Enhancing mechanical properties of concrete prepared with coarse recycled aggregates

Abstract

The recycling of concrete is an important means to a sustainable material flow. The limited reuse of recycled aggregates is due to the lower quality of concrete production. Various methods have been attempted to minimise the negative effect. In this paper, the effect of adding fly ash as well as incorporating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres in a concrete mix to mitigate the lower quality of recycled aggregates in concrete is presented. The study consists of two stages: in stage 1 the effects on some of the fresh and hardened concrete properties were studied and the percentage replacement of the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) by the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) was established. From a chosen percentage of 10%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 100%, we found that the 20% replacement (RCA20) did not seem to jeopardise the compressive strength and water absorption of RCA concrete. Experimental studies were further carried out in stage 2 on the improvement on the mechanical properties of RCA20 concrete by incorporating 25% fly ash and 0.5% and 1.0% PET fibre. Beneficial effects of appropriated fly ash and PET fibre content applied on the RCA were obtained.

Keywords:

• concrete
• natural aggregate
• recycled aggregate
• fly ash
• PET fibres
• mechanical properties

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the staff of the Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department at the National Institute of Technology Meghalaya for their valuable assistance for slitting the fibres, casting and testing of all specimens.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.