Use of recycled concrete aggregates in structural concrete

Abstract

The investigation herein focuses on studying the possibility of using recycled concrete aggregates in structural concrete. The study aims in investigating the uniaxial compressive, tensile and flexural strength of recycled aggregate concrete and behaviour of reinforced RAC beams by assessing several important aspects which may influence its behaviour. These aspects include the replacement percentage of recycled aggregates used in concrete and water to cement ratio. Concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates having replacement percentage of 0%, 30% 50%, 70% and 100% was used and were tested at 28 days curing. In general, it was found that increasing percentage of the recycled aggregates resulted in decrease in the concrete compressive, tensile and flexural strengths. However, the use of RAC as structural concrete can be justified by optimizing the replacement percentage of recycled concrete aggregates and water to cement ratio to get the desirable behaviour of reinforced concrete structures.