Mechanical properties and uniaxial compression stress—strain relation of recycled coarse aggregate concrete after carbonation

Abstract

The application of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) made from waste concrete to replace natural coarse aggregate (NCA) in concrete structures can essentially reduce the excessive con-sumption of natural resources and environmental pollution. Similar to normal concrete structures, recycled concrete structures would also suffer from the damage of carbonation, which leads to the deterioration of durability and the reduction of service life. This paper presents the experimental results of the cubic compressive strength, the static elastic modulus and the stress–strain relation of recycled coarse aggregate concrete (RAC) after carbonation. The results show that the cubic compressive strength and the static elastic modulus of carbonated RAC gradually increased with the carbonation depth. The uncarbonated and fully carbonated RAC show smaller static elastic modulus than natural aggregate concrete (NAC). As the carbonation depth increased, the peak stress increased, while the peak strain decreased and the descending part of the curves gradually became steeper. As the content of RCA became larger, the peak stress decreased, while the peak strain increased and the descending part of the curves gradually became steeper. An equation for stress–strain curves of RAC after carbonation was proposed, and it was in good agreement with the test results.