Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76

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Construction and Building Materials

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Enhancing the durability properties of concrete prepared with coarse

recycled aggregate
S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon ⇑
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: It is generally known that the use of recycled aggregates in concrete would reduce its compressive
Received 27 June 2011 strength and render the concrete less durable. Various methods have been attempted to compensate
Received in revised form 13 February 2012 for the lower quality of the recycled aggregates for concrete production. In this paper, the effects of incor-
Accepted 25 February 2012
porating Class F fly ash in the concrete mix design to mitigate the lower quality of recycled aggregates in
Available online 12 April 2012
concrete is presented. The results show that one of the practical ways to utilize a high percentage of recy-
cled aggregate in concrete is by incorporating 25–35% of fly ash since some of the drawbacks induced by
Keywords:
the use of recycled aggregates in concrete could be minimized.
Concrete
Durability properties
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Recycled aggregate
Fly ash

1. Introduction curing ages of 3, 7, 28 and 56 days, compared with natural aggre-

Recycled aggregate has been used as a replacement of the nat-
ural aggregate for a number of years. The potential benefits and
drawbacks of using recycled aggregate in concrete have been
extensively studied [1–8]. The use of recycled aggregate generally
increases the drying shrinkage, creep and water sorptivity and de-
creases the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity of recy-
cled aggregate concrete compared to those of natural aggregate
concrete [9–12]. The poor performance of the recycled aggregate
concrete is associated with the cracks and fissures, which were
formed in recycled aggregate during processing, thereby rendering
the aggregate having weaker and more susceptible to permeation,
diffusion and absorption of fluids [10]. This may also be due to the
presence of old ITZ and adhesive mortar in the recycled aggregate,
which makes recycled aggregate concrete more permeable than
normal aggregate concrete [13]. These drawbacks limit the utiliza-
tion of the recycled aggregate with higher percentages (>30%) in
structural concrete.
Many studies have shown that using recycled aggregates in
concrete suffers from durability problems [10,14–21]. Hansen
and Boegh [14] reported that, compared with the reference con-
crete, the shrinkage of recycled aggregate concrete was increased
by up to 60%. Domingo-Cabo [16] observed that the shrinkage of
recycled concretes using 100% recycled aggregates was about
70% higher than that of the control concrete after a period of
180 days. Olorunsogo and Padayachee [10] reported that, at the
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +852 2766 6024.
E-mail address: cecspoon@polyu.edu.hk (C.S. Poon).
gate concrete, the water absorptivitiy of recycled aggregate con-
crete was increased by 47.3%, 43.6%, 38.5% and 28.8%,
respectively, although the processes of water absorption in both
types of concrete were similar and obeyed the same law. Cui
et al. [17] reported that the carbonation level of recycled aggregate
concrete was 3 times that of the natural aggregate concrete. Crent-
sil et al.’s [18] and Levy Salomon and Helene’s [19] experimental
results showed that, after 6 months of curing, the carbonation
depth of the recycled aggregate concrete was 1.3–2.5 times than
that of the reference concrete. Otsuki et al. [20] reported that the
resistance of recycled aggregate concrete to chloride ion penetra-
tion and carbonation were slightly inferior to those of natural
aggregate concrete given the same water-binder ratio was used.
In a study carried out by Olorunsogo and Padayachee [16], it was
found that the concrete mix containing 100% recycled aggregates
showed a 73.2% increase in chloride conductivity at a curing age
of 28 days. Evangelista and de Brito [21] reported that the water
permeability, capillary absorption and chloride diffusion of con-
crete was increased with an increase in the replacement ratio of
fine natural aggregate by fine recycled aggregate.
The negative effects of recycled aggregate on concrete quality
limit the use of this material in structural concrete. However, it
has been suggested that the shortcomings of using recycled aggre-
gate can be mitigated by using the double mixing approach in
concrete mixing, particularly for concrete prepared with high
water-binder ratio as it has been demonstrated that improvements
in strength, chloride penetration, and carbonation resistances of
recycled aggregate concrete can be achieved [22,23]. Abbas et al.
also have demonstrated that by using an equivalent mortar volume

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.02.032
70 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76

