Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Review

Alternative processing procedures for recycled aggregates in structural

concrete
Marco Pepe a, Romildo D. Toledo Filho b, Eduardus A.B. Koenders b,c, Enzo Martinelli a,⇑
a
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy
b
Department of Civil Engineering, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, P.O. Box 68506, CEP: 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
c
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands

h i g h l i g h t s

 Recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) present higher porosity than natural ones.
 The higher porosity of RCAs results in a higher water absorption capacity.
 Autogenous cleaning process is considered to reduce water absorption.
 The influence of the process duration on the concrete properties is investigated.
 Both workability and strength are enhanced by the process under consideration.

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

Article history: As sustainability is becoming a fundamental requirement for all modern industrial activities, upcoming
Received 4 February 2014 environmental research efforts should be intended at both enhancing the efficiency in the use of raw
Received in revised form 21 May 2014 materials and reducing the carbon footprint. The present research activity has been launched at the Fed-
Accepted 30 June 2014
eral University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ, Brazil) for demonstrating the feasibility of ‘‘ecological concrete’’ for
structural use, characterised by a significant replacement of natural aggregates with recycled ones, which
are produced from processing Construction Demolition Waste (CDW). Particularly, this work explores
Keywords:
alternative processing procedures and investigates their influence on the relevant physical and mechan-
Concrete
Sustainability
ical properties of the resulting aggregates and concrete mixtures. Therefore, particle size distribution,
Recycled aggregates bulk density attached mortar content as well as the associated water absorption capacity of recycled
Processing aggregates were monitored to scrutinise the effect of such processing procedures. Subsequently, a series
Water absorption of concrete batches was produced for evaluating the influence that alternative processing procedures for
Attached mortar recycled aggregates have on the main mechanical performance in a fresh and hardened state. Results
reported in this paper show the feasibility of ‘‘autogenous cleaning’’, which removes surface impurities
and reduces particle heterogeneities, usually characterising the morphology of a recycled aggregate
matrix. It shows that the considered cleaning procedure significantly reduces the gap between the per-
formance of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and ordinary ones, both in terms of workability at the
fresh state and strength at the hardened state of concrete mixtures.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
2. Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2.1. Cement and superplasticizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2.2. Natural aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2.3. Recycled concrete aggregates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 089 964098; fax: +39 089 964045.
E-mail addresses: mapepe@unisa.it (M. Pepe), toledo@coc.ufrj.br (R.D. Toledo Filho), e.a.b.koenders@coc.ufrj.br, e.a.b.koenders@tudelft.nl (E.A.B. Koenders),
e.martinelli@unisa.it (E. Martinelli).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.06.084
0950-0618/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132 125

2.4. Recycled aggregate concrete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

3. Results and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
3.1. Experimental characterisation of RCAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
3.2. Experimental characterisation of RACs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

