Impact of Waste Glass on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructural Characteristics of Sustainable Concrete Manufactured Using Tap and Magnetized Water

Abstract

The environmental burden associated with Portland cement production, particularly its energy consumption and carbon emissions, has increased interest in concrete incorporating recycled waste materials. This study evaluates the effects of recycled waste glass (WG) replacement and the use of magnetized water (MW) on the mechanical and microstructural properties of structural concrete. A unified experimental framework was established to compare WG as a partial replacement for cement using waste glass powder (WGP), fine aggregate using fine waste glass aggregate (FWGA), coarse aggregate using coarse waste glass aggregate (CWGA), and, in a hybrid mixture, all three constituents under identical mixture proportions and curing conditions using tap water (TW) or MW. Twenty-two mixes were prepared using 450 kg/m3 ordinary Portland cement and 5% silica fume (SF), with WG replacement levels of 10%, 20%, and 30%. Compressive strength was measured at 7, 28, and 120 days, while tensile and flexural strengths were measured at 28 days. Increasing WGP replacement from 10% to 30% progressively reduced compressive, tensile, and flexural strengths, whereas WG aggregate replacement improved compressive strength up to 20%. At 120 days, compressive strength reached 57.1–59.1 MPa with TW and 58.8–61.5 MPa with MW, representing improvements of 17–21% over the control mix. The use of MW improved compressive strength by 3–16% and increased the compressive–tensile strength correlation from R2 = 0.535 to 0.821.