Recycled Aggregate Concrete Research Articles

Mechanical Properties and Microscopic Study of Recycled Fibre Concrete Based on Wind Turbine Blades.

In recent years, wind energy has begun to receive a significant amount of attention as clean energy is utilised and demanded in large quantities, resulting in a sharp increase in the use of wind turbines. The demand for wind turbines has gradually risen due to the clean and recyclable nature of wind energy. The current blade life of wind turbines in China is about 20 years, which means that the disposal of obsolete used blades can become a difficult problem in the future. Therefore, this study is of great significance to explore the regeneration performance of the blades after recycling and disposal. In this paper, wind turbine blades were mechanically recycled into recycled macrofibres, which were added to concrete as a reinforcing material to make wind impeller fibre concrete (WIC), and the three proportion ratios of 1%, 1.5%, and 2% were explored to compare the performance. The performance of WIC was also evaluated and its performance was compared to that of glass fibre concrete (GC). In addition, the material physical properties of second-generation recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) based on WIC were explored. The strength and peak strain variations and their causal mechanisms were analysed both macroscopically and microscopically by means of the classical mechanical tests (compression and bending tests), SEM, and XRD. The results show that the compressive strength of WIC was negatively correlated with the fibre content and increased by 6.04-18.12% compared to that of ordinary concrete (OG), with a maximum of 19.25 MPa; the flexural strength was positively correlated with the fibre content, with an increase of 5.37-18.5%. The microstructural analysis confirmed the macroscopic results and the intrinsic model better validated the experimental results.

Enhancing Early-age Properties of Self-Curing Recycled Aggregate Concrete

Enhancing Early-age Properties of Self-Curing Recycled Aggregate Concrete

Optimal Replacement Ratio of Recycled Concrete Aggregate Balancing Mechanical Performance with Sustainability: A Review

Significant construction and demolition waste (CDW) is produced by many useless concrete buildings, bridges, airports, highways, railways, industrial mining, etc. The rising need for new construction has increased the use of natural materials, impacting the ecosystem and incurring high costs from mining natural aggregates (NA) and processing CDW. The concept and implementation of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) offer a sustainable solution for the concrete industry. Crushed concrete, made from recycled concrete, can be used instead of natural aggregates in structural concrete. This sustainable byproduct, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), has the potential to replace natural aggregate. This paper examines the benefits of RAC from economic, social, environmental, and technological perspectives and discusses the replacement ratio (RR)—the weight percentage of natural aggregate replaced by recycled aggregate—which is crucial to RAC performance. A collection of used data on mechanical properties and economic performance, national specifications, standards, and guidelines is reviewed to determine the optimal replacement ratio for RCA, which was found to be 20%. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future of using RAC in structural concrete.

Effect of Recycled Concrete Aggregate Utilization Ratio on Thermal Properties of Self-Cleaning Lightweight Concrete Facades

In today’s environment, where energy is desired to be used more efficiently, it has been understood that the interest in the use of lightweight concrete with superior performance in terms of thermal insulation properties has increased. On the other hand, it has been stated that construction waste increases rapidly, especially after severe earthquakes. In this context, encouraging the use of recycled concrete waste and efficient disposal of construction and demolition waste is of great importance for the European Green Deal. It is also known that pollutants such as COx and NOx stick to facades over time, causing environmental pollution and visual deterioration. It has been reported that materials with photocatalytic properties are used in lightweight concrete facade elements to prevent such problems. This study examines the effect of using recycled concrete aggregates on the thermal properties of self-cleaning lightweight concrete mixtures (SCLWC). For this purpose, an SCLWC containing 1% TiO2 and 100% pumice aggregate was prepared. By replacing pumice aggregate with recycled concrete aggregate at the rates of 15%, 25%, 35%, 45% and 50%, four different SCLWCs with self-cleaning properties were produced. High-temperature resistance, thermal conductivity performance, microstructure analysis and photocatalytic properties of the produced mixtures were examined. It has been understood that the unit volume weight loss of SCLWC mixtures exposed to high temperatures generally decreases due to the increase in the recycled concrete-aggregate substitution rate. However, it was determined that the loss of compressive strength increased with the increase in the amount of recycled concrete-aggregate replacement. Additionally, it was determined that the thermal-conductivity coefficient values of the mixtures decreased with the use of pumice. After SCLWC mixtures were exposed to 900 °C, small round-shaped crystals formed instead of C–S–H crystals.