1. Introduction European Union, such as The Netherlands and Denmark, environ-

Environmental issues are gaining increasing consideration in
engineering and industrial applications and are more and more
often the crucial point in decision-making procedures. In fact,
starting from the second half of the last century, the world produc-
tion of goods and services has increased exponentially as a results
of several phenomena, such as huge expansions in industrial activ-
ities, vast developments of urban areas and strong demographic
growth. Moreover, in more recent years, significant industrial
growth of emerging economies such as in Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa (BRICS) suggests that the world demand
for raw materials will even further increase in the near future
[1]. Therefore, industrial processes and human activities should
be intended at both increasing the efficiency in (re-)using raw
materials and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the cur-
rent rate of consuming natural resources will result in an unsus-
tainable pressure on the Earth’s natural balances and resources
[2]. In the end, the same processes and activities produce a signif-
icant amount of end products which will finally turn into ‘‘waste’’.
Although no common definition is actually accepted for the word
‘‘waste’’ across all countries, the following classification is often
adopted within the international scientific literature [3]: Municipal
Waste (produced by individuals and economic activities), Indus-
trial Waste (related to production processes), Construction and
Demolition Waste (produced by construction sector), and Mining
Waste (generated by oil and gas operations). According to this clas-
sification, construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is defined as
all kinds of waste obtained from construction, renovation and
demolition activities. In fact, it covers a very broad range of used
materials like: concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics, wood, glass
and plastic, bituminous mixtures, coal tar and tarred products,
metals, soil, etc.
In Europe, the contribution of each sector to the generation of
waste is well described by the EEA (European Environment
Agency), which monitors all available data from the first 15 Mem-
ber States of the European Union. The percentages of produced
waste varies considerably among the different sectors and waste
categories, and reflects different socio-economic factors. It is inter-
esting to mention that, according to the EEA data, the largest share
of waste (31%) derives from construction and demolition activities,
while, municipal waste, which is probably better related to the
idea of waste in the common way of thinking, only represents
about 12% of the total waste production [4].
In fact, about 850 million tons of C&DW are generated each year
in Europe and approximately one third consists of concrete debris
[5]. In order to compare the production of C&DW among European
countries, it is useful to refer to values per capita. For instance,
when considering data between 2004 and 2006, Luxembourg had
the highest production per capita, with 15 tonnes, while any other
country did not exceed one half of this value (ETC/SCP, 2009) [6].
Moreover, in 2004 France generated about 6 tons per capita, Fin-
land 4 tons, while Germany showed a remarkable decrease of
C&DW production from 1995 to 2005, as less than 2 tons per capita
were recorded. Finally, the majority of European countries gener-
ate between 1 and 2 tons. However, as in many countries of the
mental restrictions do not allow for opening new landfills any-
more, leading to a strong motivation for finding alternative
solutions for handling the significant amount of C&DW, such as
the production of recycled aggregates. Taking this point into
account, it is interesting to analyse some available data about the
current practices in recycling C&DW. For instance, it can be
observed that, even though Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands
generate almost the same amount of C&DW per capita, Italy recy-
cles only 10% of its overall production, despite the remarkable
results achieved by the other two aforementioned countries, where
the percentage of recycling and reusing is more than 90% [7].
The ambition of reducing the use of natural materials in con-
struction and the aim of reducing the environmental impact of
the concrete industry has recently driven Europe to adopt a policy
that strongly promotes the use of recycled aggregates in concrete
production. The European Directive n.98 of 19/11/2008 [8] calls
on member states to take ‘‘the necessary measures to promote
the reuse of products and the preparing measures for re-use activ-
ities, particularly by promoting the establishment of economic
tools and criteria about tenders, quantitative targets or other mea-
sures’’. Particularly, it specifies that preparations for re-use, recy-
cling and other types of recovery of material, including
construction and demolition waste, shall be increased up to at least
70% (by weight) by 2020.
Waste materials produced from either demolished concrete
structures or from industrial precasting of concrete members, are
the potential sources for Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCAs),
and can possibly be employed for producing new cement-based
composites, such as ecological concretes or mortars [9]. The result-
ing physical and mechanical properties of these concretes,
produced with recycled aggregates, were initially investigated
from several papers recently published in the technical literature
[10–15]. The focus of these papers is mostly on comparing the rel-
evant performance aspects of Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC)
with the ordinary ones, made with ‘‘natural’’ aggregates [16]. Sev-
eral investigations point out that the physical and mechanical
properties of RAC strongly depend on the quality (nature, size
and grading) of the recycled aggregates [17]. In fact, RCAs are par-
ticularly characterised by a significantly higher water absorption
capacity and lower mechanical properties with respect to ‘‘natural’’
gravel and sand [18]. The reason for this behaviour can be attrib-
uted to the higher porosity characterising the outer layers of the
crushed concrete particles, called ‘‘attached mortar’’. Since this
