusion, carbonation, and sulfates as a function of w/b. For comparison purposes, concretes containing conventional supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as Class F fly ash (FFA) and ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) along with control concrete were also studied. In general, GP-based concretes behaved as those containing SCM. Indeed, despite their high w/b, concrete incorporating GP better withstands sulfate attack than the reference. This was mainly attributed to the low chloride permeability of such concretes. Also, as commonly observed with SCM concretes, carbonation was higher with GP-based concrete and increased with w/b.