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Effect of recycled coarse aggregate on damage

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Effect of recycled coarse aggregate on
damage of recycled concrete

Belén González-Fonteboa, Fernando

Martínez-Abella, Javier Eiras-López &
Sindy Seara-Paz

Materials and Structures

ISSN 1359-5997
Volume 44
Number 10

Mater Struct (2011) 44:1759-1771

DOI 10.1617/s11527-011-9736-7

1 23
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 Author's personal copy
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771
DOI 10.1617/s11527-011-9736-7

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of recycled coarse aggregate on damage of recycled

concrete
Belén González-Fonteboa •
Fernando Martı́nez-Abella •

Javier Eiras-López •
Sindy Seara-Paz

Received: 23 November 2010 / Accepted: 24 March 2011 / Published online: 3 April 2011
 RILEM 2011

Abstract This study evaluates the possibility of
measuring the damage of the recycled concrete. In this
way, two conventional concretes with a w/c ratio of
0.55 and 0.65 were designed. Based on them, six
recycled concretes with different percentages of
replacement of natural coarse aggregates with recy-
cled coarse aggregate (20, 50 and 100%) were
obtained. To take into account the high absorption
capacity of the recycled aggregates, before using them
they were pre-wetted for 10 min. The results con-
cluded that scalar damage mechanics (based on the
variations of the elastic modulus) and volumetric
strains curves can be use to quantify the damage of the
recycled concrete. The results from both approaches
indicated that the damage to concrete depended on the
percentage of replacement, increasing with higher
replacement percentages. Additionally, values of the
B. González-Fonteboa (&)  F. Martı́nez-Abella 
J. Eiras-López  S. Seara-Paz
Department of Construction Engineering, School
of Civil Engineering, University of A Coruña, E.T.S.I.
Caminos, Canales, Puertos. Campus Elviña s/n,
La Coruna 15071, Spain
e-mail: bfonteboa@udc.es
F. Martı́nez-Abella
e-mail: fmartinez@udc.es
J. Eiras-López
e-mail: jeiras@udc.es
S. Seara-Paz
e-mail: sindyseara@hotmail.com
damage, that are quantified using the critical stress
and according to the scalar damage mechanics, are
given.
Keywords Recycled concrete  Recycled
aggregate  Damage  Scalar damage mechanics 
Volumetric strain
1 Introduction and objectives
One of the most influential zones in the behaviour of
structural concrete is the interface paste-aggregate.
From a purely mechanical standpoint, in this inter-
face, loads are transferred between systems of
different stiffness which may cause damage that, in
the end, affects the material in its entirety. In fact,
concrete is a three-phase composite material on a
microscopic scale, a mortar matrix, aggregate and the
interfacial transition zone between these two zones.
The type of aggregate has an important effect on the
properties of this zone. The weakness of this zone is
mainly due to the initial microcracks and to the high
stress concentrations around the transition zone
which are caused by the difference in the modulus
of elasticity and in the shrinkage of the aggregate and
the matrix materials.
The main difference between conventional concrete
and recycled concrete is the presence of adhered mortar
to the recycled aggregates. Thus, in the recycled
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1760
concrete, there are two interfaces, the interface
between adhered mortar and the original aggregate
and the new interfacial transition zone between the new
mortar and the recycled aggregate [1–4].
The aim of this paper is to investigate the damage
(D) inflicted on recycled concrete subjected to
compressive loads. The damage of concrete subjected
to any type of loading can be measured in several
ways. In this study, two different methods were used,
scalar damage mechanics and volumetric strain
measurements.
1.1 Scalar damage mechanics (SDM)
Briefly, the deformation of materials under loads
depends on many factors, such as atomic structure,
composition, rate of loading… However, if the stress–
strain curve is known, methods such as the variation of
the elastic modulus seem to be most practical. In
practice, the load-deformation relationship is obtained
considering variables such as stress, strain, and elastic
modulus (E). Under applied loads, the material struc-
