Investigation of Concrete Properties

with the Use of Recycled Coarse Aggregate

Nikita Dmitriev , Oksana Larsen(&) , Vitaly Naruts ,

and Egor Vorobev

Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, Yaroslavskoe shosse, 26,

Moscow 129337, Russia
[email protected]

Abstract. This paper presents experimental results of two-stage mixing

approach on properties of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates.
Concretes with recycled concrete coarse aggregates have poorer workability and
lower mechanical strength than concretes with natural coarse aggregate. Con-
crete mixtures lose workability in early time due to their increased capillary
porosity and presence of interfacial transition zone (ITZ). It consists of ettringite
and calcium hydroxide. Due to the existence of two weaknesses in the ITZ, the
performance of recycled aggregate concrete is much lower than that of natural
aggregate concrete. When formation time of cement-based materials in concrete
with recycled concrete aggregate, new appear in addition to the old ones -
between recycled concrete aggregate and a new mortar part. Interfacial transition
zone is less durable than the interfacial transition zone in recycled concrete
aggregate itself. The article describes the method of using two-stage mixing
approach (TSMA) with research of the time of formation of concrete made with
recycled concrete aggregates. Concrete mixture prepared by two-stage mixing
approach showed difference in time formation in early stages, without a sharp
loss of workability in contrast to the concrete mixtures with normal mixing. The
samples made by TSMA has higher strength than the samples made by normal
mixing. The compressive strength in 3, 7, and 28 days increased by 16%, 8%,
and 16%, respectively, compared with the samples made by normal mixing. The
obtained data showed the positive influence of two-stage mixing on loss of
workability in early time and strength of the concrete.

Keywords: Crashed concrete aggregate
Two-stage mixing approach

Time of formation
Coarse aggregate
Fly ash

1 Introduction

Worldwide, the demolition of obsolete for various reasons buildings and houses,
resulting in a large amount of construction waste, is occurring everywhere. Its main
part is crashed concrete and reinforced concrete structures. In particular, a renovation
program has been launched in Moscow, involving the demolition of five-story houses
and construction of new houses in their place. These are huge volumes of crashed
concrete, which must be at least partially used in new construction. Recycled concrete
aggregate is produced from concrete waste by crushing in several stages. It differs in
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
V. Murgul and M. Pasetti (Eds.): EMMFT 2018, AISC 982, pp. 769–777, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19756-8_73
770 N. Dmitriev et al.

properties from aggregates from quarries in that its grains have adhered cement stone,
the amount of which in grains of aggregates depends on the technology for producing
recycled concrete aggregate at crushing stages.
The period of formation of cement-based materials (PFCM) is the time from the
beginning of mixing to the moment of a sharp increase in strength. The presence of
aggregates in the cement paste reduces the PFCM, because the aggregates divert some
of the mixing water and then the cement paste hardens with effective water-cement
ratio (W/Ceffective) (formula 1) - W/C, which would have cement paste if it would have
the same properties as the concrete mix (mobility, setting time). By determining the
PFCM of the cement paste for at least two W/C, you can determine the effective W/C
for concrete mixes. And the difference between these values is the amount of water
diverted by the aggregates.

W  ks
S  kCA
CA
W/Ceffective ¼ ð1Þ
C
where W/Ceffective – effective water-cement ratio; W, S, CA, C is the amount of water,
sand, crushed stone (coarse aggregate) and cement, respectively, per 1 m3 of concrete,
kg; ks, kCA – water demand of sand and coarse aggregate, respectively. Another
structural characteristic is the volume concentration (VC) of cement paste in the
concrete mix:
 
C 1
VC ¼ þ W=Ceffective ð2Þ
1000 qc

where VC - volume concentration of cement paste in the concrete mix; C - cement

consumption, kg; W/Ceffective is the effective water-cement ratio of the cement paste;
qc - cement density, t/m3.
Figure 1 shows that the aggregate reduces the period of formation of cement-based
materials compared to cement paste with the same W/C mixing.

Fig. 1. Influence of sand content on the period of formation of cement-based materials:

1 - cement-sand mortar with W/C = 0.3; 2 - cement-sand mortar with W/C = 0.4; 3 - cement
paste with W/C = 0.3; 4 - cement paste with W/C = 0.4.
 Investigation of Concrete Properties 771

