Analysis of Uniaxial Compression Mechanical Properties of Rubber Powder Recycled Coarse Aggregate Concrete Based on Strain Energy Theory

Abstract

In order to develop and make full use of waste construction concrete and waste tyre rubber powder, the experiment entirely used recycled coarse aggregate to replace natural crushed stone aggregate and investigated the effect of different mesh sizes of rubber powder (20 mesh, 60 mesh, and 100 mesh) on the uniaxial compressive mechanical properties, strain energy density, and pore structure of recycled coarse aggregate concrete at three curing ages (14 d, 28 d, and 90 d). Based on the strain energy theory, fractal theory, and grey correlation theory, the effects of the fractal dimension of the pore size of the rubber powder recycled concrete on the correlation of the strain energy parameters were investigated at different curing ages. The research results show that as the age period increases, the ability of the rubber powder recycled coarse aggregate concrete to absorb strain energy increases. Before the peak stress, the rubber powder recycled coarse aggregate concrete mainly carries out the storage of elastic strain energy. The incorporation of rubber powder can refine the pore structure of the rubber powder recycled coarse aggregate concrete so that the large pore size pores evolve towards the medium (50–200 μm) or small pores (<50 μm). The fractal dimension analysis revealed that the incorporation of 20 mesh and 60 mesh rubber powder enhances the inhomogeneity of the small pore (<50 μm) and the medium pore (40 μm–140 μm) in the recycled concrete. The grey correlation analysis revealed that the pore size factor with the greatest influence on the elastic energy density was the large pore size (>200 μm).