Durability and Shrinkage Characteristics of Self-Compacting Concretes Containing Recycled Coarse and/or Fine Aggregates

Abstract

This paper addresses durability and shrinkage performance of the self-compacting concretes (SCCs) in which natural coarse aggregate (NCA) and/or natural fine aggregate (NFA) were replaced by recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) and/or recycled fine aggregate (RFA), respectively. A total of 16 SCCs were produced and classified into four series, each of which included four mixes designed with two water to binder (w/b) ratios of 0.3 and 0.43 and two silica fume replacement levels of 0 and 10%. Durability properties of SCCs were tested for rapid chloride penetration, water sorptivity, gas permeability, and water permeability at 56 days. Also, drying shrinkage accompanied by the water loss and restrained shrinkage of SCCs were monitored over 56 days of drying period. Test results revealed that incorporating recycled coarse and/or fine aggregates aggravated the durability properties of SCCs tested in this study. The drying shrinkage and restrained shrinkage cracking of recycled aggregate (RA) concretes had significantly poorer performance than natural aggregate (NA) concretes. The time of cracking greatly prolonged as the RAs were used along with the increase in water/binder ratio.