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Fatigue strength and failure probability of concrete made with RCA

Article  in  Magazine of Concrete Research · November 2016

DOI: 10.1680/jmacr.15.00353

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Magazine of Concrete Research Magazine of Concrete Research, 2017, 69(2), 55–67
http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jmacr.15.00353
Volume 69 Issue 2
Paper 1500353
Fatigue strength and failure probability Received 23/08/2015; revised 26/08/2016; accepted 23/09/2016
Published online ahead of print 07/11/2016
of concrete made with RCA
Keywords: aggregates/fatigue/sustainability
Arora and Singh
ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Fatigue strength and failure

probability of concrete made
with RCA
Sumit Arora Surinder Pal Singh
Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, Dr B R Ambedkar Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Dr B R Ambedkar National
National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India (corresponding author:
spsingh@nitj.ac.in)

The paper presents results of an investigation into the flexural fatigue strength of concrete in which all the coarse
natural aggregates (NA) were replaced with coarse recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). Concrete specimens
containing 100% NA were also tested. The fatigue life data of concrete made with RCA and NA has been obtained
by performing flexural fatigue tests on 64 beam specimens under four-point loading. In total, 48 static flexural tests
were also conducted to facilitate fatigue testing. To predict the flexural fatigue strength of concrete made with RCA,
the materials coefficients of fatigue strength prediction models have been estimated. The S–N–Pf curves have been
generated from the fatigue test data for concrete made with RCA. Theoretical fatigue lives for concrete made with
RCA have also been estimated using a single-log fatigue equation corresponding to 10% probability of failure and
compared with those of concrete made with NA. The theoretical fatigue lives of concrete made with RCA have been
found to be lower by 42·0% and 60·5% compared to concrete made with NA at stress levels S = 0·90 and S = 0·65,
respectively.

Notation for substitutes to fulfil the needs of the construction industry.

A, B material coefficients The best way possible is to use processed C & D waste in the
a, b, c experimental coefficients construction industry. The demolition waste generated from
C 1 , C2 material coefficients demolished structures such as old pavements and high-rise
CC correlation coefficient buildings is collected, and recycled aggregates are obtained by
fmax maximum fatigue stress crushing the waste to the required aggregate sizes, thus making
fmin minimum fatigue stress construction more sustainable (McNeil and Kang, 2013; Paine
fr static flexural strength and Dhir, 2010; Robles et al., 2015). Recycled concrete aggre-
L survival probability gates can offer many technical as well as economic benefits to
N number of cycles to failure society, which may include their use in general bulk fills, bank
Pf probability of failure protection, base and fill for road construction, and so on. In
R stress ratio = fmin/fmax addition, a processed form of recycled concrete aggregates can
S stress level = fmax/fr be applied to making structural concrete, landscape works,
u scale parameter wall backfills, laying of pavements and so on.
α shape parameter
β material coefficient Considerable research has been carried out across the globe on
the mechanical properties of concrete made with coarse
Introduction recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). Efforts have been made to
The concept of sustainable development includes, first and explore the use of RCA as coarse aggregates in concrete in
foremost, the judicious use of rapidly depleting natural order to achieve sustainable construction (Heeralal et al.,
resources, achieved by using industrial by-products and thereby 2009). As there is wide range of variability in the engineering
reducing materials waste (Corinaldesi and Moriconi, 2009). In properties of RCA, generally a large number of experiments
India, out of 48 Mt of solid waste generated, approximately are required to obtain a suitable concrete mix (Lin et al.,
25% is from construction and demolition (C & D). The total 2004). Investigations into the mechanical performance of con-
quantity of C & D waste generated in India is estimated to be crete made with RCA as partial/full replacement for coarse
11·4–14·7 Mt per annum, out of which 7–8 Mt are concrete natural aggregates (NA) under static loading have been carried
and brick waste (TIFAC, 2000). Simultaneously, the excessive out (Yang et al., 2011; Zaharieva et al., 2003). It has been
use of natural aggregates has highlighted the need to search observed that the compressive strength of concrete made with

