Performance Enhancement of Recycled Aggregate Concrete – An Experimental Study

Author(s):  
Sivamani Jagan ◽  
Thurvas Renganathan Neelakantan ◽  
Palaniraj Saravanakumar

Extensive studies have been performed on the mechanical and durability properties of the concrete prepared with recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), however, only modest consideration has been given to the studies on the behaviour of RAC prepared by alternative mixing approach techniques. This study presents the mechanical properties of the recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with different percentages of RCA prepared by normal mixing approach (NMA), two-stage mixing approach (TSMA) and sand enveloped mixing approach (SEMA) techniques. The manufactured concrete mixtures were tested for compression, tension, flexure and elastic modulus at 7, 28 and 90 days. The results indicate that the mechanical properties of the RAC (with 100% of RCA) prepared through TSMA and SEMA were improved by 9.36 and 12.14% at 28 days. Perhaps, prolonged curing to TSMA and SEMA mixtures improved the mechanical properties of the RAC that is nearly equal to normal aggregate concrete (NAC) prepared by NMA.

2021 ◽  
pp. 136943322110179
Author(s):  
DongTao Xia ◽  
ShaoJun Xie ◽  
Min Fu ◽  
Feng Zhu

Fiber reinforced recycled aggregate concrete has become a new type of green concrete material. The maximum particle size of coarse aggregates and steel fiber contents affect the mechanical properties and impact resistance of recycled aggregate concrete. However, such studies are rare in literature. The present paper shortens the gap through experimental study. A total of 144 specimens of 12 kinds of concrete mixtures were tested, which adopted different steel fiber volume admixtures (0%, 0.8%, 1.0%, 1.2%) and recycled coarse aggregates in different maximum particle sizes (9.5, 19, 31.5 mm) replacing 30% natural coarse aggregate. The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and impact resistance of the 12 concrete mixtures were tested. The results showed that the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and impact resistance of recycled aggregate concrete increased first and then decreased with the increase of the maximum particle size. The recycled aggregate concrete with the maximum particle size of 19 mm had the highest mechanical properties and impact resistance. Besides, with the increase of steel fiber content, the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and impact resistance of recycled aggregate concrete showed an increasing trend. Considering a large amount of experimental data and the coupling effect of steel fiber contents and the maximum particle size of coarse aggregates, the Weibull distribution function was introduced to analyze the impact test results and predict the number of resistance to impact under different failure probabilities. The results showed that the number of blows of the recycled aggregate concrete followed a two-parameter Weibull distribution, and the estimated value of the number of resistance to impact for failure increased with the increase of the failure probability.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Yu ◽  
Bo Wu

In the past decade, directly reusing large pieces of coarsely crushed concrete (referred to as demolished concrete lumps or DCLs) with fresh concrete in new construction was demonstrated as an efficient technique for the recycling of waste concrete. Previous studies investigated the mechanical properties of recycled lump concrete (RLC) containing different sizes of DCLs; however, for actual application of this kind of concrete, little information is known about the influence of the spatial locations of DCLs and coarse aggregates on the concrete strength. Moreover, the mechanical responses of such a concrete containing various shapes of DCLs are also not well illustrated. To add knowledge related to these topics, two-dimensional mesoscale simulations of RLC containing DCLs under axial compression were performed using the discrete element method. The main variables of interest were the relative strength of the new and old concrete, the distribution of the lumps and other coarse aggregates, and the shape of the lumps. In addition, the differences in compression behavior between RLC and recycled aggregate concrete were also predicted. The numerical results indicate that the influence tendency of the spatial locations of DCLs and coarse aggregate pieces on the compressive stress–strain curves for RLC is similar to that of the locations of coarse aggregates for ordinary concrete. The strength variability of RLC is generally higher than that of ordinary concrete, regardless of the relative strength of the new and old concrete included; however, variability has no monotonic trend with an increase in the lump replacement ratio. The mechanical properties of RLC in compression are little influenced by the geometric shape of DCLs as long as the ratio of the length of their long axis to short axis is smaller than 2.0. The compressive strength and elastic modulus of RLC are always superior to those of recycled aggregate concrete designed with a conventional mixing method.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammet Gökhan Altun ◽  
Meral Oltulu