attached mortar structure of RCA clearly affects the relevant phys-
ical and mechanical properties of RAC, a certain attention should
be paid to monitor these effects, or even better, take them into
account in the mix design. This can be possibly done by measuring
their water absorption capacity, its effect on the workability at the
fresh state and, its consequence on the mechanical properties in
terms of strength at the hardened state [19,20].
As a matter of fact, recycled concrete aggregates are mainly
composed of two phases [21,22], namely old aggregates and old
mortar paste. Consequently, the standard procedure generally
adopted for the design and production of ordinary concrete
(i.e., with natural aggregates), cannot be applied when Recycled
126 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132
Aggregates Concrete is used. In fact, changes in aggregates proper-
ties results in a different matrix at the concrete’s meso-level
structure, where ordinary concrete is generally considered as a
three-phase material [23,24], i.e. natural aggregates, paste and
interfacial transition zone (ITZ). On the contrary, in the case of
RACs, the situation is quite different, as more than just three
phases could be generally present: natural aggregates (if the aggre-
gate replacement ratio is lower than 100%), old natural aggregates,
old mortar paste, new mortar paste and several types of ITZs
(between the ‘‘old’’ and ‘‘new’’ compounds). For these reasons
the failure mechanism of RACs could be significantly different with
respect to the one usually observed in ordinary concrete. It will
depend on several critical factors, among which the different types
of ITZs that may play a key role in the internal microstructure of a
concrete [25,26]. Therefore, Fathifazl et al. [27] proposed a new
method for taking into account the above listed factors in order
to be able to predict the mechanical and physical behaviour of
RACs. However, it is worth noticing that the nature of the base-
materials and their proportioning are not the only relevant aspects
in controlling the performance of RACs. In fact, the actual produc-
tion and processing procedure used in recycling existing concrete,
and turn it into recycled aggregate particles, can also have a large
impact on the properties of such aggregates and, in turn, the
performance of RACs. Therefore, because of the lack of a standard
procedure for recycling Construction and Demolition Waste to
RCAs, the following steps are considered in this article: manually
removing the non-mineral fraction, grinding the debris and finally
sieving the produced aggregates aiming at separating the fine frac-
tions (i.e., sand) from the coarse ones [28].
Beyond this generally adopted procedure, the present paper is
particularly intended at developing an alternative and more
refined processing procedure for controlling the performance of
RCAs, and with this, enhancing the properties of recycled aggre-
gates by minimising their irregularities and scatter. In fact, the
research work reported in this paper is mainly focused on under-
standing the feasibility and effectiveness of some processes that
have to be performed on crushed concrete debris to obtain RCAs,
in order to achieve controlled physical and mechanical properties.
In the following sections the main properties of the materials
employed in the experimental part of this study are presented,
along with the alternative processing procedures considered.
Moreover, results of the experimental campaign, carried out on
RAC samples, are compared with nominal control samples
obtained from the same mix-design, but replacing portions of nat-
ural aggregates by RCAs, and produced according to different pro-
cessing procedures. The experimental activities described in this
work were carried out at the Laboratório de Estruturas e Materiais
(LABEST) which is part of the Programa de Engenharia Civil (PEC/
COPPE) of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), as part
of the European EnCoRe project on ‘‘Environmentally-friendly
Table 1
Chemical compounds of the CP V ARI RS cement.
Chemical components %
CaO 67.697
SiO2 17.220
Al2O3 5.537
SO3 4.678
Fe2O3 3.431
TiO2 0.337
K2O 0.337
MnO 0.269
SrO 0.256
BaO 0.153
Ag2O 0.034
ZnO 0.033
CuO 0.019
solutions for Concrete with Recycled and natural components’’
(http://www.encore-fp7.unisa.it).
2. Materials and methods
This section reports the details on the materials employed in
the experimental tests and on the procedures carried out for pro-
cessing the demolished concrete debris and how the recycled con-
crete aggregates (RCAs) were obtained.
2.1. Cement and superplasticizer
All the concrete mixtures considered in this study were pro-
duced by using ‘‘high initial strength Portland cement’’, indicated
as CP V ARI RS, according to the National Brazilian Standard
(NBR) 5733 [29], characterised by a specific mass of 3100 kg/m3,
and having a chemical composition as reported in Table 1. The
characteristic value of compressive strength of the cement paste
is expected to be 25 MPa after 3 days, with a rise to about
55 MPa after 60 days of hardening. The grain size distribution of
the Portland cement showed that 95% of its particles are smaller
than 50 lm and 50% of the particles are passing 15 lm. Moreover,
a polycarboxilate superplasticizer, Glenium 51, was used for work-
ability control, which is characterised by a specific mass of 1.07 kg/
l and a solid concentration content of 30% [30].
2.2. Natural aggregates
Natural aggregates, made of common crushed limestone, were
divided into three size classes according to the Brazilian standard
[28]:
– Brita 1, nominal diameter: from 19 mm down to 9.5 mm;
– Brita 0, nominal diameter: from 9.5 mm down to 4.75 mm;
– Sand, with nominal diameter smaller than 4.75 mm.
Moreover, in order to characterise the natural aggregates, both
their water absorption and bulk density were evaluated according
to the standard procedure proposed by NBR NM 52 [31], for fine
aggregates (i.e., sand) and NBR NM 53 [32] for coarse aggregates
(i.e., Brita 0 and Brita 1). The details of the above analysis are
reported in Section 3.1.
2.3. Recycled concrete aggregates
The recycled concrete aggregates employed in this study were
obtained from the demolition remainings of the hospital Clementi-
no Fraga Filho in Rio de Janeiro – BR. The recycled aggregates were
selected and analysed by the university laboratory for construction
