Experimental Investigation on Recycled Aggregate as Partial Replacement on Natural Aggregate

Abstract

In construction industry and in urban areas, many concrete structures like buildings, bridges and roads are razed after a period of time into their service life for purpose of replacement and also due to natural disasters like earthquakes, cyclones and man made disasters like war and bombing. Due to increasing construction activities and infrastructure development works the sources of basic construction materials are depleting. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain good quality aggregate at reasonable prize. The increase in cost is mainly due to the cost of transportation and availability of only few quarries. Considering the present situation one of the alternate solutions would be to reuse the demolished concrete. This work deals with an experimental investigation on the effectiveness of replacement of natural aggregates by recycled aggregates in different percentages like 0%, 5%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, 55%, 65%, 75%, 85% and 95% on the strength characteristics of concrete. Experiments were carried out to determine compressive uplifting tensile and flexural strength of concrete with different percentage of recycled concrete aggregate and to compare them with those of concrete made with conventional course aggregate.