ture begins to disintegrate, reducing its load capacity.
The state of disintegration can be characterized using a
dimensionless, scalar variable denoted as damage [5].
For any ductile material, the damage can be
determined using the variations (degradation) of E:
D ¼ 1  Eeff =E; where Eeff is the change of E
(undamaged) with respect to strain after the loading
goes beyond the linear stage and enters the plastic
region.
However, for brittle materials, such as plain
concrete, the response is different because after
reaching peak load, failure occurs abruptly. Therefore
it is necessary to change the undamaged E for the
initial E (Eini) and the damaged E (Eeff) for the secant
E (Esec). In this way, the equation of damage can be
written as: D ¼ 1  Esec =Eini
1.2 Volumetric strain measurement
Many research works [6–11] have investigated the
propagation of cracks in concrete under uniaxial
compression. The conclusions found that concrete
initially presents microcracks that remain stable up to
about 30% of compressive strength (fc), at which point
they start to grow and propagate within the interface
zone, corresponding their rapid propagation to
70–90% of compressive strength (fc). The formation
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771
of rapid and continuous crack patterns correlates with
the critical stress (rcr) (stress where the volume of the
concrete under increasing load begins to expand rather
than continuing to contract [9]). The volumetric strain,
defined as e = e1 ? 2 e2 (where e1 is the longitudinal
strain and e2 is the transverse strain [6, 9]), reflects the
damage of concrete by microcracks prior to failure. So,
identification of crack damage threshold is the point at
which the stiffness curve changes from positive to
negative, it is also defined as the reversal in the sign of
the volumetric strain increment [12].
In the biaxial test, concrete can exhibit a signif-
icant change in volume when subjected to severe
inelastic states. The stress–volumetric strain diagrams
indicate the limit of elasticity, the first point of
inflection in the curve, the point corresponding to the
onset of instability and the ultimate load. This curve
indicates the reserve of strength that concrete has
from the moment its elastic limit is reached until it
completely ruptures.
A study of the correlation between external
volume changes and internal microcrack propagation
showed that the load at which the stress–volumetric
strain curve deviates from linearity is related to a
significant increase in microcracking at the aggre-
gate–paste interface and that the stress at which
volume begins to increase is related to a noticeable
increase in microcracks through the matrix [9].
Macroscopically, critical stress appears to be related
to strengths of concrete under short-term repetitive
and long-time loading, and to fracture toughness,
while microscopically, critical stress seems to indi-
cate the beginning of significant slow crack growth.
2 Experimental program
In this work, it was decided to design two different
conventional concretes, one with a water to cement (w/
c) ratio of 0.65, and the other with a w/c ratio of 0.50.
After that, recycled concretes using 20, 50 and 100% of
recycled coarse aggregate were designed and eight
types of concretes were obtained, H-0.65-0, H-0.65-20,
H-0.65-50 H-0.65-100, H-0.50-0, H-0.50-20, H-0.50-
50 and H-0.50-100. After that, tests were carried out to
determine their basic properties: consistency, density,
compressive strength using cubic and cylindrical
specimens, tensile strength, longitudinal modulus of
elasticity and Poisson’s ratio.
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Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771 1761

8-20C 4-12C 0-4C 4-16R

Fig. 1 Aggregates used

Finally, tests were performed in compression to
evaluate the damage. These tests were done using the
two methods described above.
2.1 Materials
The following materials were used in this research:
Cement (C): Portland CEM I—42,5N/SR cement.
Water-reducing admixture: in order to obtain the
suitable workability a vinyl copolymer superplasti-
cizer (SIKAMENT 500 HE (S)) was used.
Recycled aggregates (Fig. 1 and Table 1): com-
mercial material obtained from real demolition
debris of structural concrete was used. It was
obtained with a mobile plant that crushed only
clean concrete using impact crushers (Fig. 2). It was
made up principally of concrete and stone (Fig. 3).