Durability analysis of metakaolin recycled concrete under sulphate dry and wet cycle

This study aims to enhance the durability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of recycled fine aggregate concrete (RFAC) subjected to the combined effects of wet-dry cycles and sulfate erosion. Dry–wet cycle tests were conducted in RFAC with different admixtures of biotite metakaolin (MK) and 15% fly ash (FA) mix (M) under 5% sulfate erosion environment. The effect of 0%, 30%, 60% and 90% recycled fine aggregate (RFA) replacement of natural fine aggregate on mass loss, cubic compressive strength, relative dynamic modulus test of RFAC, damage modeling and prediction of damage life of concrete were investigated. The results showed that the concrete cubic compressive strength and relative dynamic modulus were optimal for recycled concrete at 15% MK biotite dosing and 60% RFA substitution, and its maximum service life was accurately predicted to be about 578 cycles under 5% sulfate dry–wet cycling using Weibull function model. This study is pioneering in addressing the durability of RFAC under sulfate attack combined with wet-dry cycling, employing a novel approach of incorporating MK and FA into RFAC. The findings highlight the practical application potential for using MK and FA in RFAC to produce durable and sustainable construction materials, particularly in sulfate-exposed environments. This research addresses a critical challenge in the construction industry, providing valuable insights for developing more durable and eco-friendly construction materials and contributing to long-term sustainability goals.

Evaluating external generalizability of machine learning models for recycled aggregate concrete property prediction

Machine learning (ML) models have gained importance in predicting recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) properties, offering supposed benefits over conventional empirical and statistical techniques. However, whether ML models are externally generalizable for predicting RAC properties remains unanswered. This study addresses this gap by developing a systematic experimental framework for evaluating the external generalizability of ML models for predicting the compressive strength of RAC. Using a literature review, the authors created a primary dataset of 414 data points and sourced a secondary dataset comprising 330 data points from a previous paper. In Phase 1, prominent ML models like Random Forest (RF) and Extreme Gradient Boost (XGB) were tested for high-accuracy prediction on both primary and secondary datasets. A coefficient of determination (R2) as high as 0.76 for the primary dataset and 0.82 for the secondary dataset for testing sets was obtained for XGB. However, when the best-performing models of phase 1 were trained and tested with data sourced from different datasets in varying combinations, the ML model's performance significantly deteriorated (R2 < 0.25), demonstrating that ML models are not externally generalizable. The study's results highlight the trade-off between the ML model's prediction accuracy within the given dataset and its external generalizability. The study reveals that complex ML models, like XGB, may over-fit specific data, reducing their generalizability. These findings call for the intelligent usage of ML tools to identify nuanced hypotheses and promote rigorous science rather than unilaterally working on the accuracy of ML models. The study emphasizes the consideration of ML models' generalizability in the future.

Modeling green recycled aggregate concrete using machine learning and variance-based sensitivity analysis

Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is commonly used to lessen the environmental effect of concrete building and demolition waste. The compressive strength of the RAC is one of the most critical factors influencing concrete quality. The compressive strength is assessed by a compression test, which takes a large number of materials and is expensive and time-consuming. With the development of novel concrete mixes and applications, academics are obliged to seek accurate models for forecasting mechanical strength. A significant source of difficulty in compressive strength modeling is that there are many mixture components and testing conditions whose variation significantly influences the predicted values. To this end, this study explores the mixture design of sustainable concrete in order to generate eco-friendly concrete mixes. Tests are conducted on 18 different mixtures comprising different proportions of waste tires, plastic, cement, and red brick to experiment with new green RAC mixtures. For the modeling part, the deep residual neural networks (DRNNs) method is first presented to the problem, aided by a database from the literature for a pretraining task. The proposed DRNNs structure uses shortcuts (i.e., residual connections) that bypass some layers in the deep network structure to alleviate the problem of training with high accuracy. The performance of the proposed DRNNs is evaluated using different goodness of fit measures and compared with well-known machine learning tools. The findings showed that the suggested model could provide credible predictions about the desired mechanical parameter, saving the required lab efforts by 40 %. Finally, a variance-based global sensitivity analysis is performed with the Latin hypercube simulation method to help rank/prioritize each mixture component's impact on determining the compressive strength in practice while mitigating the potential misrepresentation of results due to the correlations between the input parameters. The analysis showed that cement and waste contents are the most significant ones in their first and total order effects.