(EMV) method, RCA-concrete mixes have higher resistance to Table 2

freeze–thaw action, chloride penetration and carbonation than Physical properties of cement and fly ash.

those designed with the conventional method can be prepared Materials

[24]. Cement Fly ash
It has also been shown that by negative effect of RCA can be
Density (g/cm3) 3.16 2.31
mitigated by incorporating a certain amount mineral admixtures Specific surface area (cm2/g) 3520 3960
[25,26]. Recently Kou et al. [27,28] found that when Class F fly
ash was used as an additional or cement replacement in the RCA
mixes, it can improve the mechanical and durability properties of
Table 3
recycled aggregate concrete. Composition of the recycled aggregates.
This paper presents the results of a study on the use of fly ash as
a substitution and addition of cement in recycled aggregate con- Materials Composition (%)

crete to improve the durability properties of the concrete. 10 mm 20 mm

Stone 32.8 38.9
Old concrete 66.2 60.1
2. Experimental details
Brick, tile etc. 1.0 1.0

2.1. Materials

2.1.1. Cement & fly ash

120
ASTM Type I Portland cement and ASTM Class F low-calcium fly ash were used
in the concrete mixtures. The chemical and physical properties of cement and fly Max Limit
100
ash are given in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Min Limit

Passing (%)
80 recycled aggregate
Granite
2.1.2. Aggregates
Natural and recycled aggregates were used as the coarse aggregate in the con- 60
crete mixtures. In this study, crushed granite was used as the natural aggregate and
recycled aggregate sourced from a recycling facility in Hong Kong was used. Accord- 40
ing to the quality control requirements of the recycling facility, the recycled aggre-
gate contained less than 0.5% by weight of wood and particles less dense than water 20
and less than 1% by weight of other foreign materials. The compositions of the recy-
cled aggregate are shown in Table 3. Therefore, the recycled aggregate used in this 0
study could be considered as recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). The nominal sizes
5 10 20
of the natural and recycled coarse aggregates were 20 and 10 mm and their particle BS Sieve Size (mm)
size distributions are shown in Fig. 1. It is seen that the size grading of the coarse
natural and recycled aggregate was similar and conformed to the requirements of 120
BS 882 (1985). The physical and mechanical properties of the coarse aggregate Max Limit
are shown in Table 4. The porosity of the aggregates was determined using mercury 100 Min Limit
intrusion porosimetry (MIP). River sand was used as the fine aggregate in the con- recycled aggregate
Passing (%)

crete mixtures. 80 Granite

60
2.2. Concrete mixtures
40
Two series of concrete mixtures were prepared in the laboratory. The recycled
aggregate was used as 0%, 20%, 50%, and 100% by volume replacements of the nat- 20
ural aggregate. In Series I, fly ash was used as 0, 25 and 35% by weight replacements
of cement (i.e. the water to binder ratio (W/B) was kept at constant at 0.55); and in 0
Series II, fly ash was used as 0%, 25% and 35% by weight addition of cement (i.e. the 2.25 5 10
W/B decreased with increasing percentage of fly ash added from 0.55 to 0.42). The BS Sieve Size (mm)
concrete mixtures were coded r-RxFy (x = percentage of recycled aggregate replace-
ment level; y = percentage of Fly ash replacement of cement level) and a-RxFz (z = per- Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of coarse aggregate according to BS 882 (a) 20 mm
centage of addition of Fly ash by cement weight). The absolute volume method was and (b) 10 mm.
used to proportion the concrete mixtures (Tables 5 and 6). In each concrete mixture,
the 10 and 20 mm coarse aggregates were used in a ratio of 1:2. The slump of the
concrete mixtures was kept constant at about 100 mm by the use of All the specimens were cast in steel moulds and compacted using a vibrating
superplasticizers. table. Three cubes and three cylinders were immediately used after demolding to
measure the 1-day compressive and tensile splitting strengths. The rest of the spec-
imens were cured in a water-curing tank at 27 ± 1 °C until the age of testing.
2.3. Specimens casting and curing

For each concrete mixture, 100 mm cubes, 70  70  285 mm prisms, and
100/  200 mm cylinders were cast. The cubes and prisms were used to determine
the compressive strength and drying shrinkage, respectively. The 100/  200 mm
cylinders were used to evaluate the resistance to chloride-ion penetration of con-
crete. Additionally, creep test was performed for the concrete mixtures using the
150/  300 mm cylinders.
2.4. Tests
2.4.1. Compressive strength
The compressive strength of concrete was determined using a Denison com-
pression machine with a loading capacity of 3000 kN. The loading rates applied in
the compressive tests were 200 kN/min. The compressive strength was measured
at the ages of 1, 4, 7, 28 and 90 days.

