Effect of recycled glass gradation in 3D cementitious material printing

Abstract

Post-consumer glass existing in co-mingled waste to be used for landfill poses a serious environmental issue due to its non-biodegradable nature. Therefore, glass materials are often extracted and recycled for other applications. The building and construction (B&C) field present an attractive application for recycled glass as replacement of fine aggregates in cementitious materials, the second most consumed material in the world after water. With the growth in interest towards 3D printing for the B&C field in recent years, much research has been conducted with respect to 3D cementitious material printing (3DCMP). 3DCMP has gained its stand in the B&C field as it does not require any formwork and human intervention and permits designing for structural optimization. Hence, with the accompanying advantages of both 3DCMP and the need for recycling glass waste, this study aims to replace the fine aggregates of the cementitious material by the processed recycled glass to be used for 3D printing. This paper studies the gradation of the recycled glass aggregates in the 3D printable cementitious material. Three different gradations were designed using the different particle size of recycled glass materials supplied and investigated using the same binder mix design. For each gradation, the fresh and hardened properties were investigated. Printing investigations were also conducted on the studied recycled glass gradations.