SUSTAINABLE

CONCRETE USING
RECYCLED AGGREGATES

JINSON M EMMANUEL
11ST08F
GUIDED BY:
Dr. M C NARASIMHAN

INTRODUCTION
According to UNO sustainability is to meet present
needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs
Sustainability in construction is all about following
suitable practices in terms of choice of materials, their
sources, construction methodologies as well as design
philosophy so as to be able to improve performance,
decrease the environmental burden of the project,
minimize waste and to be ecologically friendlier.

IS PRODUCTION OF
PORTLAND CEMENT
ECOFRIENDLY??

 It consumes enormous quantities of natural resources;

Releases a significant amount of greenhouse gases
resulting in adverse environmental impact;
Responsible for about 7% of total anthropogenic CO2
emissions; and,
Each construction activity involving cement requires new
cement as it does not have significant potential for
recycling.

THEN HOW TO MAKE

CONCRETE
CONSTRUCTIONS
SUSTAINABLE??

 Use of Blended Cement.

Self Consolidating Concrete (SCC)
Geopolymer Concretes (GPC)
Used Foundry Sand
Pulp and Paper Mill Residuals
Use of Waste Washed-water
Use of Recycled Construction & Demolition Debris in Concrete

USE OF RECYCLED
AGGREGATES IN
SUSTAINABLE CONCRETE

GENERAL
The use of waste materials for new products is a global trend undergoing
rapid development.
The recycling of materials allows a higher efficiency of their life cycle,
and contributes to environmental protection
In construction field, this tendency has gained importance from life cycle
assessment perspective of construction waste
Aggregates for use in concrete applications typically accounts for
approximately 40% of all product demand
The global market for construction aggregates is expected to increase 5.2
percent per year through 2015 to 48.3 billion metric tons.
It has also been recognised that there is a limit in the availability of
natural aggregates and minerals used for making cement
The largest single source of construction Aggregates that could be used
in construction is that arising from construction, demolition and
excavation waste (CDEW)
Massive volumes of construction waste are generated by the demolition
of older structures

THE METHODS TO IMPROVE THE

QUALITY OF RECYCLED AGGREGATE
Heating and rubbing: whereby the recycled aggregates
are heated to 300C to remove weaker mortar and
cement particles from the aggregate.
Eccentric shaft rotor method: in which the recycled
aggregates are passed between two cylinders
eccentrically rotating at high speed which separates
coarse aggregates from mortar via a grinding effect, and
Straightforward mechanical grinding: In which
aggregates are placed in a rotating drum containing iron
balls.

COMPARISON OF
NORMAL AGGREGATE
CONCRETE AND RA
AND RCA CONCRETE

MIX PROPORTIONS
When the percentage of replacement with recycled
aggregate was increased, due to its higher water
absorption ability, the total water demand was also
found to increase
This renders the control of the free water-to-cement ratio
(w/c) and affect the workability of fresh concrete
results in a higher shrinkage and creep of the hardened
concrete
The extent to which the properties of concrete are
affected by the use of recycled aggregate depends on
the water absorption, crushing value and soundness of
the recycled aggregate

STRENGTH AND DEFORMATION

CHARACTERISTICS
concrete strength decreases when recycled concrete was used
and the strength reduction could be as low as 40%.
no decrease in strength was reported for concrete containing up
20% fine or 30% coarse recycled concrete aggregates
beyond these levels, there was a systematic decrease in strength
as the content of recycled aggregates increased
The reason for the loss in strength is usually associated with the
weaker interfacial transition zone between aggregate and mortar,
due to the aggregate having a coat of weak mortar already
attached and this attached mortar raising the porosity of the
concrete.

DURABILITY
Carbonation depth after a given length of exposure
decreases as the recycled aggregate content of concrete
increases, i.e. Recycled aggregate concrete has better
resistance to carbonation than natural aggregate concrete
Air entrained recycled aggregate concrete gave good
freeze thaw scaling resistance similar to air entrained
natural aggregate concretes.
There is a tendency for abrasion resistance to reduce as
recycled aggregate content increases. However, up to 30%
by mass of recycled aggregate as coarse aggregate there is
only a small difference in abrasion resistance

PERFORMANCE OF
STRUCTURAL
CONCRETE MADE WITH
RECYCLED AGGREGATES

FLEXURAL PROPERTIES OF RAC

BEAMS
The bearing capacity of RAC beams is less than that of NAC
when 100% RCA is used.
Deflection of beams tends to increase as the RCA increases
RAC beams (irrespective of RCA content) showed a very
similar pattern of cracks and shape of failure to NAC.
However when a higher amount of RCA is used wider cracks
and smaller space between them are- produced. The first
crack of RAC were observed at lower load than those of the
NAC beams.
In general, the general flexural theory and current code
provisions for flexural design of conventional reinforced
concrete beams are applicable to reinforced RCA concrete
beams. However, the use of RAC in beams should be more
careful when limitation of deflection is important or long- term
load would be supported.

