Characterization of Cullet Hardened Reactivity in Cementitious Compositions

The hardened reactivity and constituents of particles in cementitious compositions optimize the structural solidity of concrete. Waste glass, technically referred to as cullet, possesses pozzolanic reaction for the manufacturing of mortar when pulverized as a cementitious material. The study assesses the characterization of pulverized cullet as a material in cementitious compositions and examines its adhesive force to different mortar mixes in the construction of bricks. Cullet (CL) was retrieved from waste dumps; granite dust (GD) was collected from stone pit and river sand (RS) was garnered from river bank. The samples were washed, dried, hammer-milled and pulverized. The study, however, combined laboratory experimentation for elemental analysis of samples through Particle Induced X-ray Emission and studio practices for conducting a controlled test on the relative magnitudes of culletcement mixes as well as a combination of cullet-river sand-granite dust- cement in different mixes. Evidentially, cullet has SiO2 (68.88%), Na2O (9.01%), Al2O3 (0.41%), CaO (5.60%), BaO (8.76%), PbO (2.83%), and K2O (1.63%) as major oxides, river sand has SiO2 (72.46%), Na2O (6.74 %), MgO (0.86%), Al2O3 (4.42%), CaO (3.99%) and Fe2O3 (3.75%) as prima oxides, while granite dust has SiO2 (70.91%), Na2O (4.90%), MgO (0.88%), Al2O3 (11.82%), CaO (2.20%) and Fe2O3 (2.30%) as major oxide properties. The visual characterization of test bricks revealed that the cullet properties indurate hardened reactivity of the compositions and exhibit concretion in terms of mutual adhesiveness to other supplementary cementitious materials. As such, adaptation of cullet and its calcium oxide into cementitious compositions will increase the adhesive attribute of cement-hardened reactivity and reduce environmental pollution.