55
Magazine of Concrete Research
Volume 69 Issue 2
Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com
Author copy for personal use, not for distribution
RCA is influenced by various parameters, such as the
water/cement ratio, percentage of RCA replacement and the
amount of adhered mortar on the RCA. It is widely accepted
that the compressive strength of concrete made with RCA is
less than that of concrete made with NA when keeping all the
other parameters the same, because the fracture process in con-
crete made with RCA is not identical to that of concrete made
with NA (Exteberria et al., 2007; Joseph et al., 2015;
Limbachiya et al., 2000; Poon et al., 2004; Watanabe et al.,
2007; Yang et al., 2011). Normally, the compressive strength of
concrete made with 100% RCA ranges from 60% to 75% of the
compressive strength value of concrete made with 100% NA
(Bairagi et al., 1993; Katz, 2003; Park et al., 2015). However,
the reduction in strength is minimal when the replacement level
of RCA is up to 30% (Elhakam et al., 2012; Limbachiya et al.,
2000; Rao et al., 2011; Xiao et al., 2012a, 2012b). The degree
of strength reduction does vary with each source of aggregates
(Froudinstou, 1977). By contrast, the splitting tensile strength
of concrete made with RCA is less affected than the compres-
sive strength. A number of investigations have shown that con-
crete made with RCA provides comparable splitting tensile
strength to that of concrete made with NA, or in some cases
performs in a superior way (Kang et al., 2012). If the RCA is
sourced from low-strength concrete, however, its incorporation
in concrete yields a lower modulus of rupture than predicted
(Yang et al., 2008). Unexpectedly, the use of RCA produced
from high-strength concrete with low water absorption can give
a comparable performance to that of conventional concrete.
Undoubtedly, concrete beams made with NA show better per-
formance than concrete beams made with RCA on the basis of
service load deflection. Yet the change in aggregate type does
not have much influence on deflection, indicating that the use
of RCA in concrete need not be discouraged (Fathifazl et al.,
2009; Maruyama et al., 2004; Sato et al., 2007).
For many decades, most research studies in this area have been
devoted to investigating the fatigue performance of concrete
made with NA. Major characteristics that have been studied
are: S–N relationships; fatigue life distributions; fatigue
strength/endurance limit; mean and design fatigue lives; and so
on. Analysis of various strength prediction models has also
been carried out for evaluation of fatigue performance of con-
crete made with NA. It has been established that the range of
stress influences the fatigue strength of concrete considerably.
In general, fatigue strength increases with decrease in the range
of stress due to the fatigue applied load (Awad, 1971; Awad
and Hilsdorf, 1974; Galloway and Raithby, 1973; Goel et al.,
2012; Hilsdorf and Kesler, 1966; Mohammadi and Kaushik,
2005; Murdock and Kesler, 1958; Oh, 1986, 1991; Raithby
and Galloway, 1974; Singh and Kaushik, 2003).
However, very limited research has been carried out on the
fatigue characteristics of concrete made with RCA. It has been
shown that the endurance limit decreased as expected with
increase in the replacement of NA with RCA (Heeralal et al.,
56
Fatigue strength and failure probability
of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh
2009; Thomas et al., 2014; Xiao et al., 2013). It should be
noted that relatively fewer specimens have been tested in these
investigations. Owing to the statistical nature of the fatigue
phenomenon, large variability usually occurs in the fatigue life
data of concrete, at a given stress level. Therefore, in investi-
gations where the probabilistic analysis of the fatigue data is
the prime objective, as in this work, it is desirable to test a rela-
tively large number of specimens at a given stress level to
obtain data that are statistically significant. This approach has
been adopted by previous investigators (i.e. Mohammadi and
Kaushik, 2005; Oh, 1991) in their fatigue studies on concrete
made with NA.
Bearing in mind the wide potential of demolished concrete
as a source of RCA, limited investigations on its fatigue
behaviour are available and thus the present investigation has
been carried out to evaluate the flexural fatigue performance of
concrete beams made with 100% RCA. However, the basic
flexural fatigue parameters of concrete containing RCA have
been reported in recent research by the present authors (Arora
and Singh, 2015, 2016). The current research is intended to
verify the effectiveness of RCA for possible practical appli-
cations by comparing the results obtained with that of NA used
in the present work, as well as NA used by previous researchers.
Research significance
A brief review of the literature presented in the preceding
section indicates that although much research work has been
conducted on the mechanical properties of concrete made with
RCA under statically applied loads, the information on the
fatigue performance of concrete made with RCA is scanty. The
fatigue strength is a critical parameter in the design of concrete
structures that are subjected to fatigue loadings. Prediction of
the flexural fatigue strength of concrete necessitates the need
for probability concepts to be incorporated owing to the
inherent random and scattered nature of the fatigue data.
Therefore, the present investigation was planned to examine
the fatigue performance of concrete made with 100% RCA.
Fatigue strength prediction models representing S–N and
S–N–Pf relationships used for concrete made with NA are pro-
posed to be examined for concrete made with RCA. It is also
proposed to estimate the theoretical fatigue life of concrete
made with RCA. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of RCA
to be used in practice, a comparison of fatigue performance is
proposed to be made with that of concrete made using NA. It
is anticipated that the results of this investigation, which forms
part of a larger investigation currently in progress, will provide
design engineers with greater confidence when using concrete
made with RCA in structures that are most commonly influ-
enced by fatigue loads.
Experimental programme
An extensive experimental programme has been undertaken
to achieve the objectives as envisaged in this investigation.
Static flexural and flexural fatigue tests have been conducted
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