SHEAR BEHAVIOR OF RAC

BEAMS
Aggregates have a strong influence on the shear behavior
of reinforced concrete beams.
Concrete beams with or without transverse reinforcement
and made with a RCA less than 25% by mass obtained
similar shear strength to Chose of NAC beams.
in beams without stirrups a decrease in the shear
strength happens when a high amount of RCA is used. The
use of 50% of RCA can produce a reduction of 10-15% and
beams with 100% RCA can reach a loss of 30% with
respect to NAC. Also the cracking load is reduced
In beams with transversal reinforcement, the influence of
RCA content on the ultimate shear is very small when
those concretes are produced with the same compressive
strength as NAC.

SEISMIC BEHAVIOR OF RAC

the seismic behavior of column-beam joints made with 50% or
100% of RAC is slightly lower than the joints of NAC.
the ductility of RAC joints can meet the corresponding
requirement for earthquake-resistance design, regardless of
the RCA content
frames behave similarly in the aspects of die failure pattern,
regardless of the RCA content.
The general seismic behavior of a frame specimen decreases
with an increase of the RCA, but the frame with a high content
RCA still behaves well enough to resist an earthquake.

CURRENT STANDARDS FOR

RECYCLED AGGREGATES
EUROPEAN (CEN) PRACTICE
In 2002 the European standard for aggregate for the
concrete, BS EN 12620 was introduced, which defines
natural, manufactured and recycled aggregates. However BS
EN 12620 provides no guidance on how these different
aggregates may be used.
JAPANESE (JIS) PRACTICE
Japanese standards associations are introducing
specifications for three standards of recycled aggregate for
concrete. JIS A 5021, established in 2005, is the standard for
high quality recycled aggregate (H) for concrete. JIS A 5023
has also been introduced as a standard for recycled concrete
using low quality recycled aggregate (L). JIS A 5022 will
provide requirements for normal recycled aggregates.

A CASE STUDY
Angel antonio di maio and Claudio javier zega studied
the behaviour of recycled concrete made with waste
ready-mix concrete as coarse aggregate.
The objective of their work was to illustrate the main
characteristics of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA)
obtained by crushing waste ready-mix concrete, and to
analyse the physical, mechanical and durability
properties of structural concrete made with such
aggregates, but characterized by different replacement
percentages.
The properties of the recycled concretes, both in the
fresh and in the hardened state are reported,
Properties of RCA are then compared with those of
natural aggregates.

DESCRIPTION OF TEST
SPECIMENS
Six batches of concrete mixes characterized by two
strength levels (C17: f ck= 17 MPa; C30: fck = 30 MPa) and
three percentages of recycled coarse aggregate as
replacement (25, 50, and 75% by volume) were cast.
In the case of the low-grade concrete (C17) the objective
was to produce recycled concretes of characteristics
similar to those of the source concrete from which the
recycled aggregates were obtained;
In the case of concrete C30, the goal was to
manufacture recycled concrete with a satisfactory
strength level and acceptable durability properties.

Materials and Mixtures

RCA was obtained by crushing the concrete waste.
cylindrical specimens of 150 x 300 mm were casted, and then
subjected to standard curing (T= 232 C; RH= 95 %). The
tests were performed at the age of 28 days. The average
compressive strength was 20 MPa.
The remainder of concrete was deposited on the ground and
exposed to the existing natural weather conditions (T: 10 C;
RH: 75%) for approximately two months. It was then crushed in
a jaw crusher to obtain the RCA.
The other materials added were composite Portland cement
(ASTM Type I), two natural siliceous sands, and natural granitic
crushed sand; Granitic crushed stone (GCS) (6-20 mm).
A plasticizer was also used to have the same slump in all
concretes, especially in those containing recycled aggregates.