Table 1 Basic properties

0-4N 8-20N 4-12N 4-20R
of the aggregates used
Density (g/cm3) (UNE 83133:1990, UNE 83134:1990) 2.58 2.72 2.73 2.40
Water absorption (%) (UNE 83133:1990, UNE 83134:1990) 3.28 1.95 2.54 5.01
Moisture content H-0.50-100 and H-0.50-20 (%) 0.24 0.09 0.10 2.06
Moisture content other mixes (%) 0.09 0.09 0.09 3.47
Flakiness index (%) 7 14 7
‘‘Los Angeles’’ coefficient (%) 23 34

DEMOLITION 0-600mm
MATERIAL

DOSING EQUIPMENT

40 mm SCREEN 40-600mm PRIMARY CRUSHER

0-200 mm >40mm

EXTRACTING 40-200mm
FERROUS MATERIAL SECONDARY CRUSHER 40 mm SCREEN
0-40mm 40 mm SCREEN
0-40mm
0-40mm

PRODUCT 0-40 mm

SCREEN TO DIFFERENT SIZE

FRACTIONS

Fig. 2 Recycling plant

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Fig. 3 Composition of the Gypsum; 0,2

recycled aggregates Aggregates Aggregates
with mortar; 14,1 Asphalt; 5,0 with asphalt; 5,1

Aggregates; 25,5

Mortar; 47,3
Masonry; 2,7

100

90 0-4N
4-12N
80
8-20N
Cumulative passing (%)

70
4-16R
60 4-16N (natural mix)

50

40

30

20

10

0
0.125 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 8 16 32.5 63
Sieve size (mm)

Fig. 4 Grading of the aggregates

The size fraction used was 4–16 mm (4–16R) whose
fineness modulus was 6.65.
Natural aggregates (Fig. 1 and Table 1): two size
fractions of crushed limestone coarse aggregates (CA)
were used, one with nominal sizes of 4 and 12 mm
(4-12N) and a fineness modulus of 6.24 and the other
with nominal sizes of 8 and 20 mm (8-20N) and a
fineness modulus of 7.30 respectively. Finally a size
fraction of natural fine aggregate (FA), with nominal
sizes of 0 and 4 mm (0-4N) with a fineness modulus of
3.05 was used. In Fig. 4, the grading curves for each
aggregate are displayed, showing the similarities
between the curves for recycled and natural coarse
aggregate resulting from the mixture between fractions
4-12N and 8-20N (natural coarse aggregate mix).
The principal difference between conventional
aggregate and recycled aggregate is the adhered
mortar, and the quantity of this is related to the water
absorption capacity of the aggregates. So, many
authors consider that one of the most important
properties of the recycled aggregate is the water
absorption capacity, and they indicate that the high
water absorption capacity of the recycled aggregates
can mainly be attributed to the residue of mortar
adhering to the original aggregate [4, 13–15]. This
property, in recycled aggregates, ranges from 3 to
12% for the coarse and the fine fractions [16, 17]. So,
as it can be seen in Table 1 the recycled aggregates
used in this study presented a low water absorption
capacity (5%—Table 1) which means that they are
recycled aggregates of relatively good quality. Also
in Table 1 it can be seen a suitable Los Angeles
coefficient (Spanish standard recommends [18] val-
ues below 40%) and Fig. 3 shows the composition of
recycled aggregates where products from concrete
sum up 86.9% of the total.
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Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771 1763

