Quality Evaluation System for Description of Recycled Concrete Aggregates and Verification of its Functionality

Abstract

Article presents quality evaluation system for description of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA), verification of RCA properties and subsequent application in to concrete mixtures as a partial or total replacement of natural aggregates (NA). Modernization and rehabilitation of constructions is accompanied by creation of demolition waste from old buildings and structures. The necessity of recycling is unavoidable, because volume of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is increasing and the landfills are reaching their maximum capacity. Nowadays, there are numerous research teams focused on analysis of characteristics and application of RCA into new concrete as a replacement of NA. Test samples of RCA have always different source, grain composition and other physical and mechanical properties, which are variously described in each different paper. Up to now, there is no any uniform quality evaluation system for description of recycled concrete aggregates, which can easily describe their source and assumed properties. Our aim is to set up rules for description of RCA and simplify the evaluation of properties of various RCA. Qualification system will be applied on three different samples of RCA and verified by the selected properties tests. Tested samples of RCA will be than used as a replacement of natural aggregates in concrete mixtures. The replacement amount was set up on 20%, 40% and 100% according to the reviewed literature, to have a comparable replacement amount and valuable results for discussion. The results of RCA testing and testing of concrete with partial and total replacement of NA showed that the evaluation system is working properly. It can be concluded, that accuracy of the quality evaluation system for description of recycled concrete aggregates is sufficient, but more tests on RCA should be done to prove all connections in between description of RCA and their properties.