Concrete with Accelerated Naturally Carbonated Recycled Concrete Aggregates

Recycled concrete tends to be increasingly investigated with respect to the environmental needs, such as resource depletion, circularity and lack of landfill disposal spaces. A naturally accelerated carbonation procedure by using atmospheric CO2 concentration level and a cyclic wetting and drying of the recycled concrete aggregates was applied. A two stages carbonation process was applied. The recycled concretes exhibited similar mechanical properties of the reference concrete or even better durability as compared to the reference concrete prepared with natural rock aggregates. The carbonation of the outer layer of the recycled concrete aggregates was achieved with a simple method that can be widely applied and is sufficient to significantly increase the properties of the recycled concrete aggregates.

Comprehensive assessment of engineering and environmental attributes of geopolymer pervious concrete with natural and recycled aggregate

This study aims to conduct comprehensive assessment of engineering and environmental attributes of geopolymer pervious concrete with natural and recycled aggregate. Pervious concrete mixtures were fabricated with different paste and aggregate types for laboratory characterization at different scales. As compared to traditional cement pervious concrete, mechanical strengths of geopolymer pervious concrete increase significantly when either natural coarse aggregate (NCA) or recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) is used. The replacement of NCA with RCA reduces concrete strength but the advantage of geopolymer pervious concrete is maintained. Micro-scale observations indicate that geopolymer pastes have better bonding to RCA. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) results show that the lower global warming potential (GWP) and eutrophication potential (EP), but the greater energy consumption (EC) and acidification potential (AP) are achieved by geopolymer-based pervious concrete. Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) is found greater for fly ash-based but smaller for metakaolin-based geopolymer pervious concrete. The use of RCA brings environmental benefit at raw materials and transportation stages, in addition to avoiding landfilling and preserving natural aggregate. The pervious concrete with metakaolin-based geopolymer achieves the best overall performance considering multi-criteria of strength and environmental indicators regardless of aggregate type.

Study on mechanical properties and meso-damage mechanism of carbon-polyvinyl alcohol hybrid fiber reinforced recycled coarse aggregate concrete under the coupling action of sodium sulfate and dry-wet cycles

In order to investigate the influence of the coupling effect of sodium sulfate dry-wet (DW) cycles on the mechanical properties of carbon-polyvinyl alcohol hybrid fiber reinforced recycled coarse aggregate concrete (HFRAC), HFRAC specimens were subjected to uniaxial compression tests. The total volume fraction of fibers was kept constant at 0.4%, and various volume fractions of carbon fibers (CF) were added to the recycled coarse aggregate concrete (RAC), namely 0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, and 0.4%, with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers replacing a portion of CF in equivalent volume. Uniaxial compressive stress–strain curves were obtained for HFRAC specimens subjected to different numbers of DW cycles (0, 30, 60, and 120 cycles). Microscopic testing methods including acoustic emission (AE), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were employed to analyze the microstructure, erosion product composition, and pore structure changes of the specimens. The results revealed that, for RAC specimens, the peak stress (σp) and elastic modulus (E) initially increased and then decreased, whereas the peak strain (εp) initially decreased and then increased with an increase in the number of DW cycles. After adding hybrid fibers, the σp values of CF, Hybrid 3:1, Hybrid 1:1, Hybrid 1:3, and PVA specimens increased (or decreased) by 12.0%, 11.43%, 0.9%, −9.5%, and −8.5%, respectively, compared to RAC. The Hybrid 1:3 specimen exhibited a negative hybrid effect. With an increase in the erosion age, the Hybrid 3:1 specimen demonstrated enhanced resistance to sulfate attack and achieved the highest σp value after 120 cycles. The influence of sulfate DW cycles coupling on the microscopic damage mechanism of HFRAC was analyzed using a statistical damage constitutive model. The microscopic damage evolution process was characterized by five characteristic parameters: E0, εa, εh, εb, and H. The analysis results indicated a clear correlation between the variation of these characteristic parameters and the number of DW cycles. An effective connection was established between the microscopic damage mechanism and the macroscopic nonlinear constitutive behavior. The phenomenon of relative lagging of acoustic emission signals during the uniaxial compression process was explained from the perspective of effective stress. This study provides a theoretical basis for the promotion and application of RAC under sulfate DW cycle environments.

