Ground Glass Powder As Fine Aggregate In Concrete: A Comprehensive Study

Benefits of Ground Glass Powder in Concrete

Since its inception into the world more than 5000 years ago, glass has remained one of the valuable materials that are still being used by the human kind to meet various needs. As more and more of the material is being manufactured, used, damped, and bearing its non-biodegradability glass remained to be a threat to environmental stability and harm to the ecosystem (Andrew Knight, 2009, p.167). Most of the ground glass ended up at landfills where they could take several years to break further into smaller particles. This led to the need to establish strategies and mechanisms that would help combat the mess.

Ground glass has therefore been incorporated as a component of the fine aggregates that are used in the manufacture of concrete bearing the heavily consumption of concrete and concrete products across the globe. Glass contains silica, which reacts with the cement to generate the required compressive strength of concrete. This puts the material at a good position as far as its incorporation into the construction industry is concerned (Alexander M. Novikov, 2013, p.205). Contractors and countries that have attempted to deploy this technology in the construction of various structures confirm improved workability and compressive strength of the concrete that is made by mixing cement and ground glass powder as the fine aggregate. The strength and workability if found to record a better performance than plain mortar.

By using ground powder mortar as the fine aggregate in the making of concrete, a number of benefits are accrued. The process has a positive impact on the environment. The ground glass powder is derived from the remains of used or old glass that are no longer usable for the initially intended purpose. This in turn relieves the landfills of the huge deposits of the non-biodegradable substance (Donald D. Bergh, 2009, p.111). The overall effect is therefore withdrawal of waste products from the environment and hence improved environmental sustainability. This would be an impact to both the users and non-users of the concrete. The use of ground glass powder in the preparation of concrete also lowers the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted during the preparation process. Ground powder, unlike sand, contains fewer chemicals whose reactions would release carbon dioxide.

Ground glass as a fine aggregate in the preparation of concrete is associated with lowered production costs. Being collected from a damp site, the ground powder is used at point when its worth is least. The contractor would only need to have the material transported to the construction site as the only cost when it comes to the acquisition of the aggregates. This is a subsidy in comparison to the contemporary cases where the contractor has to make billings for sand. The use of ground glass powder as an aggregate in the preparation of concrete can thus be concluded to be cost-effective, reducing the overall cost of doing a project in construction (Fischer, 2016, p.189).

Research Objectives

Despite the overwhelming benefits associated with the use of ground glass powder in the preparation of concrete, it has not yet been established the point at which concrete gains maximum compressive strength when ground glass powder is used instead of sand (Klenke, 2016, p.252). This uncertainty has seen numerous contractors and other professionals in the construction industry end up with undesired structures due to either under or over estimation of the amount of ground powder to be used. Research and experiments conducted have established that as the proportion of ground powder is increased from 15% to 20% of the weight, the concrete gains more compressive strength. The researcher further reveals that when more the glass aggregate is used i.e. more than 30%, the compressive strength of the concrete is found to lose the gained strength at 20% proportionality (Kuada, 2012, p.564). The concrete is found to lose the strength to the level of the contemporary concrete.

Away from such a finding is another that established that the compressive strength of concrete remains on the rise up to and including 50% proportionality beyond which the concrete would experience bleeding of the mix and severe segregation especially when admixtures are added. Such findings have left a gap of knowledge as to the exact proportion of ground glass powder that needs to be mixed with cements in order to achieve the maximum compressive strength of the final concrete. Each findings and study tends to present conflicting findings on the same research topic with neither of the findings tending to be close to another in terms of the statistical data they offer. This research project thus is aimed at exploring exhaustively and comprehensively these pieces of evidence supporting the use of prefabrication technology against the conventional technological system (Boeije, 2009, p.254).

Objectives

The objectives of the research include:

• Establish the properties of concrete when glass powder is used in place of sand as an aggregate
• Identification of the properties of concrete including mechanical, strength (flexural, compressive & tensile) and other physical properties when mixed with waste glass powder (of different colors) at different proportions(Andrew Knight, 2009, p.78)
• Investigate the properties of concrete when mixed with admixtures and the effects of the admixtures on the compressive strength when mixed with glass powder
• Identification of the properties of concrete when mixed with supplementary cementitious material

Research Plan

Introduction

With the research aiming at establishing the point at which concrete gains maximum compressive strength, the research plan would be geared towards achieving the objective of establishing the compressive strengths of concrete at different proportions of waste glass powder. It would be important in this research to find out the exact compressive strengths of concrete at various proportions. The values of the compressive strengths at every proportion should be very precise and no based on generalization (Klenke, 2016). Important still in this is to have numerous results based on varied research circumstances to be able to establish common ground using solid evidence.

