SHEAR STRENGTH OF CONCRETE BEAM CAST USING

BROKEN BRICKS AGGREGATES

Saraj Singh Gill1, Harvinder Singh1

1. Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, India

Theme: Sustainable design and eco technologies for infrastructure

Sub-Theme: New construction materials

ABSTRACT. Concrete is renowned for using a lot of non-renewable resources and is the
largest man-made material that finds its use in various construction activities worldwide.
Aggregates are often made by crushing rocks that have been removed from either mountains
or quarries or crushing river gravels or boulders. Reusing broken bricks from demolished
buildings in concrete is one of the options that may help conserve the natural resources. It is
well established that the use of such aggregates in concrete helps reduce the density, thermal
conductivity but it also influences its mechanical properties. The addition of steel fibers in the
concrete help improve the strength, especially its post cracking characteristics. The shear
strength of concrete beams cast using broken brick bats in the form of coarse aggregates is a
little explored area which needs further investigations to establish the effect of this
replacement on the strength. This paper attempts to see the effect of using broken brick
aggregates along with the steel fibers on the shear strength of concrete beams. It was found
that the shear strength of RC beams cast using the brick aggregates and that with the natural
aggregates is remarkably similar, and the specimens exhibited greater shear strength in the
cases of 16 mm and 20 mm sized aggregates.

Keywords: Shear strength, Broken brick aggregate, RC beams, Steel fibers

Saraj Singh Gill is a post graduate student at Civil Engineering Department, Guru Nanak
Dev Engineering College Ludhiana and, has completed his research work on use of broken
brick bats in concrete.
Email Id: sarajlehra@gmail.com

Harvinder Singh is professor at Civil Engineering Department, Guru Nanak Dev

Engineering College Ludhiana and, has published extensively on the subject of structural
modelling and use of sustainable materials in routine design applications. He also authored
monograms on Steel fiber reinforced concrete and structural materials.
Email Id: hvs1221@gmail.com