Investigation on Mechanical and Durability Properties of Recycled Concrete

Brady, Milasari (2020) Investigation on Mechanical and Durability Properties of Recycled Concrete. [USQ Project]

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Abstract

Population growth and the increasing infrastructure and construction development has led to significant demand for natural aggregates resources. As the primary consumer of natural resources, construction industry has contributed to the deterioration of the environment, by depleting natural aggregates resources and generating a large amount of construction and demolition waste (C&D). These wastes are ineffectively disposed of in the landfills at significant cost and over the years, could lead to a depletion of landfill spaces (OZbakkaloglu et al. 2017). Thus, the broader use of recycled aggregate needs to be explored to promote more sustainable practice in the construction industry.

This research provides thorough theoretical investigation on the mechanical and durability properties of recycled concrete, which is based on the previous published experimental data reports. A total of 28 experimental data reports were collected and summarised into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. Data which were presented in figures or non-tabular form, were extracted by using an online application tool, i.e. WebPlotDigitizer. This software was found to be significantly faster, reducing time for data extraction process and provided better accuracy and higher reliability than manual estimation.

The strength characteristics of recycled concrete such as compressive strength, slump, tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and water absorption was analysed by incorporating two main parameters such as water/cement ratio and recycled aggregate percentage replacement. This analysis was performed by using Matlab and the results were presented in contour plots to show the relationship between the three variables. This method was shown to improve understanding on how much the strength characteristics of concrete decrease when these parameters’ proportions increase in a concrete structure.

Correlation between mechanical properties of recycled concrete were also evaluated and compared with the conventional concrete’s properties by using Microsoft Excel. The proposed relationship equation of the experimental data was developed by using statistical linear regression line method. Additionally, the 95% confidence and prediction interval were also calculated and plotted together for each linear regression lines. The result of this analysis was used to validate the relationship between the published experimental data reports with the majority of the conventional concrete design codes and standards. It is anticipated that this research will present a significant knowledge of recycled concrete’s properties and can be used as a fundamental resource in designing higher strength characteristics for recycled concrete.


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Item Type: USQ Project
Item Status: Live Archive
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Civil Engineering and Surveying (1 Jul 2013 - 31 Dec 2021)
Supervisors: Lokuge, Weena
Qualification: Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Civil)
Date Deposited: 11 Aug 2021 06:55
Last Modified: 26 Jun 2023 03:50
Uncontrolled Keywords: recycled concrete; durability
URI: https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/43032

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