PROPERTIES OF NATURAL AND RECYCLED

AGGREGATES

Properties

Maximum size (mm)

Siliceous

Siliceous

Granitic

Granitic

Recycled

sand 1

sand 2

crushed

crushed

coarse

sand

stone

aggregate

19.0

19.0

Fineness modulus

1.55

2.49

3.00

6.28

6.49

Specific gravity

2.65

2.63

2.70

2.72

2.44

Water absorption (%)

0.2

0.8

0.9

0.2

5.8

Material finer than 75m

1.2

0.2

6.2

1.0

3.9

25.0

33.6

(%)
Los Angeles wear (%)

MIX DESIGN OF THE DIFFERENT

CONCRETE BATCHES.
Materials
(kg/m3)

C17
C17R0

C17R25

C30

C17R50

C17R75

C30R0

C30R25

C30R50

C30R75

Total water

175

200

210

220

165

165

165

165

Cement

270

270

270

270

370

370

370

370

Total w/c

0.65

0.74

0.78

0.82

0.45

0.45

0.45

0.45

Effective w/c

0.65

0.65

0.65

0.65

0.45

0.42

0.40

0.38

Siliceous sand 1

750

750

750

750

175

175

175

175

Siliceous sand 2

690

690

690

690

250

250

250

250

900

675

450

225

1010

760

505

250

200

400

600

230

455

680

0.81

1.08

1.36

1.62

1.48

1.85

2.59

Granitic crushed
sand
Granitic crushed
stone
RCA
Additive

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND

DISCUSSION
FRESH CONCRETE

C17

Properties

C30

C17R50

C17R75

C30R0

C30R25

C30R50

C30R75

C17R
25
Slump

80

110

170

70

50

30

25

(mm)
Unit

2297

2244

2186

2417

2385

2373

2317

4.0

4.6

1.9

2.3

2.5

3.0

weight

(kg/m3)
Air

3.5

Content
(%)

HARDENED CONCRETE

COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

SPLITTING TENSILE STRENGTH

STATIC MODULUS OF ELASTICITY

WATER PENETRATION UNDER

PRESSURE
It can be observed that the average values of water penetration of
recycled concretes are similar to that of conventional concrete, while the
maximum values of water penetration are lower for recycled concretes
This test is a necessary requirement for durable concretes, the results of
this test must comply with two requirements: an average penetration value
lower than 30 mm, and a maximum penetration value lower than 50 mm.
To assess the durability of recycled concretes C30, the water penetration
under pressure was measured on cubic specimens (200 mm in side).
The test consists in placing the concrete specimen under a variable water
pressure for a period of 96 h (48 h at 0.1 MPa, 24 h at 0.3 MPa, and 24 h at
0.7 MPa). After this time, the cube is split with the purpose of measuring
the water penetration depths in both halves. The value of water
penetration is an average of three tests.

EQUIPMENT FOR THE WATER

PENETRATION TEST

DEPTHS OF WATER PENETRATION

CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM THE

EXPERIMENT
Based on the results from experimental study conducted by
Angel Antonio Di Maio And Claudio Javier Zega, the recycled
aggregate performed well when it was used to manufacture
structural concrete by replacing 25%, 50% and 75% of the
natural aggregate.
For the lower strength level (17 MPa) the compressive
strength of recycled concretes was similar to that of the
source concrete up to 50% replacement.
For the higher strength level (30 MPa), however, the
compressive strength of recycled concretes was 16% lower
than that of the reference concrete, for all the replacement
percentages studied.
In spite of this slight reduction, the durability properties of
these concretes determined by the penetration of water
under pressure was similar to, and in some cases better
than, that of the reference concrete.

REFERENCES
Angel Antonio Di Maio And Claudio Javier Zega,
Recycled Concrete Made With Waste Ready-Mix
Concrete As Course Aggregate , Journal Of Material In
Civil Engineering, August 31, 2010.
Kevin.A.Paine And Ravindra K.Dhir, Value Added
Sustainable Use Of Recycled Aggregates In Concrete,
The Indian Concrete Journal, March 2010, pp 7 -19.
Dosho Y.,Sustainable Concrete Waste Recycling,
Construction Materials 161, May 2008, Issue CM2, pp 47
62.
Satish Desai, Use of Recycled By-Products and Recycled
Materials in Concrete Structures An Engineerings
Perspective, The Indian Concrete Journal, March 2010,
pp 41 -48

THANK YOU