Manufacturing of light weight aggregates from the local waste materials for application in the building concrete

The aim of those research was to find out the technique of the car windshield glass waste utilization. The research was performed in cooperation with the Polish small company, active in the waste utilization. Manufacturing of the light weight aggregates (LWAs) for application in the building concrete has been chosen as an appropriate solution. The local coal mine slates, the fine-grained coal mine wastes and fly ash from the local power station were tried for making the suitable mixture for granulation and sintering. All waste materials were characterized for their granulation, chemical composition and thermal behavior (DTA, TG/DTG, linear changes). Several mixtures with various composition were prepared, milled, homogenized and pelletized with water addition and finally sintered at 950°C. Thermally treated granules were tested for their density, porosity and mechanical properties. Some specimens were observed in scanning microscope. It has been shown that by variation of the composition of the waste materials it is possible to produce aggregates with a large variety of mechanical properties and porosities.