2.2 Concrete mixtures pre-soaking them for 24 h [21–24], or pre-wetting

them for 10–15 min [25–28].
The Faury method [19] was used as the basis for the In this research, the chosen option was to pre-wet
design of the concrete mixes. The coarse aggregates aggregates for 10 min, considering that this would
were pre-wetted. The amount of water-reducing reduce the degree of bleeding. The 10 min period was
admixture was adjusted taking the consistency into fixed through preliminary testing (water absorption
account. The water incorporated by the additive was vs. time) to reach 70% saturation.
also taken into account. The dosages for 1 m3 of On the other hand, an effort was made to take into
concrete are listed in Table 2. account the water absorbed by the natural sand during
The high water absorption capacity of recycled the mixing process. In this way preliminary tests,
aggregates implies a water demand during the mixing consisting on mixing (during the time of a mixing
that notably influences fresh concrete consistency. To process) water and sand, were developed. Thorough
avoid it, the authors present three alternatives: to these tests it was detected that the water that the sand
work with dry aggregates while increasing the was able to absorb during this process depended on
amount of water incorporated in the mix [20], or its moisture content and it could be estimated that
during the mixing process sand would be able to
absorb 70% of the difference between its absorption
Table 2 Mix proportions 1 m3 capacity and moisture content.
The pre-wetted procedure of the aggregates was as
0% 20% 50% 100%
follows: immediately before mixing, the coarse aggre-
Concrete H-0.65 gates were immersed in water for 10 min and then
allowed to drain for another 10 min. Considering that
Cement (kg) 275.00 275.00 275.00 275.00 coarse aggregates were saturated up to 70% of their
Water (kg) 178.75 178.75 178.75 178.75 capacity and sand absorbed 70% of the difference
0-4N (kg) 918.49 938.05 962.73 1005.18 between its absorption capacity and moisture content,
8-20N (kg) 486.19 372.47 218.29 0.00 the amount of excess water incorporated into the
4-12N (kg) 457.65 350.60 205.48 0.00 mixture could be determined, thus obtaining a repre-
4-16R (kg) 0.00 180.77 423.77 756.46 sentative parameter denominated, within the frame of
w/c 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.65 the present research, estimated water-to-cement ratio.
Estimated w/c 0.65 0.66 0.68 0.68 Using these mixes, batches of 120 l were produced
Cement paste/aggregate 0.36 0.36 0.36 0.36 for each type of concrete. From these batches 18
CA/FA 1.03 0.96 0.88 0.75 cylindrical specimens of 15 9 30 cm, 2 of 10 9 20 cm
Water-reducing 0.70 0.70 0.70 0.70 and 3 cubic specimens of 10 9 10 9 10 cm were made
admixture (%) and used to study the basic properties and the damage
behaviour of each type of concrete.
Concrete H-0.50

Cement (kg) 380.00 380.00 380.00 380.00

2.3 Tests description
Water (kg) 190.00 190.00 190.00 190.00
For each type of concrete, in addition to the consistency
0-4N (kg) 781.43 794.31 811.37 838.29
(UNE-EN 12350-2:2009), the test programme to deter-
8-20N (kg) 665.44 512.76 303.34 0.00
mine the basic properties included the following tests
4-12N (kg) 307.93 237.28 140.37 0.00
carried out at 28 days: compressive strength (UNE-EN
4-16R (kg) 0.00 187.51 443.71 807.97
12390-3:2009), using cylindrical specimen, fc,cyl and
w/c 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50
using cubic specimen fc,cub, tensile splitting strength, fct
Estimated w/c 0.51 0.51 0.53 0.56
(UNE-EN 12390-6:2001), longitudinal and transverse
Cement paste/aggregate 0.45 0.45 0.45 0.45
modulus of elasticity (UNE 83316:1996), values of the
CA/FA 1.25 1.18 1.09 0.96
secant modulus of elasticity between stress 0 and 40% of
Water-reducing 0.70 0.70 0.70 0.70
the maximum stress, Ec, and density and water absorp-
admixture (%)
tion (UNE-EN 12390-7:2009).
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1764 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771

