Influence of incinerated biomedical waste ash and waste glass powder on the mechanical and flexural properties of reinforced geopolymer concrete

Abstract

An extensive experimental study was implemented to investigate the structural and material properties of Waste Glass Powder (WGP) as fine aggregate in Incinerated Bio-Medical Waste Ash (IBWA) – Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) based Geopolymer Concrete (GPC). The research was based on the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural efficiency of GGBS-based geopolymer concrete mixed with IBWA as binder and WGP as fine aggregate. To determine the concrete strength, four different types of proportions were designed as beams and columns. The mechanical properties such as compressive strength and splitting tensile strength and flexural properties for beams such as deflection, ductility factor, flexural strength, and toughness index, and flexural properties for columns such as load-carrying capacity, stress-strain behaviour, and load-deflection behaviours were calculated. Comparative analyzes were performed to assess the efficiency of Waste Glass Powder and Incinerated Biomedical Waste Ash in GGBS-based geopolymer concrete against Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC). The findings showed that the Waste Glass Powder and Incinerated Bio-Medical Waste Ash embedded in GGBS-based Geopolymer concrete exhibited the highest fracture energy, as predicted from the mechanical bond between the waste materials and the GGBS-based Geopolymer concrete.