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Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

Aggregates Fineness Specific Aggregate impact Aggregate crushing Water

used modulus gravity value: % value: % absorption: %

RCA 6·70 2·46 30·43 25·6 5·35

NA 6·93 2·64 16·35 15·8 0·68

Table 1. Physical properties of RCA and NA

on beam specimens of size 100 mm
100 mm
500 mm
made with RCA and NA. In this investigation, all the NA were
replaced with RCA and specimens made with 100% NA were
also tested for comparison. Well-graded RCA was used, as pro-
cessed in the concrete technology laboratory at the authors’
institute, and with a maximum size of 12·5 mm. The grading
curve of the RCA was deliberately kept similar to the grading
curves of NA used in the present study as well as in previous
studies (Goel et al., 2012; Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005).
The physical properties of RCA and NA used in this investi-
gation are shown in Table 1. The grading curves of the NA
used in the present study and previous studies and the RCA
are shown in Figure 1. Portland cement (PC) of grade 43 with
specific gravity of 3·15 was used. Locally available coarse
sand was used as fine aggregate. An appropriate dose of poly-
carboxylate-ether-based super plasticiser was used to achieve
workability in the different concrete mixes. Table 2 shows
Concrete made
with NA (Goel
120
et al., 2012)
Concrete made
100
with NA
(present study)
Concrete made 80
% Passing
the basic mix proportions used in this investigation. The speci-
mens were cast in different batches, each batch consisting of
seven standard beam specimens of size 100 mm
100 mm

500 mm for static flexural and flexural fatigue tests, and
three cubes of size 150 mm
150 mm
150 mm for compres-
sive strength tests. The compressive strength tests were con-
ducted at the age of 28 d of curing to check the quality of
each batch. The beam specimens were cured for 90 d and kept
in the laboratory conditions thereafter for more than 2 months
before being tested for static flexure and flexural fatigue. This
was done in order to avoid any strength gain during the fatigue
tests, which are time consuming. Out of seven beam specimens,
generally three specimens were tested under static flexure to
determine the static flexural strength of each batch, and this
result was used to fix the minimum and maximum loads to
perform flexural fatigue tests on the remaining specimens of
the batch. All the static flexural strength and flexural fatigue
tests were conducted on a 100 kN MTS servo-controlled
actuator.
The fatigue loads were applied in the form of sinusoidal loads
with constant amplitude at a loading frequency of 10 Hz at
different stress levels (S = fmax/fr; fmax = maximum fatigue stress
and fr = static flexural strength) ranging from 0·85 to 0·65 at a
constant stress ratio (R = fmin/fmax; fmin = minimum fatigue

with NA stress) of 0·10. An upper limit of two million cycles of fatigue

(Mohammadi 60 load was fixed to save time and expense, because of the large
and Kaushik,
2005) number of specimens to be tested. The test was terminated as
40 and when specimen failure took place or the upper limit was
Concrete made
with RCA reached, whichever was earlier. In all, 64 flexural fatigue tests
(present study) 20 and 48 static flexural strength tests were conducted to obtain
the fatigue life data of concrete made with RCA and NA.
0
1 10 100 The 28 d average compressive strength obtained for concrete
Sieve size (log scale): mm
made with RCA and concrete made with NA was 31·7 MPa
Figure 1. Grading curves for NA in the present study, as well as and 41·8 MPa, respectively. The average static flexural strength
in previous investigations, and for RCA obtained for concrete made with RCA and NA was 4·53 MPa
and 5·10 MPa, respectively.