Research Plan

Research Approach

Going by the nature of this research, the qualitative approach will be deployed in carrying it out. This research is more of exploratory in the sense that by the end of the research, the research should have had an in-depth understanding of the changing properties of concrete as the proportion of waste glass powder in increased in the preparation of concrete (Lapan, 2011, p.197). A need to understand the scientific reasoning behind such changes should as well be established which could then be used to either credit or dismiss the findings in the literature review.

The qualitative aspect of the research will be an establishment into the cause of variations in the figures of the compressive strength and where the maximum compressive strength lies in waste glass powder. An exploration would thus be made through qualitative research to determine why despite the previous researchers and scholars using the same materials of waste glass powder and concrete end up with different figures when it comes to the changing patterns of compressive strength. There could be other ideas or reasoning among the clients and contractors that might not have been captured in the literature of which if covered would be convincing (S. K. MANGAL, 2013, p.239).

The four phases of qualitative research will take a course in the research. The first phase, which is the conceptual phase, deploys the use of such skills as creativity, firm grounding and deductive reasoning to establish the basis of the research. At this phase, background information on the research topic and aims shall have been gained through theorizing, conceptualization, reading and review of the ideas of colleagues. The second phase will involve designing and planning. Laboratory experiments and surveys will be used in this phase to obtain information aimed at addressing the research question (Tesch, 2010, p.258). The third phase, the empirical phase, involves the collection of data and preparing them for analysis.

Using the designated data collection methods stipulated before, the required data, which is the point of maximum compressive strength of concrete when waste glass powder is used as the aggregate, would be collected and kept for uses in the analysis. The data collected may be coded or fed into computer files to enhance safekeeping of the information. Phase four of the qualitative research would entail analysis of the collected and interpretation of the collected data. The choice of the technique to be used in the analysis of the data would be a factor of the nature of the data collected. Computers may be used to facilitate the process of statistical analysis (Devi, 2017, p.302).

Research Approach

The strategies that can be used for this research are among them grounded theory, experiments, survey, and phenomenology and action research. Grounded theory encompasses the construction of theory through a systematic methodology of gathering and analyzing data. Ground theory enables a researcher to find out and conceptualize the structures and latent social patterns in a topic of interest through the continuous making of comparison (Vian Ahmed, 2016, p.155). At the initial stages of using this research tool, the inductive system of inquiry is used in the creation of meaningful codes from the available data. Further developments of this strategy lead the researcher into the subsequent steps of data collection.

Phenomenological research focuses on making inquiries into the experience of people in relation to a phenomenon or their interpretation of such experiences. It thus attempts to gain an insight and understanding into understandings, perceptions and perspectives of other people with regard to a particular phenomenon or situation. It provides an understanding of the world to the researcher and its appearance to the perspective of other people. Field research is a method of collecting qualitative data. In this strategy, the researcher moves to the field and takes note of the phenomenon as it is in its natural state (Klenke, 2016, p.174). This strategy is more of related to participant observation. The researcher is expected to take notes while in the field which will later be used in the analysis of data.

Action research is an initiation of research that aims at either solving an immediate problem or coming up with a progressive process that would involve a group of individuals working in collaboration with the community. The collaboration is aimed at improving the manner in which a society a dress its issues and solves its problems. There needs to be kept constant communication between the group that comes in to assist the society and the members of the society. Due to the existence of communication between the different factions, action research is a form of qualitative research (Kumar, 2010, p.287).

Access to the information required for the purposes of fulfilling the aims of research relies on any of the three systems of inquiry. These systems include induction, deduction and abduction. The choice of any of the systems depends on the nature of the research, the data collection strategies and the expected outcomes of the research.

Deduction refers to arriving at a conclusion through reasoning. In other words, in deductive reasoning, the conclusion is made based on the universal ways of doing things. It makes conclusions using facts and information that is generally accepted in the society (Vian Ahmed, 2016, p.283). In abductive reasoning, the major premise of reasoning can be seen whereas the minor premise of the reasoning is not evident and hence the conclusion made is based on probability. It revolves around coming up with findings using information that is already available and known. This reasoning makes use of the most probable references from an observation in concluding. This reason provides a basis for explaining various phenomena in different ways hence giving an opportunity to the researcher to decide which of the explanations to give attention to at first look.

Strategies for Data Collection

Abduction is the cost-effective system of inquiry for this research. Following the aim of this research, which was an establishment into the cause of variations in the figures of the compressive strength and where the maximum compressive strength lies in waste glass powder, many varied views will be collected. Different experiments under different conditions will yield different results. From the found out varied results the researcher will then need to establish or device a way of deciding on the possible explanations, conclusion and thus release the correct maximum compressive strength points (Maxwell, 2012, p.450). This will be based on what is a priority and more important to the researcher in line with the accomplishment of the aims and objectives of the research.