materials LABEST (PEC/COPPE – UFRJ Rio de Janeiro), and were pro-
cessed in the following steps:
 Particle homogenisation, with the objective to homogenise the
demolition debris and remove residual wood, steel and plastic
pieces;
 Grinding and sieving, aiming at transforming the demolition
debris into aggregates of the appropriate size classes Brita 1,
Brita 0 and Sand;
 Autogenous cleaning, intended at removing most of the
‘‘attached mortar’’ layers residing on the aggregate surfaces.
The first two processing steps are generally performed on Con-
struction and Demolition waste to produce RCAs. In addition, a
third one was specifically carried out to possibly enhance the
 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132
Fig. 1. Autogenous cleaning process.
quality of RCAs and, with this, the mechanical properties of Recy-
cled Aggregate Concrete (RAC).
The particle homogenisation carried out on the initial crushed
concrete particles was based upon collecting and selecting such
particles and debris by considering their predominant colour.
Therefore, at the demolition site debris was selected and subdi-
vided into the following two fractions:
 ‘‘grey’’, consisting of particles mainly made of structural con-
crete (and, in a minor portion, mortar) debris;
 ‘‘red’’, made of clay brick and other ceramic-based (i.e. tiles)
materials.
This study is focused on the ‘‘grey’’ fraction with emphasis on
the mechanical performance. The homogenisation process was car-
ried out by means of a so-called ‘‘cells process’’ (homogenising pro-
cess per unit cell), in which the raw materials were distributed on a
plastic sheet in different layers throughout the whole length of the
sheet. Thus, with this, the raw concrete particles are homogenously
distributed over the length of the sheet, and, starting from the mid-
dle section, layers of raw materials are subdivided in several sec-
tions called ‘‘cells’’. Next, the homogenised material was then
grinded with a crusher, jaw crusher type (model Queixada 200 pro-
duced by Vegedry) [33]. During the grinding phase, the material
was separated into two classes, namely fine and coarse aggregates.
For each sample of the homogenised material, about 40% was
obtained as coarse aggregates (nominal diameter bigger than
4.75 mm) and the rest was defined as fine aggregates (sand)
(<4.75 mm).
After grinding, the recycled aggregates were sieved and divided
into the three size classes already defined before in Section 2.2.
With the aim of reducing the amount of fine materials attached
to the surface of recycled aggregates (mainly debris from cement
paste and sand, called ‘‘attached mortar’’), an autogenous cleaning
process was conceived and performed. With this process RCAs
are placed in a rotating mill drum and collide against each other
while removing pieces of attached mortar. The mill drum, 30 cm
in diameter and 50 cm in depth (Fig. 1), was filled up to 33% with
‘‘raw’’ recycled aggregates and the rotation rate was imposed to 60
rotations for minute. After the autogenous cleaning process, aggre-
gates were cleaned with water and subsequently dried to remove
all the produced fine remainings and impurities.
The efficiency of the autogenous cleaning process was analysed
by investigating how it actually modified the key physical proper-
ties of the particles after applying different durations of cleaning
(ranging from 2 to 15 min). To have a first impression of the clean-
ing efficiency, some preliminary trials cases were performed on
raw RCA particles (i.e., not homogenised). The effect of these trial
procedures was ‘‘measured’’ by determining the water absorption
capacity of the same particles before and after various ‘‘cleaning’’
127
durations. The results of autogenous cleaning, for both Brita 0
and Brita 1, showed a progressive decrease of the water absorption
capacity, with increasing durations from 2 to 10 or 15 min. Based
on these preliminary findings, the final choice for the duration of
autogenous cleaning of the homogenised particles used in the
experimental program is 10 and 15 min.
Within the experimental program, several tests were performed
on both natural and recycled aggregate samples while aiming at
comparing their key mechanical and physical properties like water
absorption, bulk density grain size distribution, thermal treatment
for evaluating the attached mortar, image analysis using photo-
graphs and 3D CT-scanning analysis.
The mass of the attached mortar (AM) that was removed from
the outer layers of the recycled concrete aggregates (RCAs) was
measured by a thermal treatment test. This method was used
because a standard procedure for evaluating the attached mortar
content of recycled aggregates is still lacking, and this thermal
treatment test has been proposed by several authors [27,34].
According them, the method represents most accurate results for
evaluating the attached mortar content in RCAs. The procedure
for evaluating the AM content has the following steps:
 Weigh a certain amount of dried recycled aggregates with ini-
tial mass mi;
 Immerse the dry aggregates in water for 2 h. In this way the old
mortar paste can saturate with water (and the old (solid) natu-
ral aggregates do not);
 Heat the saturated aggregates for 2 h at a constant temperature
of 500 °C;
 Sudden immerse of the aggregates in water at room tempera-
ture (20 °C). The thermal shock will cause internal stresses
and stimulate de-bonding and unleash of the attached mortar
paste from the natural aggregate surface
 If some attached mortar is still residing at the outer layer of the
aggregate, remove it carefully by hand or by using a rubber
hammer;
 Dry the remaining coarse aggregates (i.e., nominal diameter
above 4 mm) up to 100 °C to reach a constant mass (i.e., final
mass, mf);
m m
 Define the attached mortar as: AM% ¼ im f .
f
2.4. Recycled aggregate concrete
Based on the results obtained so far, crushed concrete debris
was processed to recycled aggregates, and three different mixtures
were designed to analyse the different behaviour of concrete made
with original (uncleaned) and cleaned recycled aggregates. Partic-
ularly, a reference mixture, indicated as REF, was made with all
natural components. Moreover, two additional mixtures, were
designed, denoted as RAC and RAC CL, where 50 wt.%, of the
128 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132

