Use parent concrete strength and equivalent water absorption of recycled concrete aggregates to identify concrete properties

This article focuses to study some properties of recycled aggregate concretes (RAC) according to the equivalent water absorption of aggregates and the parent concrete strength of RCA and thus new relationships were deduced. The results indicated that 1% increase of the equivalent water absorption induced 0.12% increase in superplasticiser dosages. The hyperbolic model seems to be more adequate to estimate compressive strength and shrinkage of RAC when the parent concrete strength and the equivalent water absorption were introduced. According to the obtained results, the parent concrete strength of RCA must not be less than 10 MPa than that of the reference concrete to avoid the drop in compressive strength. For high equivalent water absorption, the ultimate shrinkage became higher and slower.

Automated summary

This article focuses on studying the properties of recycled aggregate concretes (RAC) based on the equivalent water absorption of aggregates and the parent concrete strength of reclaimed concrete aggregates (RCA). New relationships were deduced from the results, showing that a 1% increase in equivalent water absorption led to a 0.12% increase in superplasticizer dosages. It was found that the hyperbolic model is more suitable for estimating the compressive strength and shrinkage of RAC when considering the parent concrete strength and equivalent water absorption. The study also highlights the importance of having a parent concrete strength for RCA that is at least 10 MPa higher than the reference concrete to prevent a drop in compressive strength. For higher equivalent water absorption, the ultimate shrinkage increased and slowed down.