Effect of fibres on the strength and toughness characteristics of recycled aggregate concrete

Abstract

With the substantial increase in population and rapid urbanization, there is an ever-increasing demand for concrete to meet the requirements of the growing community. Raw material reserves are being depleted to meet the concrete demand. In the current study, the use of recycled aggregate (RA) from construction and demolition waste as coarse aggregate in concrete is being evaluated. Variables of the study are RA content (0% to 100%) and steel fibre (SF) content (0 and 1%). The hardened properties of the recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) were lower compared to conventional concrete, this may attributed to the presence of old mortar on RA. Even though the compressive strength of RAC improved only marginally with addition of SF, the flexural strength and split tensile strength increased by 35–44% & 43–52%, respectively. These results indicate that if properly designed, RA can be used as a partial/total replacement to NA.