3D Natural aggregate (NA) 3D Recycled aggregate (RA)

10 mm 10 mm

Cross-section of internal structure of NA Cross-section of internal structure of RA

Fig. 2. 3D scanner analysis of aggregates: a (Natural), b (Recycled).

12 100
NATURAL SAND
90 NAT-BRITA0
10 RCA-BRITA0 15min
Water absorption -A [%]

80 RCA-BRITA0
NAT-BRITA1
70 RCA-BRITA1 15min
Passing -(%)

8
60 RCA-BRITA1

6 50
40
4 30
20
2
10

0 0
NATURAL RCA RCA 10 min RCA15 min 0 1 10
BRITA1 1.28 4.94 4.01 4.09
Sieve opening-(mm)
BRITA0 3.39 11.94 6.06 5.56
Fig. 5. Grain size distribution of recycled and natural aggregates.
Fig. 3. Water absorption at 24 h of aggregates.

natural coarse aggregates are replaced with recycled ones, with

and without 15 min of autogenous cleaning, respectively.
All batches were produced with 300 kg/m3 cement and a w/c
3000 ratio of 0.53. To compensate for the water absorption of both dried
recycled and natural aggregates, additional water was poured dur-
2500 ing mixing while taking into account the water absorption tests
Bulk density -g [kg/m3]

(see Fig. 3).

