Effect of Sodium Silicate on The Unconfined Compressive Strength of Crushed Concrete

Abstract

Various building infrastructure projects worldwide have resulted in a significant rise in the production of waste materials such as concrete, fly ash, plastic, rice husk, foundry sand, and other materials, raising disposal issues. Crushed concrete is abundant and comes from the removal of old buildings as well as waste concrete from new construction. As a result, construction waste recycling is essential, both in reducing the amount of open land needed for landfilling and environmental protection by resource conservation. The research’s main objective is to study the effect of adding sodium silicate on the cohesion strength of crushed concrete and its behavior. the concrete cubes are grinded with a hammer to get crushed concrete which passing sieve no 4. The results show that the cohesion strength increase as a percentage of sodium silicate increase (addition 6% Sodium silicate show the higher strength where the strength increased at 10 days by 246% and at 14 days by 250% as compared with strength at 5 days) and the cohesion between crushed concrete particles increase until 8% sodium silicate the cohesion began to decrease (10% same cohesion at 2%). As well, the cohesion strength increase when curing time increase.