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Mechanical properties of concrete containing recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)

and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate replacement

Conference Paper  in  AIP Conference Proceedings · October 2017

DOI: 10.1063/1.5005412

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Mechanical properties of concrete containing recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and
ceramic waste as coarse aggregate replacement
Faisal Sheikh Khalid, Nurul Bazilah Azmi, Khairul Azwa Syafiq Mohd Sumandi, and Puteri Natasya Mazenan

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1891, 020079 (2017); doi: 10.1063/1.5005412

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5005412
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1891/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 Mechanical Properties of Concrete Containing Recycled
Concrete Aggregate (RCA) and Ceramic Waste as Coarse
Aggregate Replacement
Faisal Sheikh Khalid a), Nurul Bazilah Azmi, Khairul Azwa Syafiq Mohd Sumandi,
Puteri Natasya Mazenan
1
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Batu Pahat, Johor.
a
Corresponding author: faisalsh@uthm.edu.my

Abstract. Many construction and development activities today consume large amounts of concrete. The amount of
construction waste is also increasing because of the demolition process. Much of this waste can be recycled to produce
new products and increase the sustainability of construction projects. As recyclable construction wastes, concrete and
ceramic can replace the natural aggregate in concrete because of their hard and strong physical properties. This research
used 25%, 35%, and 45% recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate in producing
concrete. Several tests, such as concrete cube compression and splitting tensile tests, were also performed to determine
and compare the mechanical properties of the recycled concrete with those of the normal concrete that contains 100%
natural aggregate. The concrete containing 35% RCA and 35% ceramic waste showed the best properties compared with
the normal concrete.

INTRODUCTION
The amount of construction waste increases every year along with the number of construction activities and the
development of economies. This phenomenon also reflects the rapid development and large consumption of such
construction resources. Apart from plastic, glass, and scrap metal, construction waste is often dumped in landfills
because of their non-recyclable properties [1–3], thereby leading to various landfill problems, such as area shortage
and waste overload [4–5]. Malaysia shifts toward a green path by beginning to adopt a sustainable construction
mode. As one of the most important solutions to environmental and sustainability issues, recycling aggregates
instead of using natural aggregates can limit the damage of construction activities to the environment. Therefore, the
utilization of concrete that contains recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate
replacements has been widely promoted throughout the country.
Previous studies show that construction waste account for almost 26% of the landfills in Malaysia. This
proportion is approximately four times larger than the waste produced by households and almost outnumbers the
other types of waste dumped in landfills by over 50% [6]. The construction waste in landfills comprise 69% timber,
12% concrete, 10% metal, 7% brick, 0.43% plastic, and 2% other materials [5]. According to Bravo et al. [6], given
the differences in the composition of RCA and natural aggregate, the mechanical properties of the concrete that uses
100% RCA as a substitute aggregate are expected to decline in the future.
Mirjana et al. [7] produced recycled aggregate with a maximum size of 32 mm by crushing the waste concrete of
laboratory test cubes and precast concrete columns. They found that using high-quality aggregate does not affect the
compressive strength of the concrete regardless of the replacement ratio of the natural and recycled aggregates.
In [8], three series of concrete mixes were prepared using low-grade or commercial recycled aggregates at 0%,
25%, 50%, and 100% RCA replacement levels of crushed granite. The concrete made from low-grade recycled
aggregate had a lower compressive strength than that produced from natural and commercial recycled aggregates.
Moreover, unlike that produced using natural aggregate, the splitting tensile strength of the concrete produced from

The 2nd International Conference on Applied Science and Technology 2017 (ICAST’17)
AIP Conf. Proc. 1891, 020079-1–020079-6; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5005412
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1573-7/$30.00