Cement: kg Fly ash: kg Fine aggregates: kg Coarse aggregates: kg Water: l

343 148 762 935 206

Table 2. Mix proportions per cubic metre of concrete made with

RCA

57
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com

Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

Fatigue test results and analysis
The fatigue test data obtained for concrete made with RCA
and NA at different stress levels in this investigation are listed
in Table 3. Data points meeting the criterion for rejection as
outliers were identified using Chauvenet’s criterion, and these
were rejected and excluded from further analysis (Kennedy and
Neville, 1986).
Fatigue strength prediction models representing
S–N relationships
The S–N models represented in Equations 1–3 have been used
in the past to predict the flexural fatigue strength of concrete
made with NA. It is proposed to estimate the material coeffi-
cients of these equations for the fatigue life data of concrete
made with RCA so that these can be used to predict its flex-
ural fatigue strength.
The first relationship, known as the Wholer equation (Engesvik,
1982), is given as follows
fmax
1: S¼ ¼ A þ B log 10 ðN Þ
fr
where fmax/fr is the stress ratio; N is the number of cycles to
failure; and A and B are the material coefficients.
The modified form of Wholer’s equation (Goel et al., 2012;
Oh, 1986; Tepfers and Kutti, 1979) is given as
fmax
2: S¼ ¼ 1  βð1  RÞ log10 ðN Þ
fr
where β is the material coefficient. The R term is incorporated
to simulate the loading conditions in actual structures where
the minimum value of repeated stress is not zero.
The third form of fatigue equation is a power formula (Vesic
and Saxena, 1969) written as
3: S ¼ C1 ðN ÞC2
The distinctive feature of Equation 3 is that the value of N
increases as S becomes small. This equation satisfies the
extreme boundary condition by having N approaching infinity
as S approaches zero.

Fatigue life data, N

Stress level S Specimen no. 0·85 0·75 0·65 0·55

RCA 1 567 192a 67 225 478 640b

2 789 4353 68 738 567 390b
3 1054 5615 88 969 763 984b
4 1188 9382 90 371 1 167 919b
5 1345 9792 120 805 —
6 1765 12 829 189 763 —
7 1897 13 702 249 867 —
8 2098 14 045 261 009 —
9 2156 23 020 319 551 —
10 2354 26 079 409 876 —
NA 1 444a 10 781 100 801 —
2 1137 13 879 142 054 —
3 1367 18 489 187 623 —
4 1678 21 945 220 075 —
5 1945 25 467 260 685 —
6 2271 31 256 323 068 —
7 2605 36 543 360 845 —
8 2647 42 842 456 944 —
9 3096 46 951 512 089 —
10 3987 51 348 558 973 —

a
Rejected as outlier by Chauvenet’s criterion, not included in analysis
b
Used for S–N curves only, not considered for analysis

Table 3. Fatigue life data (number of cycles to failure N, in

ascending order) for concrete made with RCA and NA

58
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com

Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

The fatigue test data for concrete made with RCA and NA as RCA and concrete made with NA have been developed using
listed in Table 3 have been used to estimate the material coeffi- graphical and mathematical approaches.
cients of Equations 1–3. The calculated values of the coeffi-
cients A and B of Equation 1 for concrete made with RCA b
ðlog N Þc
4: L ¼ ð10ÞaðSÞ
and NA are 1·123 and − 0·090 and 1·144 and − 0·089, respect-
ively. Similarly, the estimated values of material coefficient β
of Equation 2 for concrete made with RCA and concrete where a, b and c are experimental coefficients and L is the
made with NA are 0·0656 and 0·0620, with respective standard probability of survival (1 − Pf ). It has been shown that this
deviations of 0·0103 and 0·00894, and with a coefficient of relationship can be expressed graphically by a family of S–N–Pf
variation of 15·69% and 15·13%, respectively. The values of curves. For this purpose, Equation 5, which represents the
coefficients C1 and C2 of Equation 3 are 1·230 and 0·052, survival function of two-parameter Weibull distribution, is
respectively, for concrete made with RCA, and 1·265 and used
0·052 for concrete made with NA. With these estimated
values of the material coefficients for different equations, the   
1
flexural fatigue strength of concrete made with RCA can be 5: ln ln ¼ α lnðnÞ  α lnðuÞ
L
evaluated.

