PERFORMANCE OF HOLLOW CONCRETE BLOCKS WITH CRUSHED WASTE GLASS AS PARTIAL REPLACEMENT OF FINE AGGREGATE

Abstract

Construction is booming in developing countries like Ethiopia. As construction is increasing, demand and price of the construction materials are increasing. Among building construction components hollow concrete block is being widely used. From concrete block making materials fine aggregate is higher constituent. The uses of river sand as fine aggregate leads to exploitation of natural resources and also environmental concerns related to the disposal of various waste materials have escalated to a worrying level, among those: crushed wastes glass is one of them. Therefore, to make the construction industry sustainable, the use of waste materials in place of natural resources is one of the recommended. The main objectives of this study was to investigate the performance of class C hollow concrete blocks with crushed waste glass as partial replacement of fine aggregate and to determine the replacement percentages at which crushed waste glass can be effectively put into service and also compare the cost of crushed waste glass partially replaced in hollow concrete block with the conventional ones. The method used was experimental study. The crushed waste glass partial replaced fine aggregate with 10%, 20% and 30% by volume and the control mix was prepared. The compressive strength test was carried out at the 7th, 14th and 28th days, whereas the density and water absorption tests were carried out on the 28th day. As per the finding, the control mix compared with the replacement specimen, the density is decreased as the proportion of crushed waste glass increases and decreases by 5.6% at a 30% replacement, the water absorption decreases as crushed waste glass content increases and it decreased by 2.5% at a 30% replacement, the compressive strength with up to 20% replacement increases by 59.72%, but after that, it starts decreasing for 30% replacement by 10.64%, results showed that replacement of 20% fine aggregate by crushed waste glass was found to have optimal compressive strength, and also the production of block using 20% crushed waste glass saves cost compared to the conventional once by 2.06% in 1m2 area.