Tests were carried out using load control rate and The consistencies measured by slump values
strain control rate. Four strain gauges were fitted to remained within the range of fluid consistency
the specimens used in the longitudinal and transverse (10–15 cm of slump value) for H-0.65 concretes or
modulus of elasticity tests and in the compressive liquid consistency (over 15 cm of slump value) for
strength tests. Two were used to measure the axial H-0.50 concretes. Using prewetted coarse aggregates
strain and the other two were used to measure the and a constant additive rate, slump values remained
transverse strain. Two longitudinal displacement constant for the different types of concretes, regardless of
transducers were additionally used in the compressive the percentage of replacement with recycled aggregate.
strength tests developed under strain control rate. The adhered mortar to the recycled aggregates
Thus, throughout these tests, the loads and the strains causes a decrease in the density values of recycled
were measured, making it possible to define the concrete. Similarly, the use of recycled aggregates,
stress–longitudinal strain, the stress–transverse strain, which have a greater water absorption capacity than
the stress–volumetric strain curves and the secant E natural aggregates, owing to the adhered mortar,
in each load state. resulted in higher water absorption values with the
recycled concretes than with conventional ones;
moreover the greater the percentage of replacement,
3 Experimental results the higher the water absorption values [14, 26].
When presoaked or prewetted aggregates are used,
3.1 Basic properties some authors conclude that there is no significant
difference between the strength of conventional con-
The results on the basic properties of the concretes cretes and recycled concretes [15, 26, 29]. However,
are shown in Table 3 [28]. other authors conclude that in the case of using the
recycled aggregate in saturated state, the high water
content inside the aggregate particles may result in
Table 3 Basic properties of the concretes [28] ‘‘bleeding’’ during casting; consequently, the compres-
0% 20% 50% 100% sive strength of the concrete would be reduced [23].
In this research, by working with recycled aggre-
Concretes H-0.65
gates of relatively good quality and prewetting coarse
Slump values (cm) 12 11 11 11 aggregate, compressive strength (fcm), underwent
Estimated w/c ratio 0.65 0.66 0.68 0.68 only a slight decrease with the use of recycled
Density (t/m3) 2.34 2.32 2.30 2.27 aggregate. In particular, for H-0.65 concrete, replace-
Water absorption (%) 7.24 7.36 7.59 8.26 ment percentages of 20 and 50% hardly show any
fcm,cyl (MPa) 31.92 31.71 32.35 30.13 differences with control mixes. Only concrete with
fcm,cub (MPa) 41.49 37.04 37.60 37.08 100% replacement shows a reduction of 5.6%
fctm (MPa) 2.91 2.40 2.48 2.62 compressive strength. With concrete type H-0.50,
Ecm (MPa) 29569.27 28189.64 26351.82 24260.58 reductions of 2.4, 16.4 and 9.5% are respectively
Poisson ratio 0.23 0.22 0.22 0.19 shown for 20, 50 and 100% replacement.
Analyzing tensile splitting strength results (fctm), it
Concretes H-0.50 can be observed that the incorporation of recycled
aggregates has no significant influence on this prop-
Slump values (cm) 21 19 20 19
erty, so the splitting tensile-to-compressive strength
Estimated w/c ratio 0.51 0.51 0.53 0.56
ratio of recycled concretes are similar to results
Density (t/m3) 2.36 2.33 2.31 2.27
obtained for conventional concretes made with natural
Water absorption (%) 6.26 5.89 6.67 8.55
aggregates, which agrees with conclusions reported by
fcm,cyl (MPa) 44.81 43.74 37.45 40.54
other authors [26, 30–32].
fcm,cub (MPa) 58.52 50.81 43.35 46.57
However, the values of the longitudinal (Ecm) and
fctm (MPa) 2.83 3.07 2.90 2.93
transverse (Poisson ratio) modulus of elasticity were
Ecm (MPa) 33874.63 32594.23 28816.72 23993.54
affected by the use of recycled aggregate, since
Poisson ratio 0.25 0.25 0.23 0.21
considerable decreases with the percentage of
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Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771 1765

