A numerical method for estimating the elastic modulus of recycled concrete

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting a numerical method for estimating the elastic modulus of recycled concrete with crushed aggregates. In the method, polygonal aggregates following a given sieve curve are generated, and placed into a square simulation element with the aid of the periodic boundary condition and the overlap criterion of two polygonal aggregates. The mesostructure of recycled concrete is reconstructed by embedding an old interfacial transition zone (ITZ) layer inside each recycled aggregate and by coating all the aggregates with a new ITZ layer. The square simulation element is discretized into a regular grid and a representative point is selected from each sub-element. The iterative method is combined with the fast Fourier transform to evaluate the elastic modulus of recycled concrete. After the validity of the numerical method is verified with experimental results, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to evaluate the effects of key factors on the elastic modulus of recycled concrete. Numerical results show that the elastic modulus of recycled concrete increases with the increase of the total aggregate content and the elastic moduli of old and new ITZ but decreases with increasing the replacement ratio of recycled aggregate and the thicknesses of old and new ITZ. It is also shown that, for a replacement ratio of recycled aggregate smaller than 0.3, the elastic modulus of recycled concrete is reduced by no more than 10%.