Table 1 2.4.2. Drying shrinkage

Chemical composition of cement and fly ash. A modified British Method (BS1881, part 5: 1970) was used for the test. After
Composition (%) removing the concrete prisms from the curing tank, the initial length of each spec-
imen was measured. The specimens were then stored in an environmental chamber
LOI SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 CaO MgO SO3 with a temperature of 55 °C and a relative humidity of 95% until the next measure-
Cement 2.97 19.61 3.32 7.33 63.15 2.54 2.13 ments at 1, 4, 7, 28, 56, 90 and 112 days. Before each measurement was taken on
Fly ash 3.90 56.79 5.31 28.21 <3 5.21 0.68 the scheduled day, the specimens were first removed from the environmental
chamber and conveyed to a second cooling chamber for about 4 h at a controlled
 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76 71

Table 4
Properties of natural and recycled coarse aggregates.

Nominal size (mm) Density (kg/m3) Water absorption (%) Strength (10% fine values) kN MIP porosity (%)
Crushed granite 10 2.62 1.12 159 1.62
20 2.62 1.11
Recycled aggregate 10 2.49 4.26 126 8.69
20 2.58 3.52

Table 5
Proportioning of the concrete mixtures Series I.

Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled aggregate (%) Constituents (kg/m3)

Water Total cementitious material Sand Granite Recycled aggregate
R0 0 0 225 410 642 1048 0
R20 0 20 225 410 642 840 204
R50 0 50 225 410 642 524 506
R100 0 100 225 410 642 0 1017
r-R0F25 25 0 225 410 611 1048 0
r-R20F25 25 20 225 410 611 840 204
r-R50F25 25 50 225 410 611 524 506
r-R100F25 25 100 225 410 611 0 1017
r-R0F35 35 0 225 410 598 1048 0
r-R20F35 35 20 225 410 598 840 204
r-R50F35 35 50 225 410 598 524 506
r-R100F35 35 100 225 410 598 0 1017

Table 6
Proportioning of the concrete mixtures Series II.

Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled aggregate (%) Constituents (kg/m3)

Water Total cementitious material Sand Granite Recycled aggregate
R0 0 0 225 410 642 1048 0
R20 0 20 225 410 642 840 204
R50 0 50 225 410 642 524 506
R100 0 100 225 410 642 0 1017
a-R0F25 25 0 225 512.5 526 992 0
a-R20F25 25 20 225 512.5 526 794 193
a-R50F25 25 50 225 512.5 526 496 482
a-R100F25 25 100 225 512.5 526 0 963
a-R0F35 35 0 225 553.5 479 1048 0
a-R20F35 35 20 225 553.5 479 840 204
a-R50F35 35 50 225 553.5 479 524 506
a-R100F35 35 100 225 553.5 479 0 1017

