ME 310A

Mission 9: Critical Function Prototype

Team Volvo CE with BTH
Motivation:

Windows are not usually recycled, and are primarily sent to a landfill because each type of glass is
slightly different melting point, chemical composition, color, heat treatment, etc.
o 25,500ft3 of glass in Hancock Tower = 2,070 tons
o Using our mix ratios this yields 1.38 million glass filled bricks = 57,000 ft3 1 mile of road
Off hauling waste is about 50% of cost of demolition
o Crushing concrete on site for Meyer saves $1.1 million
o Pay by tonnage of material trucked off
o Reduction in trucking decreases carbon footprint of demolition

Critical Function Prototype

Is it possible to make cement bricks using glass as an aggregate?

What is involved in the process to crush and sort glass for the aggregate?
Mixture Components by Weight (lbs)
Beer Bottles Window Glass
Fine
4.90
7.89
Small Coarse
2.89
4.67
Large Coarse
1.44
2.33
Cement
1.58
2.55
Water
1.16
2.11
Mix ratios determined from talk with Simon Schacher of Mid-State Engineering and Testing and
papers by Columbia University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Results

Grain size can be controlled fairly well with sifters

Energy intensive when being done manually but would be trivial and repeatable by machine
Loud but not as loud as concrete crushing
Successfully made into cement mixture (unsure of strength before testing)

Future Work

Drop test comparing store bought concrete bricks, homemade cement bricks, window glass bricks, and
beer bottle glass bricks
Compression test on window glass bricks
Look into sorting and/or extraction of window glass from building materials

The Process

Initial Breaking
break 2x3 panes of window glass and bottles
Preparation Work
brick frames, sifters, crushing containers

Window Glass

Beer Bottle Glass

Glass Crushing and Sifting

Grinding and crushing sand until sand size
grains, 1/8 coarse grains, and coarse
grains

D
R
O
P

Cement Mixtures
cement, fine glass, coarse glass, and water to
put in brick molds

T
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