Laboratory investigation on cement-treated recycled concrete aggregate bases for flexible pavements

Abstract

India's economy is progressing fast, and many infrastructure development programs are going on. Especially the road network expansion is going on many folds. As a result, natural coarse aggregates are getting depleted, which has an impact on environmental sustainability. Utilizing the resources from the many aged and demolished structures will be cost-effective and solve the disposal problem of these wastes. India's government insists on using marginal material, demolished waste, or recycled aggregates as alternative materials for road construction. New codes developed by IRC and MoRTH recommend Cement Treated Bases (CTB) and Cement Treated Sub-Bases for pavement lower layers. In light of this, the present study attempts to utilize Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) obtained from construction and demolition (C&D) waste in the CTB. The efficiency of RCA was checked at various replacement levels ranging from 0% to 100% with cement stabilization of 3%, 5%, and 7%. The strength properties like Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS), Flexural Strength and durability were evaluated. The microstructural characteristics and elemental analysis of the cement treated recycled concrete aggregate mixtures were examined. The research yielded the highest potential RCA of up to 50% with a cement content of 5%, meeting the Indian Road Congress (IRC) criteria for CTB.