Fig. 5 Volumetric strain. 1,0

Load control rate.
H-0.65/H-0.50 0,9

0,8

0,7
ε2=Transverse strain εv=Volumetric strain
0,6
εv = ε1+2 x ε2

Stress/fc
0,5

0,4
ε1=Longitudinal strain
0,3

0,2
εv-100 εv-50 εv-20 εv-0
0,1 ε2-100 ε2-50 ε2-20 ε2-0
H-0,50 Load control rate ε1-100 ε1-50 ε1-20 ε1-0
0,0
-2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Strain (x10-6)

1,0

0,9

0,8

0,7
ε2=Transverse strain εv=Volumetric strain
0,6
εv = ε1+2 x ε2
Stress/fc

0,5

0,4
ε1=Longitudinal strain
0,3

0,2
εv-100 εv-50 εv-20 εv-0
0,1 ε2-100 ε2-50 ε2-20 ε2-0
H-0,65 Load control rate ε1-100 ε1-50 ε1-20 ε1-0
0,0
-2000 -1500 -100 0 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Strain (x10-6)

replacement have been detected. These decreases are
caused by the used of recycled aggregate with a lower
Young modulus than conventional aggregate. Various
authors [33, 34] show greater decreases in modulus of
elasticity than those obtained for compressive
strength, and more pronounced as replacement per-
centage is increased [20, 35], however, there exists a
fairly degree of diversity in the results [36]. In this
case, for H-0.65 concrete, decreases in the values of
the modulus of elasticity were 4.7, 10.9 and 18.0%
for 20, 50 and 100% replacement. For H-0.50
concrete, the differences were 3.8, 14.9 and 29.2%
for 20, 50 and 100% replacement (Fig. 4).
3.2 Volumetric strains
The stress–volumetric strain diagram has been con-
structed to determine the effect of the incorporation of
recycled coarse aggregate on the critical stress at which
rapid and continuous crack propagation starts (Figs. 5, 6).
The graphs show the results obtained with the tests
in load control rate and in strain control rate. On the
basis of these results, the critical stress and maximum
volumetric strain values of each concrete can be
determined at each load step.
Analyzing the shape of the volumetric strain
curves in load control rate (Fig. 5) and strain control
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1766 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771

Fig. 6 Volumetric strain. 1,0

Strain control rate.
H-0.65/H-0.50 0,9

0,8

0,7
ε2=Transverse strain εv=Volumetric strain
0,6
εv = ε1+2 x ε2

Stress/fc
0,5

0,4
ε1=Longitudinal strain
0,3

0,2 εv-100 εv-50 εv-20 εv-0

ε2-100 ε2-50 ε2-20 ε2-0
0,1 ε1-100 ε1-50 ε1-20 ε1-0
H-0,65 Strain control rate
0,0
-2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
-6
Strain (x10 )

1,0

0,9

0,8

0,7
ε2=Transverse strain εv=Volumetric strain
0,6
εv = ε1+2 x ε2
Stress/fc

0,5

0,4
ε1=Longitudinal strain
0,3

0,2
εv-100 εv-50 εv-20 εv-0
0,1 ε2-100 ε2-50 ε2-20 ε2-0
H-0,50 Strain control rate ε1-100 ε1-50 ε1-20 ε1-0
0,0
-2000 -1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
-6
Strain (x10 )

rate (Fig. 6) it can be observed that all the curves
present the same shape, regardless of the percentage
of recycled coarse aggregate used. However, since
very low stress step (0.1 fc) differences between
volumetric strains values for conventional concrete
and for recycled concrete with 100% replacement are
seen, the concretes with the highest percentages of
recycled aggregate consistently exhibited the highest
values of volumetric strain. The concrete with 20%
recycled aggregate presents a curve that is very
similar to that of conventional concrete.
When volumetric strain curves obtained in strain
control rate are analyzed (Fig. 6), in general, the
volumetric strains of concrete with recycled aggre-
gate were found to be greater than those of conven-
tional concrete from low stress steps (0.1 fc) to a
stress step value of about 0.8 fc. From this stress value
the conventional concrete (and with it the concrete
with 20% of recycled aggregate of similar behaviour)
is able to develop the greatest volumetric strains.
Thus, upon the analysis of Fig. 7 in which the
maximum volumetric strain values for different con-
cretes in load control rate and strain control rate are
shown, when the test is performed on load control rate,
the recycled concretes, and specifically the concrete with
100% replacement with recycled coarse aggregate,
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Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771 1767