2000 Various concrete mixtures were produced according to the fol-
lowing procedure. First, sand, fine and coarse aggregates were
1500
added to the mixer and mixed for 90 s; then, cement was added
and mixed for another 90 s. In the following step, 70% of the total
1000
water was added to the aggregate blend before adding it to the
mixture, then, this blend was mixed for 1 min, and then added to
500
the mixer. Finally, the superplaticizer and the rest of water was
0
added to the mixer, and mixing proceeded for another 10 min.
NATURAL RCA RCA 10 min RCA15 min A slump test was done and the concrete was cast (in three
BRITA1 2634 2268 2358 2328
steps on a vibrating table for expelling the entrapped air) in steel
BRITA0 2464 1946 2220 2261
cylinders. After one day, specimens were demoulded and the
Fig. 4. Bulk density of aggregates. concrete was placed in a water curing room (21 °C) up to the
 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132 129

Natural RCA-Uncleaned RCA-Cleaned

Fig. 6. Optical analysis of aggregates.

Table 2 results obtained on natural (Fig. 2a) and recycled aggregates

Mix design. (Fig. 2b). The 3D scanner images clearly show the difference in sur-
(kg/m3) REF RAC RAC CL face texture as well as the internal morphology. Moreover, colour
Cement 300 300 300
differences in the 2D cross-section show the internal density vari-
Water 160 160 160 ations, i.e. ranging between the darker spots, representing low den-
Ads water 31.4 71.8 49.9 sity and lighter spots of high density structures. Comparison
Superplast. 4.02 4.02 4.02 between Fig. 2a and b emphasis the differences in internal struc-
Natural sand 952.6 950.4 951.3
ture of the recycled aggregates and the natural ones. In fact, recy-
Brita0 439.9  
Brita1 470.2   cled aggregates show a significantly higher percentage of porous
Brita0 RCA  346.6  spots and micro-cracks, caused by the porosity of the old mortar
Brita1 RCA  404.0  paste attached to the old natural aggregates. Besides this, the pro-
Brita0 RCA CL   403.1 duction and crushing process of the recycled aggregates (coming
Brita1 RCA Cl   415.1
from demolition waste) may also contribute to an additional disin-
tegration and internal fracturing. For these reasons, recycled con-
designated times for testing the compressive strength, elastic mod- crete aggregates may have significantly different properties
ulus and tensile splitting strength. compared with natural ones, depending on the amount of attached
mortar still residing inside the recycled aggregates.
3. Results and analysis The first tests performed to ‘‘measure’’ the efficiency of autoge-
nous cleaning of the recycled concrete particles were carried out by
This section reports a summary of the experimental results determining the water absorption capacity and bulk density per-
obtained from both cleaned and uncleaned RCAs, which were pro- formed according to NBR NM 53 [32] for coarse aggregates (i.e.,
cessed as explained in Section 2.3, and RAC specimens produced as Brita 0 and Brita 1). Fig. 3 reports the results of the water absorp-
described in Section 2.4. tion tests. It can be seen that the thorough cleaning (e.g. 15 min)
leads to a significant reduction in water absorption, while this
3.1. Experimental characterisation of RCAs effect will be less for shorter durations of cleaning. As a result of
this, the attached mortar is the parameter that determines the
An advanced 3D CT-scanning technique was used for character- water absorption on the one hand and the implicit void percentage
ising the internal morphology of the aggregates. Fig. 2 shows the on the other. In fact, the results highlight that after the autogenous

REF RAC RAC CL

16 mm 24 mm 22 mm

Fig. 7. Slump test results.

