Durability of recycled concrete

Abstract

Extensive efforts have been devoted over the past 2decades to study the behavior of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). However, the structure of RAC is more complex than the conventional concrete due to the presence of the adhered cement mortar on the recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) leading to the formation of multiple interfacial transition zones (ITZ), the old zone is between the adhered paste and the virgin aggregates, and the newly formed ITZ are between the old and the new cement matrices. As a result, RAC has different properties and exhibits long-term durability problems. This chapter discusses the RAC durability properties and its behavior under various environmental conditions.