Evaluation of three test methods for determining the alkali–silica reactivity of glass aggregate

Consumption of natural raw materials and pollution have become significant problems due to technological developments and continual increase in demand. Accordingly, great efforts are being made in order to recover wastes including glass. One of the possible applications is utilizing waste glass in concrete; however, alkali–silica reaction (ASR) is of major concern. In this study, tests were conducted by applying three different procedures: ASTM C1293, RILEM AAR-2, and microbar test methods. In microbar testing, glass aggregate was used as coarse aggregate, whereas the other two methods dealt with investigating the reactivity of the finer fraction of the waste glass. The effects of chemical composition, particle size and amount of glass in the mixture were studied. According to the results, flint glass expanded to a greater extent than amber and green glass. Expansions, within the specified time periods dictated by the methods, remained low; however, extended durations resulted in very high length change values of the flint glass-including mixtures, particularly in the AAR-2 and microbar tests.