Recycled Aggregate Concrete in Post Disaster Economic Construction

Abstract

This paper aims at finding economic methods to reconstruct the destroyed cities post disasters and reduce the cost of reconstruction material in Iraq. One of these methods is to use of recycled fine aggregate (RFA) or fine recycled aggregate (FRA) instead of natural fine aggregate (NFA). Recycled aggregate concrete is resulting from many of the buildings destroyed as a result of natural or man-made disasters. The method of this research includes two parts, the first part includes theoretical aspect where data on RFA was collected, especially on the physical and mechanical properties, also on the information about cost of building material in Iraq, and the information about types and cost of stone crusher. Selected the best concrete mix containing RFA, that its physical and mechanical properties are better or closer to normal mix properties. The second part of the research is to conduct the practical side using the building information modeling (BIM) technique. A small destroyed city was modeled and it included various models of buildings. The amount of concrete used in ceiling and beams construction was calculated, extracting the volume of fine aggregate and its cost in the case of normal construction, and calculation of cost in the case of the use RFA instead of NFA, which is processed at the work site by a stone crusher can reduce the cost of building materials. The conclusions from this study is the total cost required for the purchase of building materials that used for the construction of ceilings and beams can be reduced by 18.38%.