A study on the mix design and fundamental properties of pre-cast concrete artifacts prepared with coarse and fine recycled aggregates

Abstract

This paper analyzes the use of Construction and Demolition Waste as aggregate in precast concrete artifacts production incorporating coarse and fine fractions. The recycled aggregates used were sourced from a Spanish sorting facility and were mainly composed of concrete rubbles and ceramic materials. A complete study of the properties of the aggregates was carried out and laboratory trials were conducted to investigate the possibility of the use of 10%, 20%, 30% and 50% contents of coarse recycled aggregates replacing natural aggregates, and their influence on the physical and mechanical properties of concrete. The results showed that up to 30% substitution of coarse aggregate had minor effects on the compressive strength of the samples produced but this value would decrease at high levels of replacement. Based on this mixture of 30% coarse fraction replacement, two new mixture ratios incorporating 5% and 10% fine recycled aggregates were also investigated