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low-grade recycled aggregate began to increase after 90 days. In this case, low-grade recycled aggregates can be
used to produce non-structural concrete [9].
The effects of reusing sanitary ceramic wastes as coarse aggregate in eco-efficient concretes on compression
strength were investigated after 7, 28, and 90 days, and the recycled concrete showed better compression strength
and splitting tensile strength than the reference concrete [10–11]. The recycled concrete with 25% RCA showed
12% to 25% higher levels of compressive and splitting tensile strength than the reference concrete [11]. Specifically,
the compressive strength of the concrete increased by 12% compared with that of the reference concrete as the
percentage of ceramic waste used to substitute natural aggregate increased to 25%. Bravo et al. [6] investigated the
possibility of substituting 15%, 20%, and 25% of natural coarse aggregate with recycled ceramic coarse aggregate,
and then analyzed the effects of such substitution on the morphology and microstructure of the recycled concretes
and on the mechanical behavior of these eco-efficient concretes.
This research investigates the mechanical properties of construction waste concrete and ceramic tiles as potential
substitutes for natural aggregates in producing concrete. The optimum mix design ratio of RCA and ceramic waste
as coarse aggregate replacements in concrete is also determined.

EXPERIMENTAL
On the one hand, the RCA collected from the site was crushed in a laboratory using a crusher machine, and 25%,
35%, and 45% of this material was used to replace the natural aggregate in concrete. On the other hand, the ceramic
waste was crushed in a laboratory using a hammer, and 25%, 35%, and 45% of this material was used to replace the
natural aggregate in concrete. Figures 1 and 2 show the crushed RCA and ceramic waste. The size of the coarse
aggregate ranged between 5 mm and 14 mm to avoid the blockage of the coarse aggregate in a cube or cylinder.

FIGURE 1. Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) FIGURE 2. Ceramic waste as coarse aggregate

Sixty cube specimens were prepared for the compression strength test. All cube specimens were stored in a water
tank for curing for 7 and 28 days. Thirty cylinders with a diameter of 100 mm and a height of 200 mm were
prepared for the splitting tensile strength test. The molds were filled to the top with compaction. The concrete in the
cylinder molds were screened to ensure an even top surface. All cylinders were stored in a water tank to cure the
specimens for 28 days. A 0.55 water cement ratio was used in the mix design. After the mixing process, a slump test
was performed and the slump value was compared to the normal concrete. The cube size was 100 mm×100 mm, the
compaction was performed manually using the tamping rod, and the concrete sample was cured for 7 and 28 days in
a curing tank to avoid loss of moisture during the hardening and maturing process of the concrete. The cylinder size
was 100 mm×200 mm, the compaction was performed manually using tamping rod with three layers of compaction,
and the sample was cured for 28 days in a curing tank to avoid moisture loss during the hardening process. The
sample was weighed before testing to measure the density of the concrete, and was then tested using an ordinary
compression machine to measure its compression and tensile strength. The testing results were computerized, and
the compressive and tensile strengths of the concrete were obtained.

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 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the sieve analysis of the material, the properties of the fresh state of concrete (i.e., slump),
the mechanical properties of the concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate, and the
compression and splitting tensile strength tests. Slight differences were observed on the strength of the normal
concrete and the recycled concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste as coarse aggregate. Table 1 shows the
designation of concrete into three batches.

TABLE 1. Designation of mixture concrete

Batch of Normal 25& RCA 35%RCA 45% RCA
concrete 25% CER 35% CER 45% CER 25% CER 35% CER 45% CER 25% CER 35% CER 45% CER
Batch 1 Batch 2 Batch 3
Indication Red Blue Yellow Green
colour at
graph

Sieve analysis
Performing a sieve analysis is very important in studying the properties of concrete. A sieve analysis was
performed in this work to determine the size proportion of RCA, ceramic waste, natural coarse aggregate, and fine
aggregate. Figure 3 shows the size proportion of these materials.

FIGURE 3: Sieve analysis of material size proportion.

The sieve analysis graph shows that four materials been sieved to obtain their size proportions in the known
weight of the material. The fine aggregate size ranged from 5 mm to ȝP, while the coarse aggregate size ranged
from 5 mm to 20 mm. The particle size of the RCA and ceramic waste was equally divided and showed slight
differences across each sieve size. By contrast, the normal aggregate particle sizes and percentages showed huge
differences across each sieve size.

