Marmash, Basem Ezzat
(2011)
The properties of recycled precast concrete hollow core slabs for use as replacement aggregate in concrete.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
The dumping cost of wasted concrete including the rejected units in precast concrete plants is expected to keep rising as the production increases. The waste material from precast concrete hollow core floors (hcu) is high grade and uncontaminated material. This research work was carried out to investigate mainly the strength and other engineering properties of high strength concrete made with recycled concrete aggregate derived from rejected hcu. Three major categories (based on a questionnaire) were investigated: (i) Type of crushers and the crushing method, (ii) The properties of RCA output from these crushers, (iii) The performance of fresh and hardened concrete, including prestressed concrete, with these RCA.
The input material for the crushers was from the same origin of disposed hcu's. The waste concrete was crushed to -14 mm using three different types of crushers - the cone, impact and jaw crushers. The recycled material was separated into fractions of 14 mm, 10 mm and - 5 mm, and tested for physical and mechanical properties relevant to use in concrete. Concrete was then made using zero (control mix), 20% and 50% replacement of recycled coarse (RCCA), recycled fine (RCFA) and mixed (RCCA+RCFA) aggregates.
All three crushers produced acceptable shape and strength of RCCA. Some properties are competitive to that of natural limestone aggregate. RCFA was much coarser than river gravel and just complied with the British Standard coarse grading limits. The impact crusher performed best with regard to most aggregate properties, e. g. flakiness, strength and water absorption, but has a disadvantage in producing a large amount of fine-to-coarse RCA. Concerning shape and strength, RCA showed similar properties, and in some cases better, than the conventional limestone aggregate.
The water absorption for RCA is 3 to 4 times greater than the natural aggregates. For that reason an extra amount of water (called free water) will be added to the mix to compensate the water absorptions for aggregates. Some proportions of this extra added water may not be absorbed by the aggregates and will float to interrupt the design W/C ratio and caused it to increase.
The slump value of fresh concrete made with RCA varied widely depending on the percentage and type of replacement, and the type of crusher. The compaction factor of fresh concrete made with RCA was more consistent and logical.
Compressive strength of concrete made with RCA were generally within ±5 N/mm2 of the control. For tensile strength, RCA showed similar performance to that of natural limestone. The SS density of concrete with RCA is lower than that of the control concrete and is lower if the replacement percentages increase. Using RCFA causes higher bleeding rate and considerably reduces density and strength, and the severity increases as the replacements of RCFA increases. Using natural limestone aggregates with RCFA will minimize this poor behaviour and maintain the strength to certain extent. However joining RCCA with RCFA will not limit the poor behaviour and is not recommended.
For bonding reinforcing bars most methods indicated that high replacement (100%) of CA cause some reduction in bond strength. In pretensioning wires the RCA concrete had a better performance in bond but some reduction was still reported. Prestressed X-shape beams were used to assess the effects of using of RCA on the performance of hollow core slabs. For 20% RCCA replacements, the prestressing loss, deflection and X-beam flexure crack failure were similar to the standard X-beam, at least and within the design limit. However at higher replacements (50%) some deterioration starts to reveal and the effects are even greater when using a combination of RCCA and RCFA.
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