where α and u are the shape parameter and scale parameter of

Fatigue strength prediction models representing
S–N–Pf relationships
The design method of fatigue is clouded with uncertainties
arising from the assumptions made in the analysis, as well as
the intrinsic unevenness of the material. The fatigue life data
thus obtained undergo large variability at a given stress level,
even under controlled experimental conditions.
The design factors such as material strength and applied loads
are subject to statistical inconsistency. The precise characteris-
ation of this inconsistency is of utmost importance in design
for fatigue. To design structures subjected to fatigue loading,
there should be better predictability of fatigue strength, which
is an important parameter of concrete subjected to fatigue
loading (Goel et al., 2012). This can be ensured by incorporat-
ing the probability of failure into S–N relationships. The satis-
factory representation of fatigue tests data must include the
probability of failure Pf in addition to stress level S and
number of cycles to failure N. Therefore, modelling of this
variation has been a subject of interest.
McCall (1958) obtained S–N–Pf relationships using graphical
and mathematical techniques represented by Equation 4. In
the present study, S–N–Pf relationships for concrete made with
the Weibull distribution. The fatigue life data of concrete made
with RCA and NA as listed in Table 3 for different stress levels
has been analysed by the graphical method, method of
moments and method of maximum likelihood estimate, and
the values of the parameters of the Weibull distribution have
been obtained in addition to establishing that the fatigue life
data of concrete made with RCA and NA at different stress
levels can be modelled by the two-parameter Weibull distri-
bution. The detailed results are not presented here. The
average values of the Weibull parameters obtained from the
different methods for the fatigue life data of concrete made
with RCA and NA are listed in Table 4 for reference.
Substitution of L with (1 − Pf ) in Equation 5 gives the follow-
ing equation
 
ln½lnð1=1  Pf Þ þ α lnðnÞ
6: N ¼ ln1
α
Equation 6 can be used to calculate the fatigue lives at differ-
ent stress levels corresponding to different failure probabilities
(Pf ) using the average values of the parameters of Weibull dis-
tribution as estimated above.

Average values from graphical method, method of moments and maximum likelihood method

Stress level (S) S = 0·85 S = 0·75 S = 0·65

Weibull distribution parameter α u α u α u

Concrete made with 100% RCA (present study) 2·556 1729 1·867 15 085 1·598 213 422
Concrete made with 100% NA (present study) 2·7212 2582 2·1902 34 168 2·0331 355 239

Table 4. Values of shape parameter α and scale parameter u for

the fatigue life data of concretes made with RCA and NA

59
Magazine of Concrete Research
Volume 69 Issue 2
Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com
Author copy for personal use, not for distribution
For the purpose of generating S–N–Pf diagrams for concrete
made with RCA and NA, a double logarithm has been taken
on both sides of Equation 4 as
logð log LÞ ¼ logðaÞ þ b logðS Þ þ c logðlog N Þ
The above expression satisfies the linear equation
7: Y ¼ A þ bX þ cZ
where Y = log(−logL), A = log(a), X = log(S) and Z = log(logN)
Equation 7 is used to analyse the fatigue test data of concrete
made with RCA and NA.
Table 5 presents the values of coefficients a, b and c of
Equation 4 for concretes made with RCA as well as NA. The
values of a, b and c obtained for concrete made with NA in
one previous study (Goel et al., 2012) are also listed for
comparison.
The final equations for concrete made with RCA and NA can
be represented in the following forms
33674
ðlog N Þ1813
8a: L ¼ ð10Þ510E08ðS Þ
41045
ðlog N Þ2254
8b: L ¼ ð10Þ223E10ðS Þ
The Equations 8a and 8b represent the mathematical relation-
ships for the family of S–N–Pf curves for concrete made with
RCA and NA. These equations can be used to predict the con-
cretes’ flexural fatigue strengths for the required level of survi-
val probability or probability of failure Pf.
To develop a family of S–N–Pf relationships for concrete made
with RCA graphically, the procedure adopted by previous
researchers (Goel et al., 2012; McCall, 1958; Singh and
Mix
Concrete made with 100% RCA (present study)
Concrete made with 100% NA (present study)
Concrete made with100% NA (Goel et al., 2012)
Table 5. Material coefficients a, b and c of Equation 4 for
concretes made with RCA and NA in present study as well as in
a previous study
60
Fatigue strength and failure probability
of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh
Kaushik, 2003) for concrete made with NA has been followed.
A family of such curves developed for concrete made with
RCA is shown in Figure 2. In the first step, a family of N–Pf
curves has been generated by plotting the probability of failure,
Pf, against the number of cycles to failure, N, corresponding to
each stress level tested, as shown in the lower left part of the
Figure 2. In the next step, a family of S–N curves has been
plotted using the previously generated N–Pf curves. This is
shown in the upper right part of Figure 2. Finally, the S–Pf
curves have been plotted using previously generated S–N
curves, as shown in the upper left part of Figure 2. Similarly, a
family of curves for concrete made with NA, tested in the
present study, has been generated and plotted in Figure 3.
Using Equations 8a and 8b, some typical predicted curves
have been plotted in Figures 2 and 3, respectively, for concrete
made with RCA and NA. It can be observed that predicted
curves are fairly close to the experimental curves.
To establish the modelling abilities of Equations 8a and 8b for
the fatigue life data of concrete made with RCA and NA, the
predicted number of cycles for various Pf values calculated
using these equations have been plotted against experimental
data in Figures 4 and 5, respectively. It can be observed that
the correlation coefficients obtained for concrete made with
RCA as well as NA in the present study are higher than 0·95,
which establishes the applicability of Equations 8a and 8b to
predict the fatigue behaviour of both concrete made with RCA
and with NA.
Estimation of theoretical fatigue life
In this investigation, the theoretical fatigue lives of concretes
made with RCA and their reduction with respect to that of
concrete made with NA have also been determined to evaluate
the concretes’ flexural fatigue performance. In the present
section, Equation 1 is employed to examine the flexural
fatigue performance of concrete made with RCA and NA at a
particular probability of failure, namely Pf = 0·10. It has
already been established that the flexural fatigue life distri-
butions of concrete made with RCA and NA, at a particular
stress level, can be approximately modelled by two-parameter
Weibull distribution. It has also been recognised that
Coefficients, Equation 4
a b c
−08
5·10
10 33·67 18·13
2·23
10−10 41·05 22·54
2·22
10−12 51·34 27·76
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com