130 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132

40 5
Compressive strength -fc [MPa]

35

Tensile strength - fct [MPa]

30 4
25
20 3
15
10 2
5
0 1
REF RAC RAC CL
2 days 23.36 16.72 19.06
7 days 28.44 23.75 26.31 0
REF RAC RAC CL
14 days 30.43 27.08 31.26
28 days 3.85 3.36 3.71
28 days 33.02 27.50 29.92
60 days 36.97 28.73 33.69
Fig. 10. Tensile strength.

Fig. 8. Compressive strength results.

cleaning, the amount of absorbed water was reduced by 50% and removes the cement paste residuals possibly attached at the aggre-
20% for Brita 0 and Brita 1, respectively. gate surface, but also modifies the final shape of recycled aggre-
Moreover, the above observations were also confirmed by mea- gates. Particularly, Fig. 6 shows that the change in particle
surements on the bulk density of the processed particle samples. surface colour, roughness and shape evolved as a result of the
Fig. 4 provides an overview of the potential of autogenous cleaning autogenous cleaning procedure, with a clear modification of these
as considered in this study, to transform crushed concrete particles properties after 15 min.
into cleaned recycled concrete aggregates.
Another interesting evidence of the autogenous cleaning effi-
ciency was obtained by analysing the grain size distribution, 3.2. Experimental characterisation of RACs
throughout the sieving analysis realised in accordance with NBR
NM 248 [35]. In fact, the cleaning process led to an increasing As mentioned in Section 2.4, three different concrete mixtures
amount of fine particles (Fig. 5). Thus, it confirms the results of were designed for analysing the effect of alternative processing
the previous tests, pointing out that a significant part of the outer procedure for RCAs on the mechanical properties of concretes
layers of the crushed concrete particles were actually removed and made with them. Table 2 reports the relevant data about the com-
transformed into much smaller particles, which could possibly be position of the concrete mixtures considered in this study.
employed to improve the aggregate particle packing of RAC mix- The fresh concrete properties were investigated through a
tures [36]. slump test [37]. Results are reported in Fig. 7 and clearly highlight
The thermal treatment method performed on the recycled the effect autogenous cleaning has on the mix rheology. First of all
aggregates further highlights the effectiveness of autogenous it is worth mentioning that a higher slump value was observed for
cleaning. In fact, uncleaned recycled aggregates show an AM con- mixtures with uncleaned recycled aggregates (RAC) with respect to
tent equal of ffi30% while the aggregates cleaning led to a decrease the corresponding reference mix (REF). This largely depends on the
of the attached mortar up to ffi15%. Even though the above fact that the same amount of superplasticizer was added for all
reported values cannot represent the exact content of the old mor- mixtures, whereas the absorption compensation water was added
tar paste attached to the aggregates (note that this procedure does on the bases of water absorption tests carried out on aggregates
not follow a regulated standard), the comparison between the two after 24 h of absorption time. As a matter of fact, recycled aggre-
cases (i.e., cleaned and uncleaned aggregates) confirms the results gates within the concrete mix cannot absorb such an amount of
presented above for RCAs in terms of water absorption, bulk den- water in a short period time which is equal to the mixing time.
sity and grain size distribution variation (see Figs. 3–5). Since the mixing process only takes 10–15 min which is much less
A final assessment of the actual effectiveness of autogenous than the absorption time used in the absorption tests (24 h), the
cleaning can be obtained through a comparative visual analysis remaining part of the water just modifies (increases) the water
(see Fig. 6). The pictures show that autogenous cleaning not only content in the mix (and the w/c ratio), leading to an increase in
workability (and a decrease in compressive strength). Thus, such
a higher amount of total mixing water available in the RAC mix
30
led to slump values significantly higher than those corresponding
to the reference mix. Further investigations are needed to better
Elastic modulus -E [GPa]