Compressive behavior of partially encased recycled aggregate concrete columns after exposure to elevated temperature

To explore the eccentric compressive behaviors of partially encased recycled aggregate concrete (PERAC) columns after exposure to high temperatures, 12 columns were tested in this paper, including 3 columns under axial load as controls. Factors considered in the experiment were replacement levels (r) of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA), temperature (T), and relative eccentricity (e/H). The test results show that the temperature rising of webs is effectively delayed by protection of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). And the post-heated PREAC column has higher ductility under eccentric load due to the better deformation capacity of RAC than that of natural aggregate concrete (NAC). Similar to the effect of T, when the e/H adds from 0 to 0.2, both ultimate axial strength and initial stiffness of columns decrease significantly. When e/H adds from 0.2 to 0.4, flanges away from the loading axis are gradually changed from compression to tension. All columns eventually fail due to local buckling of flanges near loading axis. Compared with partially encased concrete (PEC) columns, the r of 50% is beneficial for PERAC columns to get better ductility and maintain stiffness. In addition, the modified method based on the code T-CECS719–2020 can be used to predict the ultimate strength of PERAC columns after exposure to high temperatures.

Stress path-based compressive strength model of FRP-confined recycled aggregate concrete

The compressive strength model of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) confined recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is important in practical engineering designs. The existing research has showed that the compressive strength of FRP-confined RAC can be predicted by the models for FRP confined natural aggregate concrete (NAC). However the accuracy of existing compressive strength models for FRP-confined NAC vary greatly because of the unclear understanding of the confinement mechanisms. Previous research has shown that the axial stress of confined concrete tends to be path-dependent. In this study, a confining stress path-based compressive strength model of FRP-confined RAC is proposed based on theoretical analyses of the confining stress path of FRP-confined RAC. In the proposed model, an effect index is determined to express the influence of confining stress path on the compressive strength. The relationship between the effect index and confinement ratio and that between lateral stress dominant index and confinement ratio are obtained. The proposed model is verified by comparison with previous experimental test results and those predicted by existing representative models. It is found that the compressive strength of FRP-confined RAC is path-dependent for small confinement ratios (less than 0.43) and path-independent for large confinement ratios (larger than 0.43).

Stress–strain characteristics of fire‐exposed recycled coarse aggregate concrete

AbstractConcrete sustainability and performance under extreme conditions are of growing interest in construction engineering. This study delves into the influence of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) content and elevated temperatures on normal‐strength concrete containing RCA. Five different concrete compositions, featuring varying content of RCA (ranging from 0% to 100%), were examined. The heating and subsequent cooling followed the ISO‐834 temperature–time graph up to 800°C. The primary objective was to evaluate residual properties, including the stress–strain behavior, compressive and tensile strength, secant elastic modulus, peak strain, and bond strength of RCA concrete. The findings reveal a consistent decrease in both strength and stiffness parameters of RCA concrete with rising temperatures, while peak strain exhibits a rapid increase at elevated temperatures. Interestingly, RCA content had a negligible impact on the relative deterioration of high‐temperature exposed RCA concrete compared to that at ambient conditions. Moreover, the bond behavior closely resembled that of natural aggregate concrete when used in moderate proportions. Degradation models based on regression analysis of the data were used to quantify the bond strength reduction for RCA‐based concrete and the slip of rebar concerning various temperatures. Importantly, these models demonstrated consistency with those applicable to conventional concrete.