temperature of 25 °C and a relative humidity of 75%. The length of each specimen penetration is represented by the total charge passed in coulombs during a test per-
was then measured within 15 min before delivering the specimens back to the envi- iod of 6 h. In this study, the chloride ion penetrability test was carried out on the
ronmental chamber for the subsequent drying process. The procedure of drying, concrete specimens at the ages of 28 and 90 days.
cooling and measuring continued until the final length measurement at 112 day
was recorded. 2.4.5. Capillary water absorption
The rate of capillary absorption of water was evaluated on mature concrete
when 90 days old and using 100  100  100 mm cubic specimens: the lower side
2.4.3. Creep of the sample was placed into water (h = 10 mm) and periodically removed and
Creep strain was measured according to ASTM C 512 (2002) when the speci- weighed (according to ISO 15148:2002(E)).
mens were at the age of 28 days. The specimens used for the creep test consisted
of four cylinders in size of 300  150 mm loaded in uniaxial compression using a
2.4.6. Carbonation depth
hydraulic spring-loaded creep frame. A constant stress (at a level of 35% of the con-
Carbonation depth was measured in an accelerated carbonation experiment.
crete compressive strength at 28 days) was applied to the specimens for a period of
The two ends of each specimen were sealed with an epoxy resin, and stored in a car-
120 days. Three electrical strain gauges (which are uniformly aligned at the circum-
bonation chamber with 4% carbon dioxide by volume, following the recommenda-
ference of the specimens on three sides) were bonded to the specimens at mid-
tions of RILEM CPC-18. At the age of 28 days and 90 days, specimens were taken out
height using epoxy resin. The gauges are then connected to an automated data
from the chamber. In order to measure the carbonation depth, the samples were
acquisition system via a full-bridge configuration. The electrical strain gauges were
split in half and sprayed with a phenolphthalein solution immediately. The carbon-
also attached to four dummy specimens that remained unloaded to correct for non-
ation concrete showed a different colour compare with other area, and therefore,
creep-related deformations. Because temperature changes could significantly affect
the depth could be measured by a caliper gauge. The average values of the depths
the test results, the creep test was carried out at a controlled temperature environ-
at six different positions were used for evaluation.
ment of 23 ± 2 °C. The actual creep strain of the concrete was calculated by sub-
tracting the drying shrinkage values from the total time dependent deformation
of the corresponding concrete mixture under load. 3. Results and discussion

3.1. Compressive and tensile splitting strengths

2.4.4. Chloride ion penetrability
The chloride penetrability of concrete was determined in accordance with
ASTM C1202 (1997) using a 50 mm thick  100/ mm concrete disc cut from the The compressive strength results are presented in Tables 7 and
100/  200 mm concrete cylinder. The resistance of concrete to chloride ion 8 for the concrete mixtures in Series I and II, respectively. Each
72 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76

