Mixture optimization of cement treated demolition waste with recycled masonry and concrete

Due to environmental reasons and the shortage of natural resources, it is greatly valuable to recycle construction and demolition waste (CDW) as much as possible. One of effective ways to reuse more CDW is to produce a cemented road base material. The recycled CDW however is a mix of recycled masonry and concrete with a wide variation in composition. This implies that the mechanical properties of cement treated demolition waste are not only determined by cement content and degree of compaction, but also by the ratio of crushed masonry content to crushed concrete content. In order to optimize its mixture proportioning, this paper explores the response surface and contour plot of the combined effect of mixture variables on the mechanical properties including the unconfined compressive strength (UCS), the elastic modulus (E) and their ratio. It has been recognized that optimizing the mixture proportioning of cement treated demolition waste should not only consider its material properties, but also needs to take into account its structural behavior as a pavement layer. Analytical results indicate that increasing the degree of compaction is an economic technique to obtain the required strength, but it is not an efficient method to enhance the admissible elastic strain (the ratio of UCS to E) and to improve the flexural rigidity of the road base layer. Obtaining a desired low flexural rigidity certainly needs adjusting of the masonry content and the cement content.