25
understand the role of added water in RACs and, possibly, to
achieve a sound definition of such a key parameter. The same effect
20
is observed for the mix with cleaned aggregates (RAC CL), whose
15
lower water absorption capacity required a lower amount of added
compensation water and led to lower slump values.
10 The effectiveness of autogenous cleaning of RCAs was also eval-
uated by conducting several compressive strength tests, elastic
5 modulus tests and tensile splitting strength tests.
The compressive strength of concrete specimens made out of
0 the three mixtures was determined at an age of 2, 7, 14, 28 and
REF RAC RAC CL
E 24.77 24.86 24.40
60 days (five tests for each curing age) according to the NBR
5739 [38] on cylindrical specimens with a nominal diameter of
Fig. 9. Elastic modulus. 100 mm and a height of 200 mm.
 M. Pepe et al. / Construction and Building Materials 69 (2014) 124–132
Fig. 8 provides the results of the compressive strength evolu-
tion. Samples of the REF mix show an average 28-day compressive
strength of 33 MPa and, because of ongoing hydration, a compres-
sive strength of 37 MPa was reached after 60 days of curing.
As can be observed from the results presented in Fig. 8, the
compressive strength of RAC concrete reduced by about 20%. This
is mainly due to a higher amount of absorption compensation
water that increased the effective value of the w/c ratio, which
was already observed before in terms of workability and rheologi-
cal properties. However, the beneficial effect of autogenous clean-
ing clearly emerges when analysing the compressive strength
results obtained for RAC CL, where a significantly smaller reduction
was measured (8.9%).
The elastic modulus of concrete was determined in accordance
with the Brazilian standard NBR 8522 [39] using cylindrical speci-
mens (nominal diameter equal to 100 mm and a height equal to
200 mm), tested after 28 days of water curing (three specimens
for each batch). The elastic modulus of the concretes are deter-
mined from the load displacement graphs by connecting two
points on the ascending branch of the stress-strain relationship
with a straight line. These points represent a stress value equal
to 0.50 MPa and a value equal to 30% of the maximum strength
reached during compression of the test, respectively. The results
presented in Fig. 9 show that addition of cleaned or uncleaned
aggregates does not significantly affect the elastic modulus. Values
of around 24 GPa were measured for the elastic modulus of all con-
crete batches considered in this study.
The Brazilian tensile splitting strength was determined from
cylindrical specimens [40] after 28 days of water curing (three
specimens for each batch). The results show that the use of
uncleaned recycled aggregates significantly reduces (i.e., around
13%) the tensile splitting strength, while autogenous cleaning leads
to higher tensile strengths and also characterises by a reduction in
scatter (less than 4%) of the results obtained from the three tests
performed on RAC CL samples (Fig. 10).
4. Conclusions
The experimental results reported in this paper show the effect
of alternative processing procedures for RCAs on the physical and
mechanical properties of RACs.
Particularly, the following considerations can be remarked:
 autogenous cleaning implemented at the laboratory scale led to
interesting results in terms of enhancement of properties of
crushed concrete particles, especially in terms of reduction of
the attached mortar content on RCA surfaces and, consequently,
on their water absorption capacity;
 refined absorption tests carried out on processed aggregates
and characterisation in terms of rheological parameters of
resulting fresh concrete pastes emphasised the actual influence
of absorption water on the physical and mechanical properties
of RACs;
 results obtained in terms of uni-axial compressive strength and
tensile strength showed a positive effect of autogenous cleaning
for the RAC samples tested in this experimental program.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that upscaling the amount of
particles and dimensions of the mill drum can have a significant
effect on the actual effectiveness of the processing procedures
investigated in this work. The experimental results reported in this
article pointed out the potential of autogenous cleaning for RAC. A
pilot application at industrial scale should be conducted to confirm
similar effects.
131
Acknowledgements
The present study is part of the activities carried out by the
Authors as part of the ‘‘EnCoRe’’ Project (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES
n° 295283; http://www.encore-fp7.unisa.it) funded by the Euro-
pean Union within the Seventh Framework Programme. It was
developed during various secondment periods of some of the
Authors at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) and
the University of Salerno (Italy), between July 2012 and September
2013.
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