It is possible to improve the characteristics of secondary crushed stone when crushing

according to the regimes in which the weakest link is destroyed - cement stone [1]. It
needs either special equipment (vibratory jaw crushers, cone inertial crushers), or
crushing at more than one stage in conventional jaw crushers, but in the “block” mode -
maximum filling of the working space of the device. In this “soft” mode, the concrete
waste is crushed by direct interaction with the material being crushed, and not by strikes
against the moving cheek.
Multistage crushing allows improving the properties for sand from concrete waste [2].
Concretes on recycled and concretes on natural aggregates have different adhesion
to reinforcement. Adhesion to reinforcement of concrete with recycled concrete
aggregate was 35% lower than that of concrete on natural aggregate [3].
There are other ways to improve the properties of recycled aggregate, for example,
treatment with polyvinyl alcohol. For this, the recycled aggregate is saturated with
polyvinyl alcohol in a desiccator under vacuum pressure. At the age of 90 days,
samples of concrete with recycled aggregate, saturated with 10% polyvinyl alcohol
solution and dried in air, showed strength similar to the strength of concrete samples on
a natural aggregate [4]. Replacing 50% of coarse and 20% of fine aggregate with
recycled one does not reduce the strength of self-compacting concrete [5].
Slump of concrete mixes with recycled sand and recycled coarse aggregate remained
almost constant, provided that the replacement of natural coarse aggregate with recycled
was no higher than 30%. When this value is exceeded, the slump significantly decreased
[6]. For concrete hardening in marine conditions, 20% replacement of natural coarse
aggregate with recycled is acceptable and will not cause significant changes in strength
and durability [7]. Not always, an increase in the number of crushing stages allows
improving the quality of recycled concrete aggregate. An increase in the number of
crushing stages leads to a decrease in the strength of concrete on a recycled coarse
aggregate. It is possible that crushing modes were used in which the destruction of the
aggregate grains, and not the separation of adhered cement slurry [8].
Processing recycled concrete aggregate carbon dioxide can significantly improve
the properties of concrete with this aggregate. The increase in compressive strength is
22.6% (from 38.6 to 47.3 MPa) compared with the untreated recycled aggregate [9].
Replacement of 25% of natural coarse aggregate with recycled concrete aggregate
does not significantly change the strength properties of concrete [10].
Due to the presence of cement mortar with a developed net of capillary pores on
such aggregate, it has an increased water absorption. In addition, for concrete mixes on
recycled aggregate, mobility is noticeably reduced in the first few minutes after their
manufacture. In the hardened concrete, there are two types of interfacial transition
zones (ITZ) between the coarse aggregate and the mortar part: the old, which are
already in the recycled concrete aggregate, and the new, formed during the formation of
cement-based materials of the concrete. Interfacial transition zones consist mainly of
fragile minerals - ettringite and calcium hydroxide. In concretes on recycled concrete
aggregates, such a zone can be located between the new mortar part and the old mortar
part (from concrete waste), which makes this place even more vulnerable from the
point of view of strength (Fig. 2).
772 N. Dmitriev et al.

Fig. 2. Recycled coarse aggregate: 1- cement mortar with capillary pores; 2 - grain of natural
coarse aggregate.

There are two methods of two-stage mixing [11], which should strengthen the old
ITZ and new ITZ due to clogging of capillary pores in the concrete waste and reduce
the water absorption of recycled concrete aggregate:
– two-stage mixing approach with addition of silica fume (TSMA(s)), which consists
in adding a few percent of silica fume in the first stage of mixing;
– two-stage mixing approach with addition of silica fume and cement (TSMA(sc)),
which consists in adding a few percent of silica fume and cement in the first stage of
mixing;
Two-stage mixing consists of several stages:
(1) Mixing the mixture of all aggregates and recycled concrete aggregates with silica
fume (and in the case of TSMA(sc) with a small part of cement) - 60 s;
(2) Adding half the mixing water and mixing - 60 s;
(3) Adding total cement and mixing - 30 s.
(4) Adding the second half of the water and mixing - 120 s.
The clogging of capillary pores is achieved by wrapping the recycled concrete
aggregate in the second stage with cement paste, and due to the presence of silica fume,
calcium hydroxide is bound, resulting in the formation of low-basic hydrocalcium
silicates, which even more clogs the pores.

2 Materials

The materials were used:

– ordinary Portland cement CEM I 42.5 R with standard consistency of 28.25% in
accordance with the Russian Standard;
– sand as fine aggregate with fineness modulus of 2.3 and true density of 2560 g/cm3;
– natural and recycled coarse aggregate. As natural coarse aggregate was used gravel
with bulk density and true density of 1400 kg/m3 and 2550 kg/m3 respectively.
Recycled coarse aggregate was obtained by crushing old concrete from demolishing
of reinforced concrete with bulk density and true density of 1300 kg/m3 and
2400 kg/m3 respectively.
 Investigation of Concrete Properties 773

– fly ash from “Cherepetskaya hydroelectric power plant” with specific surface area
more than 2500 cm2/g. Chemical composition of fly ash is given in Table 1.

Table 1. Chemical composition of fly ash.

