Structural concrete made with recycled aggregates for sustainable concrete design

Abstract

The sustainability concept, although intuitive, represents a complex set of criterion, involving conflicting environmental, social, and economical issues. For instance, a basic requirement determining the sustainability concerns structural safety, which must be guaranteed throughout its entire service life, by taking precautionary measures even against unpredictable actions. This issue, even if consistent with environmental sustainability, may prove conflicting with economical sustainability. Therefore, the sustainability evaluation of a structural design choice may represent an important support as a decision-making tool, suggesting the most sustainable and generally more innovative choice, since the intersection between the three sustainability issues marks the area for innovation. Within this framework, the use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition (C&D) waste is analyzed for the production of structural concrete, supported by state-of-the-current knowledge and relevant ongoing current research carried out in the concrete technology field in Italy and elsewhere.