Influence and Application of Glass Cullet in Autoclaved Materials

The basis of construction is made of materials such as: wood, stone (including artificial stone, i.e. concrete and brick), steel and glass. Currently, the glass is a product that enjoys increased interest, also due to the phenomenon of recycling. At the moment, construction industry is a field in which good solutions are sought for the proper management of waste. One of the recycled waste is glass cullet coming from bottles mainly of wine. Not every country produces wines because there are no suitable conditions, but wine is drunk in every country. Powdered glass is already applied in the form of glass powder in concretes (research conducted in India, China and America), and the results of the research are the basis for exploring this topic in the context of other materials. The paper presents the results of research on modifications of sand-lime materials using cullet (glass sand). Non-destructive testing of samples was carried out: lime hydration control in a mixture containing powdered recycled glass, / humidity that affects the water absorption of the product, and further on density and strength (water migration in the pores) and microstructural investigations. The conducted tests showed increased humidity of the modified product with recycling glass (approximately 2% compared to the reference sample of 0.5%) and the presence of hydrated calcium silicates in the form of gyrolite as a phase resulting from high pressure. (paper)