presented value is the average of three measurements. It is seen
that the 28-day compressive strength of the concrete mixtures de-
creased with an increase in the recycled aggregate content. This
was due to: (1) the adhered mortar in original aggregates mechan-
ical and physical properties of recycled aggregates are worse than
those of raw aggregates and (2) the higher initial free water con-
tent in the concrete mixture due to the higher water absorption
of recycled aggregate (see Table 4) which was used at the air dried
condition with moisture content of the aggregates at mixing much
lower than the water absorption. Furthermore, the use of fly ash as
a partial replacement of cement also caused a reduction in the
compressive strength.
A closer observation for the strength development between the
28 and 90 days shows that the concrete mixtures prepared with fly
ash had a greater gain in strength between 28 and 90 days. In Ser-
ies I, the concrete mixtures (R100, r-R100F25 and r-R100F35) pre-
pared with 0%, 25% and 35% fly ash had an increase of 19.4%, 36.1%
and 47.6% in the compressive strength from 28 to 90 days respec-
tively. On the other hand, in Series II, the concrete mixtures (R100,
a-R100F25 and a-R100F35) prepared with 0%, 25% and 35% addi-
tion of fly ash had an increase of 19.4%, 40.6% and 26.6% in com-
pressive strength from 28 to 90 days respectively. The higher
increase in strength for the concrete mixtures prepared with fly
ash was attributed to the pozzolanic effects of fly ash at late ages.
Furthermore, the compressive strength increased with a decrease
in the W/B (B = cement + fly ash) ratio.
The relative compressive strength defined as the ratio of com-
pressive strength of the concrete with 20%, 50% and 100% recycled
aggregate to that of natural aggregate without fly ash at 28 days
are shown in Figs. 2–4, respectively. It can be seen that the com-
pressive strength of the concrete was significantly increased when
fly ash was used as an addition of cement at all recycled aggregate
replacement levels. When fly ash was added, the gain in strength of
all the concrete mixtures between 28 and 90 days was greater than
that of the concrete mixtures prepared without fly ash. The larger
increase was mainly attributed to the lower W/B and pozzolanic
reaction of the fly ash particles. These results are similar to those
of Siddique [25] who reported that, when fly ash was used as an
addition of cement (i.e. 28% by weight of cement) in concrete, there
was a 23% gain in strength from 28 to 91 days compared to the 17%
when no fly ash was added.
3.2. Drying shrinkage
The drying shrinkage values (tested at 112 days) of the concrete
mixtures in Series I and II are shown in Fig. 5 and the % increase or
reduction in drying shrinkage of the concrete mixtures are pre-
sented in Table 9. Each presented value is the average of three
measurements. It is shown that the drying shrinkage of concrete
mixtures increased with the increase in RA content. The mortar ad-
hered to the recycled aggregate contributed to an increase in the
volume of the paste (old + new), thus increasing the drying shrink-
age of the resulting concrete [29]. The use of fly ash, whether as
replacement or addition, in the concrete mixtures reduced the dry-
ing shrinkage values. According to Atis et al. [30], the reduction in
the drying shrinkage was attributed to the dilution effect of the fly
ash particles. The drying shrinkage values in Series I was higher
than that of the concrete in Series II, which indicated that a
decrease in the W/B ratio reduced the drying shrinkage which is
consistent with the results of previous works [31].
3.3. Creep
Fig. 6 shows the creep strain measured at 120 days and the
creep development of the concrete mixtures in Series I and II.
The % increase or decrease in creep strain of the concrete mixtures
as compared with the control concrete mixture (R0) is presented in
Table 10. Each presented value is the average of three measure-
ments. Since the creep test was carried out after 28 days of curing,
the effects of moisture movement and autogenous shrinkage on
the creep strain were less significant. It was obvious that the defor-
mation of the concrete specimens increased with an increase in the
recycled aggregate content. This was attributed to the increased
volume of mortar in the recycled aggregate concrete compared to
that in the conventional concrete. It was found that the use of fly
ash as a partial replacement and addition of cement reduced the
creep strain of the recycled aggregate concrete and conventional
concrete. Moreover, the creep strain of concrete in Series I was
higher than that of the concrete in Series II. This might be due to
the use fly ash as an addition of cement decreased the W/B ratio
and results in increased compressive strength. In the creep test,
the applied load was equivalent to 35% of the 28-day compressive
strength of the concrete. According to Dhir et al. [32], the lower
creep for concrete prepared with fly ash hinged on the gain in
strength of concrete following the application of the load. As
indicated in Tables 7 and 8, the gain in strength was much greater
for concrete that contained fly ash. Since the strength gain for con-
crete prepared with fly ash was greater, the actual stress/strength
ratio was lower compared to that for concrete prepared without fly
ash during which the creep test was performed. The lower mea-
sured creep strain for concrete prepared with fly ash was therefore
attributed to the lower stress/strength ratio during the period of
the creep test.
3.4. Chloride penetrability
The resistance to chloride ion penetration of the concrete mix-
tures in Series I and II are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. The

Table 7
Compressive strength of concrete mixtures in Series I.

Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled aggregate (%) Compressive strength (MPa)
1 day 4 days 7 days 28 days 90 days
R0 0 0 12.8 23.3 30.2 48.6 52.7
R20 0 20 11.9 22.4 29.1 45.3 50.8
R50 0 50 11.6 21.8 27.6 42.5 49.5
R100 0 100 10.2 18.6 24.4 38.1 45.5
r-R0F25 25 0 12.1 22.8 28.6 43.6 57.9
r-R20F25 25 20 11.5 24.3 32.8 42.8 57.3
r-R50F25 25 50 11.1 22.9 30.4 41.7 53.4
r-R100F25 25 100 9.4 19.1 25.1 36.8 50.1
r-R0F35 35 0 7.7 16.6 22.5 40.7 47.8
r-R20F35 35 20 6.6 14.6 20.9 41.0 46.6
r-R50F35 35 50 5.9 15.2 20.4 37.1 43.2
r-R100F35 35 100 4.8 14.6 19.4 25.2 37.4
 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76 73

Table 8
Compressive strength of concrete mixtures in Series II.