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Probability of failure, Pf
1·0 0·8 0·6 0·4 0·2 0
0·95 0·95
N = 1000 Pf = 0·1
0·90 0·90
0·85 Pf = 0·3
0·85
N = 10 000 Pf = 0·5
0·80 0·80
Stress level, S

Stress level, S
0·75 N = 50 000 Pf = 0·7 0·75
0·70 Pf = 0·9 0·70
0·65 N = 100 000 0·65
0·60 0·60
N = 500 000
0·55 0·55
0·50 0·50
1·00 × 102 1·00 × 103 1·00 × 104 1·00 × 105 1·00 × 106
Cycles to failure, N

1·00 × 103
S = 0·85
Cycles to failure, N

1·00 × 104
S = 0·75

Predicted curves
Curves from test data
1·00 × 105

S = 0·65

1·00 × 106
1·0 0·8 0·6 0·4 0·2 0
Probability of failure, Pf

Figure 2. S–N–Pf diagram for concrete made with 100% RCA

Equation 6 can be used to calculate the fatigue lives corre-
sponding to different failure probabilities Pf using average
values of the parameters of the Weibull distribution, as listed
in Table 4. The calculated values of fatigue lives for concrete
made with RCA and NA in the present investigation are listed
in Table 6 and compared with previous studies (Goel et al.,
2012; Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005) on concrete made with
NA at a failure probability of 0·10. These values have been
further plotted in Figure 6 for the purpose of comparison
among fatigue curves for concrete made with RCA, concrete
made with NA tested in the present study and previous studies
on concrete made with NA (Goel et al., 2012; Mohammadi
and Kaushik, 2005). Considerable reduction in the fatigue lives
of concretes made with RCA has been observed compared to
concrete made with NA.
The fatigue performance is dependent on two important
coefficients/parameters A and B of Equation 1. The par-
ameters A and B of Equation 1 are obtained from regression
analysis for the fatigue curves of concrete made with RCA and
NA in Figures 5 and 6, respectively. The parameters A and B
of the single-log fatigue equation, generated for concrete made
with RCA and NA in the present study as well as in previous
studies at failure probability of 10%, that is, Pf = 0·10, are
listed in Table 7. The single-log fatigue equation has been used
to calculate the fatigue lives at different stress levels

61
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

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Probability of failure, Pf
1·0 0·8 0·6 0·4 0·2 0
0·90 0·90

N = 4000 Pf = 0·1
0·85 0·85

Pf = 0·3
0·80 0·80
Stress level, S

Stress level, S
N = 10 000 Pf = 0·5
0·75 0·75
N = 100 000
0·70 Pf = 0·7 0·70
N = 400 000
0·65 0·65

