Flexural behavior of reinforced concrete with recycled aggregate beams

Abstract

With the high demand of concrete, the most used material in the world, natural aggregate sources are getting depleted. Large amounts of construction demolition wastes (CDW), estimated to be over 26.8 billion tons annually, are getting disposed in landfills and other areas thus harming the environment. This research targets the use of recycled aggregates from CDW in concrete construction as a substitute to normal aggregates. Nevertheless, recycled aggregates (RA) cannot stand alone in a concrete mixture due to various reasons, thus they can only be replaced by certain levels with normal aggregates to get a sufficient concrete mixture serving its potential adequately. Several tests on beams, cylinders and prisms have been conducted with different RA shapes, sizes, and ratios (0- 100%) to investigate the mechanical properties of RAC and compare the results with the conventional NAC. Aside from inspecting the quality of the concrete mixture and the extent of its use in real life projects, this study observed the sustainable factors and investigated the cost efficiency benefits of recycled aggregate concrete.