Notation Fly ash (%) Recycled aggregate (%) Compressive strength (MPa)
1 day 4 days 7 days 28 days 90 days
R0 0 0 12.8 23.3 30.2 48.6 52.7
R20 0 20 11.9 22.4 29.1 45.3 50.8
R50 0 50 11.6 21.8 27.6 42.5 49.5
R100 0 100 10.2 18.6 24.4 38.1 45.5
a-R0F25 25 0 15.6 30.4 38.8 52.9 68.8
a-R20F25 25 20 14.8 29.5 37.9 50.1 65.9
a-R50F25 25 50 14.3 29.0 37.0 48.1 65.4
a-R100F25 25 100 14.1 28.4 36.3 45.3 63.7
a-R0F35 35 0 25.8 42.4 50.6 68.9 75.8
a-R20F35 35 20 24.7 40.1 46.2 63.0 76.2
a-R50F35 35 50 22.4 38.4 44.5 58.5 73.5
a-R100F35 35 100 18.6 32.3 39.0 54.5 69.0

Fig. 2. Relative compressive strength of concrete with 20% recycled aggregates and
varying % of fly ash.
Fig. 4. Relative compressive strength of concrete with 100% recycled aggregates
and varying % of fly ash.

Fig. 3. Relative compressive strength of concrete with 50% recycled aggregates and
varying % of fly ash.

Fig. 5. Drying shrinkage of the concrete in Series I and II at 112 days.

results show that the resistance to chloride ion penetration de-
creased as the recycled aggregate content increased. However, at
the same recycled aggregate replacement level, the use of fly ash
as a partial replacement and addition of cement increased the
resistance to chloride ion penetration. Moreover, the resistance
to chloride ion penetration of the concrete in Series I was lower
than that corresponding concrete in Series II. According to Leng
et al. [33], the reasons of the enhanced resistance to chloride ion
penetration were: (1) the use of fly ash refined the distribution
of pore size and pore shape of the concrete, (2) more C–S–H prod-
ucts were formed as fly ash hydrated, which absorbed more chlo-
ride ions and blocked the ingress path, and (3) fly ash was used as
addition of cement leading to reduced W/B ratios of the concrete
mixtures.
Furthermore, it is shown that the reduction in the W/B ratio (a
comparison between Figs. 7 and 8) increased the resistance to
chloride ion penetration. Since the volume of pores within a con-
crete reduced as the W/B ratio decreased, the concrete became
more impermeable and the resistance to chloride ion penetration
increased accordingly. These results also agree with those reported
by Leng et al. [33]. Moreover, it was found that the resistance
74 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76

Table 9
% Increase or reduction in drying shrinkage of concrete mixtures at 112 days.

Notation Fly ash Recycled % increase or reduction in drying

(%) aggregate (%) shrinkage compared with R0
% increase % reduction
Series Series Series Series
I II I II
R0 0 0 – –
R20 0 20 10.4 –
R50 0 50 17.5 –
R100 0 100 33.3 –
R0F25 25 0 – – 5.2 9.9
R20F25 25 20 2.0 – – 4.0
R50F25 25 50 11.6 1.7 – –
R100F25 25 100 18.0 7.7 – –
R0F35 35 0 – – 12.8 14.6
R20F35 35 20 – – 4.0 6.4
R50F35 35 50 4.9 – – 1.0
R100F35 35 100 9.6 4.9 – – Fig. 7. Chloride-ion penetration of the concrete in Series I.

Fig. 8. Chloride-ion penetration of the concrete in Series II.

Fig. 6. Creep strain of the concrete in Series I and II at 120 days.