Slump of concrete
The slump value of the concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste was equal to that of the normal concrete;
however, the shape of the RCA and ceramic waste can influence the workability of the concrete [6].
The slump value of the normal concrete was 75.0 mm, which was within the medium workability range of the
concrete. By contrast, the concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste had varying slump values that were still
within the workability range. However, the slump values of the latter were less than the control value because the

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RCA can absorb water and dry the concrete mixture, thereby reducing slump value. Similarly, the slump value of the
concrete containing a large amount of RCA is lower than that of the concrete mix that contains less RCA. The old
cement paste present in RCA shows micro cracks that have resulted from the crushing process of old concrete
blocks that were produced from building demolitions. These micro cracks increase the porosity as the water
absorption increases, thereby further reducing the slump value of RCA [12].

Density of concrete
The control (normal) concrete has a 2.3 kg/m3 density. The average density of the first batch of concrete was
around 2.1 kg/m3, which was lower than that of the control concrete. The second and third batches had an average
density of 2.2 kg/m3, which was higher than that of the first batch and lower than that of the control concrete. The
lower density of the concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste may be attributed to the physical properties of
RCA that contains concrete pieces and porous materials.

Compressive strength test

The results of the concrete compression test were measured and analyzed after 7 days and 28 days. Figures 4 and
5 show the percentages of coarse aggregate replacements and the compressive and tensile strengths of concrete.

FIGURE 4. Compressive strength for concrete FIGURE 5. Splitting tensile test for concrete containing
containing RCA and ceramic waste for 28 days. RCA and ceramic waste.

After 28 days, the concrete containing 35% RCA and 25% ceramic waste showed the highest compressive
strength of 34.6 MPa, while the concrete containing 25% RCA and 35% ceramic waste showed the lowest
compressive strength of 25.9 MPa. The strength of the concrete in the first batch, which contained 25% RCA and
25% ceramic waste, fluctuated around 27.7 MPa. The concrete in the second batch, which contained 35% ceramic
waste, had a 6.5% lower compressive strength than that in the first batch. The concrete in the third batch, which
contained 45% ceramic waste, had 23.5% and 30% higher compressive strength than that in the second and first
batches, respectively.

The second batch had the highest compressive strength of 34.6 MPa, while its lowest compressive strength was
22% lower than its highest strength. The strength of the concrete in the third batch decreased along with an
increasing percentage of ceramic waste. The highest and lowest compressive strength for this batch differed by 8%,
with the highest strength reaching 28.7 MPa and the lowest strength reaching 26.2 MPa. This concrete also had a
lower average compressive strength than the normal concrete because of the properties of the material used by the

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former. Specifically, in addition to its porous material and high water absorption, the RCA contains a cement paste
that can affect the strength of the concrete [6]. In sum, in terms of compressive strength, the concrete containing
35% RCA and 25% ceramic waste as well as that containing 45% RCA and 35% ceramic waste showed the largest
and smallest differences (23.1% and 0.7%) from the normal concrete, respectively.

Splitting tensile test

Figure 5 shows the tensile strength of the concrete containing RCA and ceramic waste. The tensile strength of all
batches exceeded that of the normal concrete except for the concrete containing 25% RCA 25% ceramic waste. The
second batch had a significantly higher tensile strength than the normal concrete, with the concrete containing 35%
RCA and 25% ceramic waste showing the highest tensile strength of 2.81 MPa. The tensile strength generally
increases when the percentages of RCA and ceramic waste exceed 35%. In sum, a higher percentage of ceramic
waste and a lower percentage of RCA will increase and decrease the tensile strength of the concrete, respectively.
In terms of optimal mix design, the concrete with 35% RCA and 25% ceramic waste shows the best compressive
(34.6 MPa) and tensile strengths (2.81 MPa), which are approximately 23.1% and 13.8% higher than those of the
normal concrete, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The results of the compression and tensile strength tests show that the concrete containing 35% RCA and 25%
ceramic waste has the best mechanical properties. This concrete outperforms the normal concrete by 23.1% and
13.8% in terms of compressive and tensile strengths, respectively. Moreover, the concrete containing 35% RCA and
25% ceramic waste as well as that containing 45% RCA and 35% ceramic waste showed the largest (23.1%) and
smallest (0.7%) differences from the normal concrete in terms of compressive strength, respectively. Increasing the
amount of ceramic waste and RCA will also increase and decrease the tensile strength of the concrete.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was financially supported by University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) and Minister of
Education Malaysia (KPM) through Dana Pembudayaan penyelidikan (RAGS) Vot. No. R-058.

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