In deductive reasoning, the truth of a conclusion is based on the level of truth in the facts and statements that are considered when the conclusion is being arrived at. Induction is a reasoning method based purely on probability or chances. It refers to forming a conclusion based on what is being observed at that particular instance when the conclusion is being arrived at (Silverman, 2010, p.209). The conclusion is this based on what is known or can be observed at the time of observation. Inductive reasoning draws conclusions based on observations and the conclusion made applies to even related circumstances, which have not been observed

Collection of data will be done mainly at the primary level that would involve laboratory experiments that are to give the exact figures of compressive strength of concrete at various waste glass powder proportions. The results collected from the experiments done are kept recorded and safely kept to be used in the subsequent phases of the research including the analysis and conclusion (Pruzan, 2016, p.250). Various statistical data analysis techniques would go down well with analyzing the data of the results. The use of computers and computer softwares would facilitate and enhance the data analysis process besides improving on the accuracy of the analysis. This information serves as firsthand information and thus the reference point in case of the emergence of any conflicting information.

The researcher needs to come up with the exact values on the various compressive strengths of concrete when different proportions of waste glass powder is used as an aggregate in order to achieve the objectives of this research. This leaves the researcher with laboratory experiments as the best data collection method that is to be adopted in this research (Merriam, 2015, p.502). Through laboratory experiments, the researcher will be able to perform the experiments after assembling all the required materials.

Conclusion

The researcher will be able to achieve the various conditions meant to achieve various results. The proportion of waste glass powder will be varied from 10% at reasonable intervals and the results and observations recorded at each proportion. Any changes to the chemicals used in the experiment at any interval is noted and under circumstances that the experiment may need to be repeated under the same conditions it will be done to establish the most accurate findings (Boeije, 2009, p.266). Repeating experiments under the same conditions help in the elimination of possible chances of doubt of the results or any errors that the researcher might have made when performing the previous experiment.  

Different colors of the waste glass powder will be used and the effect on the differences in the color on the compressive strength would be noted as part of the observations. In case a specific color may have different compressive strength properties from others, the difference would be explained in the discussion section of the results analysis using the most relevant information sources (Devi, 2017, p.206).

The researcher will as well include admixtures in the preparation of the concrete using waste glass powder. Any notable changes in the overall compressive strengths at any proportions of waste glass powder in the presence of admixtures are taken into consideration. The experiment should be done in such a way that it accomplishes all the objectives of the research and that there will be no information missing when it comes to the analysis stage (Lucienne T.M. Blessing, 2009, p.230). To achieve this, the experiment should be done in accordance with the objectives of the research.

The findings from the research would be used in the analysis where they would be compared against findings by other scholars and any consistencies or discrepancies noted. This would be the point of dismissal or crediting of the findings of the other scholars of the same research and would be a factor of whether or not the findings are the same with the scholar in question. Care must be taken to ensure that the experiments are done at the highest attainable levels of accuracy since should the findings be inaccurate the conclusion will automatically be obsolete and hence the researcher will credit the wrong scholar while dismissing the right one (McLeod, 2011, p.342).

Week by week activities using an annotated diagram

0		Task Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
1	ü	Proposal Development	3 weeks
2	§	Finding appropriate literature on the research field-1
3	§	Identify a particular literature to find the gap-1
4	§	Framing research question/Aims/Rationale and objectives-1
5	§	Preparing the outline proposal draft and acquiring feedback from the supervisor-2
6	§	Develop the research proposal-2
7	§	Submit the research proposal-2
8	§	Review feedback and complete the research by refining it-3
9	§	Prepare the final research question-3
10	ü	Literature Review				3 weeks
11	§	Conduct comprehensive and extensive review on concrete preparation, the properties of glass and reusability-4 & 5
12	§	Conduct comprehensive and extensive review on the findings by different scholars-5
13	§	The use of waste glass powder as an aggregate in concrete preparation-5
14	§	Try and get an extensive understanding of the topic- 5 & 6
15	ü	Analysis of data from primary sources							3 weeks
16	§	Analysis of data and give the value of the point of maximum compressive strength of concrete when waste glass is used as the aggregate-7 & 8
17	§	In depth analysis of the literature review to find the thoughts of other scholars on the point of maximum compressive strength of concrete when waste glass powder is the aggregate- 8 & 9
18	§	Frame the question for the experiment- 9
19	ü	Prepare thesis										2 weeks
20	§	Prepare first draft of the thesis-10
21	§	Submit the draft and get the feedback from the supervisor-10
22	§	Amend the thesis as per the feedback-11
23	§	Submit thesis-11

Proposal Development – 3 weeks (60 hours)

Literature review – 3 weeks (60 hours)

Data analysis from primary sources – 3 weeks (60 hours)

Thesis preparation – 2 weeks (40 hours)

References

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