Mechanical performance of engineered cementitious composites incorporating recycled glass powder

Engineered cementitious composite (ECC) is conventionally made up of high content fly ash (FA) combined with Portland cement (PC) as a binder. However, the growing call for sustainability is leading to continuous decommissioning of various coal power plants around the world thereby limiting the supply of fly ash available for ECC production. Therefore, it is of high importance to find alternative materials that can be incorporated into ECC as a partial replacement of the conventional binders. This experimental investigation was carried out to investigate the feasibility of incorporating glass powder (GP) as binder into ECC mixtures. The mechanical performance in terms of its compressive, tensile, and flexural properties was evaluated. Results from this study showed that 25% FA can be replaced with GP without any significant reduction in the mechanical performance of ECC mixtures. Microstructural investigations of the mixtures incorporating GP show good bonding between the cementitious matrix and the fibres.