Oxide, substance Content of mass fraction, %
Na2O 0.34
MgO 1.74
Al2O3 20.7
SiO2 59.2
K2O 2.46
CaO 3.73
TiO2 0.91
MnO <0.10
Fe2O3 5.64
CO2 <0.10
S <0.10
loi 5.26

3 Results and Discussion

To plot the period of formation of cement-based materials versus cement-cement ratio

(W) for three cement pastes (with the amount of water equal to 0.876, 1 and 1.65 of
standard consistency), PFCM were determined by ultrasound method (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Graph of the passage of ultrasound through the cement paste from the time of mixing:
1 - W/C = 0.247; 2 - W/C = 0.2825; 3 - W/C = 0.466.
774 N. Dmitriev et al.

The periods of formation of cement-based materials for each of the cement pastes
are: PFCM 1 = 187 min for W/C = 0.247, PFCM 2 = 210 min for W/C = 0.2825,
PFCM 3 = 320 min for W/C = 0.466. According to these data, a graph of the period of
formation of cement-based materials of cement paste from the water-cement ratio of the
cement paste was built (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. Relationship between structure formation period and W/C of the cement paste

Then, according to the method for determining the water demand of the aggregate
in the concrete mixture [12], the coefficient of water demand (kagg) for recycled con-
crete was determined, which was 7.5%. The formula for calculating the water
requirement of the aggregate:

Wmix  C
W=Ctrue
kagg ¼ ð3Þ
Pagg

Where, kagg – coefficient of water demand for investigated aggregate; Wmix – is the
amount of mixing water, l; C - cement consumption, kg; W/Ceffective – effective water-
cement ratio; Pagg – mass of the investigated aggregate, kg. Fly ash was used instead of
silica in an amount of 10% by weight of cement. Replacing gravel with recycled
concrete aggregate – 30%. Next was selected the composition of the concrete, which
was prepared by normal mixing and TSMA(sc) (Table 2).
 Investigation of Concrete Properties 775

Table 2. Composition of concrete

Component Consumption per Consumption per
1 m3, kg 4.5 dm3, kg
Cement 398 1.791
Sand 717 3.23
Gravel 752.5 3.39
Recycled concrete aggregate (30% 322.5 1.45
replacement)
Water 210 0.945
Fly ash 39.8 0.179

6 samples of 10  10  10 cm were molded, which were then sealed on a vibrating

table. For samples of types 1 and 2, the strength was fixed in time using an ultrasonic
device Pulsar-2.2. Figure 5 shows that the period of formation of cement-based mate-
rials was 160 min for NMA and TSMA(sc), which corresponds to w/ceffective = 0.2.

Fig. 5. Graph of the passage of ultrasound through concrete mixes on the time from the moment
of mixing: 1 - NMA concrete; 2 - TSMA(sc) concrete.

Figure 4 shows that in the first 100 min there is a difference in the formation of
cement-based materials of concrete. Concrete mixture of normal mixing forms cement-
based materials with a lower speed than the concrete mixture of two-stage mixing. This
is probably due to the fact that capillary pores of concrete waste are clogged in a two-
stage mixing concrete mixture, due to which water enters them in very small amounts
or does not flow at all, but instead immediately goes to the cement and the cement-
based materials is formed faster. In the concrete mix of normal mixing, these capillary
pores do not clog, therefore, processes similar to those of concrete mixes on a light-
weight aggregate take place, when the aggregate draws a significant amount of water to
itself and then gradually gives it away during the formation of cement-based materials.
776 N. Dmitriev et al.

Based on PFCM = 160 min, the cement accounts for 79.6 L of water, and the
aggregates – 130.4 L, from which the water requirement of the mixture of aggregates –
7.1%. All specimens were tested for compressive strength (Table 3).

Table 3. The test results on the strength of the samples.

3 day 7 day 28 day
Strength, MPa
Normal mixing 28.1 33.7 46.7
TSMA(sc) 32.6 36.4 54.1
Density, kg/m3
Normal mixing 2325 2320 2320
TSMA(sc) 2340 2320 2323

The 3, 7 and 28 days compressive strengths increased by 16%, 8% and 16%

respectively, compared to the NMA.

4 Conclusion

The main objective of this study is to prove the positive effect of TSMA(sc) on concrete
mixture properties. The use of two-stage mixing with addition of mineral additive and
a portion of cement at the preliminary mixing stage gives the increasing of strength up
to 15%.
In the early stages of TSMA(sc) concrete mixtures the workability is maintained
longer than workability of NMA concrete mixtures.
In the case of use of recycled aggregate in concrete, it is important to minimize
water absorption with the adhered mortar of the aggregate and with old ITZ. TSMA(sc)
allows blocking the access of water to the capillary pores of the adhered mortar and the
pores of old ITZ. Due to this method, concrete mixtures retain their workability longer
and their strength is higher.

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