Fig. 7 Maximum 900

volumetric strain
800

700

Maximum volumetric strain

600

(x10-6)
500

400

300

200
LC: Load Control rate H-0,65-LC H-0,50-LC
100
SC: Strain Control rate H-0,65-SC H-0,50-SC

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
% replacement

Fig. 8 Critical stress 1,00

0,95

0,90
Critical stress/fc

0,85

0,80

H-0,65 - LC H-0,50 - LC
0,75
H-0,65 - SC H-0,50 - SC
LC: Load Control rate
SC: Strain Control rate
0,70
0 20 40 60 80 100
% replacement

present maximum volumetric strain values higher than
those developed for conventional concretes. However,
when the test is performed in a strain control rate, the
situation is reversed so that the conventional concretes
experience the highest values of maximum volumetric
strain. In both cases the differences found between
control conventional concretes and recycled concretes
with 20% of replacement are not very significant.
Finally, Fig. 8 shows the values of the critical
stress for different concretes in load control rate and
strain control rate. The critical stress decreases with
an increase in the percentage of recycled coarse
aggregate that is added. In this way, when H-0.50-0
and H-0.50-100 are analyzed, the decrease in the
critical stress is 6.5% when load control rate is used
and 9.5% when strain control rate is used. When
H-0.65-0 and H-0.65-100 are studied, the critical
stress decreased 4.5 and 6.3% in load control rate and
strain control rate respectively.
The presence of mortar adhered to the recycled
aggregate influences the mechanical behaviour of
concretes so that the weakest point of these concretes
is the adhered mortar. The growth of cracks and thus
the beginning of the breaking process in recycled
concrete is produced through the new interfacial
transition zone (typical fracture surface in
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1768 Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771

Old transition zone breaking stress rates lower than those of conventional
concrete.
Natural aggregate
New transition zone

Recycled aggregate 3.3 Damage

The damage curves have been constructed to

determine the effect of the replacement of recycled
Old Paste
coarse aggregate in this parameter (Figs. 12, 13).
The graphs correspond to tests in load control rate
and strain control rate, on the basis of which it is
New Paste possible to extract the value of the damage accord-
ing to the SDM for each stress step value. The
analysis of these graphs shows that as the percent-
Fig. 9 Interfacial transition zone between the new and the old age of replacement of recycled coarse aggregate
paste
increases, the damage for any step stress value
increases as well. It can also be seen that the
concrete with 20% replacement, generally behaves
similarly to conventional concrete, with the greatest
differences being observed when the replacement
percentage is 100%.
Figure 14 represents the value of the damage for
Crack Old paste the maximum stress. Similar to what occurred in
strain control rate, the mortar adhered to the
recycled aggregate causes the damage values found
Interface in the recycled concrete to be higher than those
obtained with conventional concrete. First, H-0.65
New paste concretes present higher damage values than H-0.50
concretes. Secondly, the damage was found to
Fig. 10 Compressive strength test. Cracking affecting the old increase with the percentage of replacement, so that
cement paste concretes with 20% replacement had very similar
damage values (in the case of H-0.50 the same
value) to those of conventional concretes, while the
increases detected with the H-0.50-100 concrete was
8.7% in load control rate and 11.0% in strain control
rate. With H-0.65-100 concrete the increases were
11.3 and 8.4% in load control rate and in strain
control rate respectively. In this case the results
obtained in load control rate are quite similar to
those obtained in strain control rate tests.