3.5. Capillary water absorption

Table 10
Figs. 9 and 10 illustrate the water absorption by capillary of
% Increase or reduction in Creep strain of concrete mixtures at 120 days. concrete mixture in Series I and II, respectively. As might be ex-
pected, water absorption of recycled aggregate concrete was signif-
Notation Fly ash Recycled % increase or reduction in creep
(%) aggregate (%) strain from concrete mixture R0
icantly greater than that of the natural aggregate concrete; this has
also been reported by other researchers [15,19,35]. This fact is
% increase % reduction
attributed to the higher absorption of recycled aggregate respect
Series Series Series Series to natural granite. Moreover, the use of fly ash as a partial replace-
I II I II
ment of cement and an addition of cement decreased the water
R0 0 0 – – absorption of natural and recycled aggregate concrete. The higher
R20 0 20 5.6 –
decrease in water absorption for the concrete mixtures prepared
R50 0 50 11.5 –
R100 0 100 24.6 – with fly ash was attributed to the pozzolanic effects of fly ash. Fur-
R0F25 25 0 – – 12.3 18.3 thermore, the water absorption decreased with a decrease in the
R20F25 25 20 – – 8.1 14.7 W/B (B = cement + fly ash) ratio.
R50F25 25 50 – – 2.2 9.7
R100F25 25 100 4.8 – – 2.6
R0F35 35 0 – – 19.0 22.4 3.6. Carbonation depth
R20F35 35 20 – – 14.9 19.8
R50F35 35 50 – – 10.3 16.1
R100F35 35 100 – – – 6.5 The carbonation depth of the concrete mixtures in Series I and II
are illustrated in Figs. 11 and 12, respectively. It is seen that the
carbonation depth of concrete increased with the increase in
recycled aggregate content. Carbonation depth increased with
replacement ratio, which was to be expected since both capillary
increased as the curing age increased from 28 to 90 days. It was absorption and chloride penetration exhibited the same trend. This
due to the increase in the volumes of hydration products [34] thus is consistent with the results of Evangelista and de Brito [21] who
forming impermeable regions and increasing the resistance to reported that the carbonation depth of concrete was increased
chloride ion penetration. with an increase in the replacement ratio of fine natural aggregate
 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76 75

Fig. 9. Capillary water absorption of concrete in Series I.

Fig. 10. Capillary water absorption of concrete in Series II.

by fine recycled aggregate. Moreover, the use of fly ash as a partial
replacement of cement and an addition of cement increased the
carbonation depth of the concrete.
4. Conclusion
The following conclusions can be made based on the results of
this study:
1. The compressive strength decreased as the recycled aggregate
content increased.
2. At the same recycled aggregate replacement level, the use of fly
ash as a partial replacement of cement decreased the compres-
sive strength with the exception of the concrete mixture with
25% fly ash at 90 days. However, the use of fly ash as addition
of cement increased the compressive strength.
3. The drying shrinkage of concrete increased with an increase in
the recycled aggregate content. However, the use of fly ash as a
partial replacement or addition of cement was able to reduce
the drying shrinkage of the recycled aggregate concrete.
4. The creep of concrete increased with an increasing recycled
aggregate content. The use of fly ash as a partial replacement
or addition of cement was able to reduce the creep of concrete
as a result of the greater long term strength development due to
the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash.
5. The resistance to chloride ion penetration decreased as the
recycled aggregate content increased. However, the resistance
was improved by incorporating fly ash in the concrete mixtures.
The use of fly ash as addition of cement reduced the W/B ratio
which would improve the resistance to chloride ion
penetration.
6. The absorption test results clearly confirm that the higher the
decrease of recycled concrete strength, the higher its porosity
is significant, especially more its large capillaries are of signifi-
cant diameter. The use of fly ash as a partial of cement and an
addition of cement significant decrease the water absorption
of recycled aggregate concrete.
7. The carbonation depth was increased with an increase in the
replacement ratio of coarse natural aggregate by recycled
aggregate.
76 S.C. Kou, C.S. Poon / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 69–76
Fig. 11. Carbonation depth of concrete in Series I.
Fig. 12. Carbonation depth of concrete in Series II.
8. It can be concluded the relatively poorer durability properties of
recycled aggregates concrete can be adequately compensated
by the use of fly ash, either as a replacement or addition of
cement, in the concrete mix design.
9. Although the use of fly ash as both a partial replacement and an
addition of cement can improve the durability properties of
recycled aggregate concrete, from an economic and environ-
mental point of view, the use of fly ash as a partial replacement
of cement in the concrete mixture is the least expensive and the
more environmentally friendly.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.,
and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for funding support.
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