Evaluating Some Mechanical Characteristics of Asphalt Mixtures Containing Recycled Concrete Aggregate and Modified by Polyphosphoric Acid

Evaluating Some Mechanical Characteristics of Asphalt Mixtures Containing Recycled Concrete Aggregate and Modified by Polyphosphoric Acid

Mechanical properties and repairing mechanism of recycled cement stabilized macadam for road base based on microbial induced carbonate precipitation technology

The utilization of recycled coarse aggregate derived from construction and demolition waste (CDW) in the construction of road cement stabilized macadam base could effectively alleviate the shortage of natural sand and aggregate resources. To explore the repairing effect of microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) on recycled cement stabilized macadam (RCSM), the physical, mechanical, and microscopic properties of recycled concrete aggregate under different precipitation precursor concentrations were researched in this paper. The mechanical properties of RCSM with varying contents of recycled concrete aggregate were analyzed before and after repairing. Based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP) tests, the microstructure and pore structure parameters of recycled concrete aggregate were explored, and the repair mechanism of MICP on RCSM was revealed via the performance analysis of recycled concrete aggregate and RCSM. The results show that MICP could effectively reduce the water absorption of recycled concrete aggregates, while simultaneously enhancing its apparent density and crushing resistance. In a certain range, the higher the concentration of the precipitation precursor, the better the repairing effect on the performances of recycled concrete aggregates. However, while the concentration of urea or calcium source concentration exceeding 1.0 mol/L, the activity of urease would start to be inhibited. The unconfined compressive strength of RCSM after MICP repairing could be increased by 22.7 % with a maximum extent compared with that before repair, while the maximum increase of indirect tension strength and flexural tensile strength was 15 % and 8.2 %, respectively. The biological CaCO3 generated by MICP reaction could fill the micro-cracks and pores of the recycled concrete aggregate efficaciously. Besides, it could also optimize the pore parameters and pore size distribution parameters, and enhance the adhesive strength of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between cement and recycled concrete aggregates, which could improve the mechanical properties of RCSM.

Effect of Recycled Concrete Aggregates on the Concrete Breakout Resistance of Headed Bars Embedded in Slender Structural Elements

Recycled concrete aggregates are potentially interesting for the precast concrete industry as they provide a new use for high-quality waste from its products’ life cycle. In precast concrete structures, it is common to use headed bars in several connection types between structural members. This paper presents the results of experimental tests to investigate the impact of replacing coarse natural aggregates with coarse recycled concrete aggregates in the concrete breakout strength of cast-in headed bars embedded in slender structural elements. Results of 12 tests on 16 mm headed bars embedded in 500 × 200 × 900 mm concrete members with an effective embedment depth of 110 mm are presented. The percentage of replacement of natural aggregates by recycled concrete aggregates was 0%, 30%, and 100%, and the flexural reinforcement ratio of the structural elements varied from 0.5% to 3.5%. The behavior and strength of the tested specimens are discussed, and comparisons with theoretical strength estimates are presented. The results showed that the concrete breakout strength of the headed bars was not affected by the use of recycled concrete aggregates and that the flexural reinforcement ratio significantly impacts the load-carrying capacity of the headed bars as they control the crack widths before failure.

Effect of recycled concrete aggregates on the punching strength of slab-column connections without shear reinforcement

This paper presents the results of tests on six reinforced concrete slab-column connections. The slabs were octagonal, centrally supported on square columns, and concentrically loaded at their borders. The tests investigated the effects of replacing natural coarse aggregates with recycled concrete aggregates. The experimental results were also compared to resistance estimates from ACI 318 (2019) and Eurocode 2 (2004) and results from a database with tests on slabs without recycled concrete aggregates. The results show that using RCA reduces the concrete's modulus of elasticity and tensile strength but has little effect on its compressive strength. Furthermore, using RCA has little impact on the flexural response and punching resistance of the slabs. The findings suggest that RCA has potential for use in concrete applications, but further tests are required to draw definitive conclusions.

Electro-thermal actuation in recycled aggregate concrete with rapid self-reinforcement via smart cement-based composites