Fig. 11 Tensile splitting strength test. Failure surface

conventional concretes), and in addition through the
recycled aggregate, through the old cement paste with
a low strength due to the high water to cement ratio of
the adhered mortar (Figs. 9, 10, 11). Thus the critical
stress in the recycled concrete is always reached for
4 Conclusions
In this study the effect of the use of recycled coarse
aggregate under water saturated conditions on the
damage of the recycled concretes was investigated
and the following conclusions can be drawn.
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Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771 1769

1,0 1,0
0,9 0,9
0,8 0,8
0,7 0,7

Stress/fc
Stress/fc

0,6 0,6
0,5 0,5
0,4 0,4
0,3 0,3
0,2 0,2
H-0,65 Load control rate H-0,50 Load control rate
0,1 0,1
100 50 20 0 100 50 20 0
0,0 0,0
0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70
Damage Damage

Fig. 12 Damage. Load control rate. H-0.65/H-0.50

1,0 1,0
0,9 0,9
0,8 0,8
0,7 0,7
Stress/fc

Stress/fc
0,6 0,6
0,5 0,5
0,4 0,4
0,3 0,3
0,2 0,2
H-0,65 Strain control rate H-0,50 Strain control rate
0,1 0,1
100 50 20 0 100 50 20 0
0,0 0,0
0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,00 0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70
Damage Damage

Fig. 13 Damage. Strain control rate. H-0.65/H-0.50

Fig. 14 Damage at 0,6

maximum stress

0,5

0,4
Damage

0,3

0,2

H-0,65 - LC H-0,50 - LC
0,1
LC: Load Control rate H-0,65 - SC H-0,50 - SC

SC: Strain Control rate

0,0
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of replacement
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1770
• Due to the mortar adhered to the recycled
aggregates, recycled concretes (with pre-wetted
recycled aggregate) have a lower hardened den-
sity and a higher absorption coefficient than
conventional concretes. Similarly, this causes a
decrease in the compressive strength and in the
longitudinal and transverse modulus of elasticity.
The tensile splitting strength is slight affected by
the replacement of natural coarse aggregate with
recycled coarse aggregate.
• Scalar damage mechanics and volumetric strains
values can be used to determine de damage of the
specimens. Both approaches show similarity in
determining damage.
• The study of the volumetric strain curves indi-
cates that when the test is performed in load
control rate, the maximum volumetric strain
values increase with increasing percentages of
recycled aggregate, whereas when the test is
performed in strain control rate these maximum
values decrease.
• From the stress–volumetric strain curves the
critical stress of the different concretes has been
determined. Macroscopically, critical stress
appears to be related to fracture toughness, and
microscopically, critical stress seems to indicate
the beginning of significant slow crack growth
[7]. In this study, the critical stress values indicate
that in both the load control rate and strain control
rate, it decreases by increasing the percentage of
recycled aggregate used.
• In any case, the concretes with 20% replacement
of the coarse aggregate have stress–volumetric
strain curves and critical stress values very similar
to those of conventional concretes.
• The study of the damage curves indicates that, for
any value of stress, the damage increases with the
replacement rate, both when the load control rate
test and when the strain control rate test is used.
• The damage values for the maximum stress
(maximum damage values) increase with the
replacement rate. It has also been found that
concrete H-0.65 shows higher damage values than
concrete H-0.50.
• As in the case of critical stress, the damage
curves and the maximum damage values for the
concrete with 20% replacement of the coarse
aggregate are quite similar to those of conven-
tional concrete.
Materials and Structures (2011) 44:1759–1771
Acknowledgments This study is part of the project entitled
‘‘3.2-358/2005/3-B: An experimental study on the use of RCDs
in recycled concrete used in structural applications
(RECNHOR)’’, financed by the Spanish Environmental
Ministry. In order to go on with this line of research, a new
project has been given to the group. It belongs to the program
CENIT (Spanish Ministry of Industry) and is called ‘‘Clean,
efficient and nice construction along its life cycle (CLEAM)’’.
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