ABSTRACT The use of recycled aggregate (RA) instead of natural aggregate (NA) in concrete is necessary for environmental protection and the effective utilization of resources. The addition of recycled aggregates in concrete increases shrinkage, porosity and decreases the mechanical properties compared to that of normal concrete. This study was aimed at investigating how the addition of various proportions of polypropylene and steel fiber affect the mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). The natural coarse aggregates (NCAs) used in the production of normal concrete (NC) were replaced in 30% and 50% proportions by recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) obtained from the demolished buildings. In this case, a polypropylene fiber (PF) content of 0.1% and steel fiber (SF) 1% and 2% volume fractions were used, along with hybrid fibers-a combination of the two. While the material performance of RAC compared to NC is analyzed by reviewing existing published literature, it is not evident what the use of RCAs and hybrid fibers have on the mechanical properties of concrete. The results showed that the compressive strength, flexural strength and impcat resistance of RAC were reduced as the percentage of RCAs increased. It was observed that the compressive strength was increased with the addition of 1% steel fiber in the RAC. The flexural and impact performance of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (Specimens NC and RAC) was increased as the volume fractions of steel fiber increased. The hybrid fiber reinforced concretes showed the best results in their mechanical performance of all the concrete groups.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-En Fang ◽  
Hua-Shan Hong ◽  
Pei-Hui Zhang

In order to investigate the influence of basalt fibers (BFs) on the mechanical performance of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), some groups of RAC specimens were first tested involving different types of fibers such as carbon fibers, steel fibers, polypropylene fibers and hybrid fibers. The main four indices for the investigation consisted of cube compressive strengths, axial compressive strengths, splitting tensile strengths and Young’s modulus. The effects of fiber volume fractions on the RAC slumps were also discussed. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties and failure modes of the BF-reinforced RAC were compared with those of other fiber-reinforced RAC and common concrete (CC). Subsequently the optimal volume fractions of BFs were explored for different mechanical properties within the volume fraction range of 0–0.2%. The back propagation neural networks were further applied to predict and validate the optimal BF fractions. Lastly, the general strength formulas, as well as the elastic modulus formula, for BF-reinforced RAC were deducted based on the specimen test results. It is found that the addition of fibers may improve the failure modes of RAC and different fibers present positive or negative effects on the mechanical properties. The optimal volume fractions of BF with respect to the four mechanical indices are 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.1% and 0.2% respectively. The proposed strength and elastic modulus formulas of BF-reinforced RAC provide satisfactory predictions with the test results and thus can be used as a reference in practice.


2014 ◽  
Vol 665 ◽  
pp. 221-224
Author(s):  
Ping Hua Zhu ◽  
Xin Xin Zhang

Experimental study was carried out on compressive cube strength, flexural strength and permeability coefficient of color permeable concrete using concrete waste as coarse recycled aggregate. The results show that watercement ratio has significant effect on compressive cube strength, flexural strength and permeability coefficient of color permeable recycled aggregate concrete (RAC).The flexural strength of RAC is improved by polypropylene fiber. The content of pigment from 5% to 10% has no impact on mechanical properties and permeability of RAC.


2014 ◽  
Vol 629-630 ◽  
pp. 321-329
Author(s):  
Gai Fei Peng ◽  
Shuo Wang ◽  
Ting Li

This paper presents an original research on the influence of defects in recycled aggregate (RA) on mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, fracture energy and elastic modulus. Six types of concretes, with the water to binder ratios (W/B) of 0.26 and 0.60, were prepared using nature aggregate (NA), RA and recycled aggregate treated by 3 mol/L (RA-H). Mechanical properties of RAC was inferior to that of NAC, and treated RA by sulfuric acid solution could improve the mechanical properties. Attached mortar in RA was the main factor resulting in the decrease of mechanical properties of RAC with 0.26 W/B, and for the RAC with 0.60 W/B, the effect of aggregate damage was more significant than that of attached mortar.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Yubing Du ◽  
Zhiqing Zhao ◽  
Qiang Xiao ◽  
Feiting Shi ◽  
Jianming Yang ◽  
...  

To explore the basic mechanical properties and size effects of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with different substitution ratios of coarse recycled concrete aggregates (CRCAs) to replace natural coarse aggregates (NCA), the failure modes and mechanical parameters of RAC under different loading conditions including compression, splitting tensile resistance and direct shear were compared and analyzed. The conclusions drawn are as follows: the failure mechanisms of concrete with different substitution ratios of CRCAs are similar; with the increase in substitution ratio, the peak compressive stress and peak tensile stress of RAC decrease gradually, the splitting limit displacement decreases, and the splitting tensile modulus slightly increases; with the increase in the concrete cube’s side length, the peak compressive stress of RAC declines gradually, but the integrity after compression is gradually improved; and the increase in the substitution ratio of the recycled aggregate reduces the impact of the size effect on the peak compressive stress of RAC. Furthermore, an influence equation of the coupling effect of the substitution ratio and size effect on the peak compressive stress of RAC was quantitatively established. The research results are of great significance for the engineering application of RAC and the strength selection of RAC structure design.


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