With the growing call for low-carbon and environmentally friendly materials, recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) holds great promise for sustainable development. Nevertheless, significant challenges exist with respect to the material’s poor flexural carrying capacity. Development of an effective method for improving the flexural carrying capacity of RAC under a specific deflection deformation is important for enhancing the range of its structural applications. In this study, an intelligent structural optimisation strategy for compounding RAC with carbon-fibre (CF) reinforced cement-based composites (CFRCs) to realize rapid self-reinforcement via electro-thermal actuation is proposed. As a smart component, CFRC was first researched to investigate its electrical, mechanical, and microscopic properties. The optimal properties were obtained in specimens incorporating 0.5 vol%, CFRC0.5. CFRC0.5 exhibits an electrical resistivity of approximately 0.39 Ω∙m, accompanied by 65.3 % and 33 % increases in flexural and compressive strengths, respectively, when compared to the control mixture without CF. Furthermore, CFRC0.5 can maintain outstanding stability after multiple electro-thermal cycles. Analysis via microscopic characterisation revealed that a satisfactory conductive network can be formed at 0.5 vol% CF. Furthermore, CFs with excellent dispersity are particularly advantageous in improving the mechanical biting force within the cement matrix and restraining the further formation and expansion of microcracks. Thus CFRC0.5 was designed and fabricated as a pre-stress controller to realise rapid structural self-reinforcement, resulting in a 38.6 % improvement in the flexural carrying capacity of the RAC under specific midspan deflection conditions. Additionally, a response behaviour model for midspan deflection with temperature differential was established, showing an excellent correlation between the experimental results and theoretical simulation. This findings from this study highlight the significance of leveraging intelligent techniques to realise rapid self-reinforcement capabilities in concrete structures, facilitating their potential application in smart and adaptive structures.

Elucidating the role of recycled concrete aggregate in ductile engineered geopolymer composites: Effects of recycled concrete aggregate content and size

Utilizing recycled fine aggregate (RFA) as silica sand replacement for ductile engineered geopolymer composites (EGC) provides a high value-added approach to recycling concrete waste and reduces the needs for high-cost silica sand. RFA contains abundant active alkaline substances which can promote the secondary geopolymerization of EGC. Substituting RFA for silica sand can improve EGC micro-characteristics, and the micro-structure of RFA-EGC is further refined with the decreased RFA size. The compressive/flexural strength of EGC is elevated as RFA is incorporated, and the decreased RFA size further enhances the compressive/flexural strength of RFA-EGC. Attributed to the micro-pores and micro-cracks in RFA, including RFA benefits the formation and development of crack, leading to an enhancement in the uniaxial tensile behavior of EGC. The tensile strength and tensile strain capacity of 100 % RFA blended EGC are 5.7 % and 8.6 % higher than those of 100 % silica sand blended EGC. The decreased RFA size can enhance the tensile strength, and an appropriate increase in RFA size improves the tensile strain capacity of RFA-EGC. When RFA size is 0.15–0.3 mm and 0.3–0.6 mm, the tensile strain capacity of 100 % RFA blended EGC is 8.6 % and 12.9 % larger than the reference EGC with 100 % silica sand (0.15–0.3 mm). A moderate increase in silicate modulus can further improve the tensile behavior, and the RFA-EGC with 1.5 M shows the best tensile behavior; besides, the longer fiber length results in the higher tensile strength of RFA-EGC. By optimizing the replacement rate and size of RFA, adjusting the silicate modulus and fiber characteristics, one can achieve a sustainable high-ductility RFA-EGC with exceptional mechanical behavior.

ANN‐based analysis of the effect of SCM on recycled aggregate concrete

AbstractRising environmental awareness has prompted in‐depth studies on how the concrete industry affects the environment. Using recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in concrete manufacturing provides advantages for sustainability. However, the broader chemical composition of SCMs and the inferior qualities of RCAs compared with natural aggregates (NAs) often lead to a decrease in concrete mechanical strength. The difficulty lies in foreseeing how the inclusion of SCMs and RCAs will affect the concrete compressive strength. The artificial neural network (ANN) approach presented herein can precisely forecast the recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) compressive strength, even when incorporates SCMs. The analysis employing the connection weight approach (CWA) determines how input variables influence compressive strength. Results indicate silica fume contributes most to compressive strength, followed by cement content, silica modulus, fine natural aggregate dosage, and coarse natural aggregate. Additionally, the amount of water utilized, the water/cement ratio, and the presence of RCA are all detrimental to compressive strength. The adverse effect of the cementitious materials' alumina modulus can be attributed to increased water demand during their reaction. Performance metrics of the final ANN model on the testing data subset include R2 = 0.94, and RMSE = 3.11, utilizing 834 data observations after outlier treatment for training and validation purposes. In summary, the ANN‐based approach demonstrates its efficacy in predicting concrete compressive strength when incorporating SCMs and RCAs, shedding light on the influential factors in concrete performance.