Scientists have created high-strength concrete with recycled glass

To date, innovative 3D printers are capable of printing literally everything - machine and machine components, medical devices, molecular food, and even human organs. Thanks to the use of 3D devices in the construction industry, this segment can reach a fundamentally new level of its development, experts say. For example, British scientists recently created high-strength, heat-resistant, environmentally friendly concrete with recycled glass additives.

In general, the construction industry is not particularly environmentally friendly - around 35% of construction waste is sent to landfills worldwide. As you know, concrete consists of water, cement and mineral additives, the main of which is sand. To meet the needs of construction companies in concrete, every year more and more sand is mined on the planet, and this threatens to catastrophe on a global scale in the near future. In addition, the production of concrete using sand entails harmful emissions into the environment.

In an effort to somehow influence the situation, scientists at the Brunel University of London proposed replacing the sand in concrete with treated glass. This innovation worked very effectively. For the experiment, scientists used glass from bottles of drinks. First, the container was crushed in a crushing machine, the fragments were washed, dried, crushed again and sieved. As a result, the researchers obtained particles whose size is less than 1 square millimeter.

By adding processed glass to the cement mortar, the scientists found that wall panels and monoblocks can be easily printed from this material on a 3D printer, from which a solid building can be built. Thus, using this technology, two problems are solved simultaneously - the disposal of glass waste and the improvement of the physical characteristics of the concrete mixture.

Since the thermal conductivity of glass is three times lower than that of quarry sand, concrete with the addition of glass has an increased ability to thermal insulation. Accordingly, a glass block room will require lower cooling costs in summer and heating in winter.

Photo source: smsm.ru