0·60 N = 1 000 000 0·60

0·55 1·00 × 103 0·55

1·00 × 103 1·00 × 104 1·00 × 105 1·00 × 106
Cycles to failure, N
S = 0·85

1·00 × 104
Cycles to failure, N

S = 0·75

1·00 × 105

S = 0·65
Predicted curves
Curves from test data

1·00 × 106
1·0 0·8 0·6 0·4 0·2 0
Probability of failure, Pf

Figure 3. S–N–Pf diagram for concrete made with 100% NA

corresponding to probability of failure, Pf = 0·1. Table 8 pre-
sents the theoretical fatigue lives of concrete made with RCA
and concrete made with NA in the present study, as well as
concrete made with NA in previous investigations (Goel et al.,
2012; Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005). It can be seen from
Figure 7 that the theoretical fatigue life of concrete made with
RCA is reduced by 42·0% and 60·5% with respect to the con-
crete made with NA in the present study corresponding to the
stress levels S = 0·90 and S = 0·65, respectively.
This reduction in the fatigue life of concrete made with RCA
compared to concrete made with NA, as observed in the
present investigation, may be due to the fact that the concrete
made with RCA exhibits a relatively less compact structure in
comparison to concrete made with NA. A relatively poor bond
between the old mortar and coarse aggregates, the number of
cracks and transverse fissures formed during the recycling
process and the presence of weak porous mortar around the
RCA makes the concrete less compact and more hetero-
geneous, which may be responsible for the reduction in the
fatigue life of concrete made with RCA (Behera et al., 2014).
Figure 7 also summarises the reduction in the theoretical
fatigue lives of concrete made with RCA compared to concrete
made with NA in previous studies (Goel et al., 2012;

62
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

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Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

stress levels and, as the stress level decreases, the reduction

Number of cycles to failure, log N, predicted

6·0
becomes more noticeable.
5·5 Concrete made with 100% RCA
CC = 0·9965
The results reported in this paper form part of a larger investi-
5·0
gation undertaken by the authors. The objectives of the investi-
4·5 gation were to quantify the flexural fatigue performance of
concrete made with RCA as compared to concrete made with
4·0 NA, although it is expected that concrete made with RCA may
perform poorly compared to concrete made with NA.
3·5
Although this paper reports the fatigue test results of concrete
3·0 made with 100% RCA, fatigue tests have also been conducted
on a concrete mix made with 50% RCA + 50% NA. In order
2·5 to compensate the loss in the fatigue performance of concrete
2·5 3·5 4·5 5·5
on account of substitution of NA with RCA, concrete mixes
Number of cycles to failure, log N, experimental
made with mineral admixtures such as metakaolin (MK) and
Figure 4. Modelling ability of Equation 8a for fatigue life data of silica fume (SF) have also been tested. It has been reported
concrete made with 100% RCA that the fatigue performance of concrete made with NA can be
enhanced with the addition of mineral admixtures (Kaur et al.,
2014, 2015). The preliminary results of the fatigue tests con-
ducted on concrete mixes made with 50% RCA + 50% NA and
100% RCA + 10% MK are presented in Table 9 for reference.
Number of cycles to failure, log N, predicted

6·0 A comparison of the results presented in Tables 4 and 9 indi-

5·5 cates that the fatigue performance of concrete made with RCA
Concrete made with 100% NA
CC = 0·9905
can be improved with the addition of mineral admixtures such
5·0 as MK.

4·5
Conclusion
4·0 The results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of
3·5 the flexural fatigue strength of concrete made with RCA and
concrete made with NA are presented. Flexural fatigue life
3·0 data of concrete made with RCA and NA were obtained at
different stress levels to achieve the study objectives. The
2·5
2·5 3·0 3·5 4·0 4·5 5·0 5·5 6·0 materials coefficients of fatigue equations used to predict the
Number of cycles to failure, log N, experimental flexural fatigue strength of concrete made with NA have been
estimated for concrete made with RCA, thus making these
Figure 5. Modelling ability of Equation 8b for fatigue life data of
equations applicable for concrete made with RCA. The fatigue
concrete made with 100% NA
test data have also been used to develop S–N–Pf relationships,
both graphical and analytical, for concrete made with RCA,
thus establishing a relationship between stress level, fatigue life
Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005). Although the reduction and survival probability. The comparison of the theoretical
in theoretical fatigue life of concrete made with RCA com- fatigue life of concrete made with RCA with that of concrete
pared to concrete made with NA is significant at all of the made with 100% NA in the present study indicates that there is
stress levels, but the reduction is found to be lower at higher a reduction of the order of 42·0% and 60·5%, corresponding to

