Analysis on the mechanical properties of recycled concrete

Abstract

Recycled concrete consists of cement, water and aggregates as conventional concrete; however, the difference is that the former includes a certain percentage of recycled aggregates to achieve environmental friendliness and economic efficiency. This article would focus on the existed application of recycled coarse (RCA) and fine (RFA) aggregate in concrete manufacturing and observe the material properties, such as compressive strength, shear strength, and slump value with different proportion of recycled aggregate mixed during fabrication. Based on sample results from existed experiments, for different amount of recycled coarse aggregate applied for concrete making, the material property would be varied and the appropriate amount of recycled coarse aggregate applied is around 50% for aggregate proportion (could be different for different type of RCA applied). In RFA section, two main resources of RFA are introduced, which are the wasted bricks and concrete. By investigating related research articles, the conclusion of wasted concrete is better than wasted bricks in making RFA is obtained. Several researches are included in RFA replacement experiments, and the conclusion of RFA replacement is that the proportion should be less than 20% in fine aggregate part. Also, intermediate materials such as fly ash, slag powder and silica fume should be applied to guarantee the cohesive property of concrete product. This article illustrates the hurdles and benefits of recycled aggregate application in current stage, and the prospects of recycled aggregates application in concrete products can be more predictable by analyzing the available experiments