Stress level (S) S = 0·85 S = 0·80 S = 0·75 S = 0·70 S = 0·65

Concrete made with 100% RCA (present study) 758 — 4301 — 54 907
Concrete made with 100% NA (present study) 1390 — 8862 — 132 682
Concrete made with 100% NA (Goel et al. 2012) 926 3963 10 612 27 803 119 582
Concrete made with 100% NA (Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005) 927 4106 — 38 304 —

Table 6. Calculated values of fatigue lives of concretes made with

100% RCA and 100% NA at failure probability of 0·10

63
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com

Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

0·90

0·85
Value of stress level, S

Concrete made with 100%

0·80 NA (Goel et al., 2012)
RCA (present) Concrete made with 100%
0·75 y = –0·106x + 1·149 RCA (present study)
NA (present) Concrete made with 100%
y = –0·099x + 1·156 NA (Mohammadi and
0·70 NA (Goel et al., 2012)
Kaushik, 2005)
y = –0·098x + 1·144
NA (Mohammadi and Concrete made with 100%
0·65
Kaushik, 2005) NA (present study)
y = –0·093x + 1·131
0·60
2·5 3·0 3·5 4·0 4·5 5·0 5·5
Value of log10N

Figure 6. Calculated fatigue lives of concrete made with 100%

RCA and concrete made with 100% NA in present and previous
studies

Authors Fatigue equations A B

Concrete made with 100% RCA (present study) S = 1·149 − 0·106log(N) 1·149 − 0·106
Concrete made with 100% NA (present study) S = 1·156 − 0·099log(N) 1·156 − 0·099
Concrete made with 100% NA (Goel et al., 2012) S = 1·144 − 0·098log(N) 1·144 − 0·098
Concrete made with 100% NA (Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005) S = 1·131 − 0·093log(N) 1·131 − 0·093

Table 7. Single-log fatigue equation and its coefficients A and B

corresponding to 10% probability of failure (Pf = 0·10) for
concretes made with RCA as well as NA in the present study and
previous studies

Stress Concrete made with Concrete made with 100% NA Concrete made with Concrete made with
level, S 100% NA (Goel et al., (Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005) 100% NA (present 100% RCA (present
2012) study) study)

Theoretical fatigue life

0·90 310 305 385 223

0·85 1002 1051 1233 662
0·80 3245 3624 3944 1961
0·75 10 506 12 496 12 619 5810
0·70 34 012 43 093 40 370 17 213
0·65 110 113 148 608 129 155 50 997

Table 8. Theoretical fatigue lives of concrete made with 100%

RCA and comparison with concrete made with 100% NA in the
present study, as well as previous studies

64
Magazine of Concrete Research Fatigue strength and failure probability
Volume 69 Issue 2 of concrete made with RCA
Arora and Singh

Offprint provided courtesy of www.icevirtuallibrary.com

Author copy for personal use, not for distribution

70·0
Reduction in theortical fatigue life of concrete

60·0
Moh· and Concrete made with100%
50·0 NA (Goel et al., 2012)
Goel et al 2012 Kaushik 2005
made with RCA: %

Concrete made with100% NA

40·0 (Mohammadi and Kaushik, 2005)
Concrete made with100% NA
30·0 (present study)

20·0

10·0

0
0·90 0·85 0·80 0·75 0·70 0·65
Stress level: S

Figure 7. Reduction in theoretical fatigue lives of concrete made

with 100% RCA compared to concrete made with 100% NA in
present and previous studies

Average values from graphical method, method of moments and maximum likelihood method

Stress level, S S = 0·85 S = 0·75 S = 0·65

Weibull distribution parametera α u α u α u

Concrete made with 50% RCA + 50% NA 2·638 1789 1·915 23 139 1·667 315 574
Concrete made with 100% RCA + 10% MK 2·718 5866 2·131 127 769 1·912 865 896

a
Refer to Table 4 for Weibull distribution parameters of concrete mixes made with 100% RCA and 100% NA

Table 9. Weibull distribution parameters for concrete made with

50% RCA, 100% RCA + 10% MK

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