An Overview of Construction and Demolition Waste as Coarse Aggregate in Concrete

Fast development of the total populace and far and wide urbanization has surprisingly expanded the advancement of the construction industry. As a result of these activities, old structures are being demolished to make new buildings. Due to these large-scale demolitions, a huge amount of debris is generated all over the world, which results in a landfill. The use of construction and demolition waste as landfill causes groundwater contamination, which is hazardous. Using construction and demolition waste as aggregate can reduce the use of natural aggregates and the problem of mining. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed overview on how the construction and demolition waste material has been used as aggregate in structural concrete. In this study, the preparation, classification, and composition of construction and demolition wastes are also discussed.

Laboratory Investigations on the Utilization of Recycled Construction Aggregates in Asphalt Mixtures

Road networks are increasingly expanding all over the world. The construction and maintenance of the road pavements require large amounts of aggregates. Considerable usage of various natural aggregates for constructing roads as well as the increasing rate at which solid waste is generated have attracted the attention of many researchers in the pavement industry to investigate the feasibility of the application of some of the waste materials as alternative materials in pavement construction. Among various waste materials, construction and demolition wastes, including Recycled Construction Aggregate (RCA) constitute a major part of the municipal solid wastes in Australia. Creating opportunities for the application of RCA in civil and geotechnical engineering applications is an efficient way to increase the market value of RCA. However, in spite of such promising potentials, insufficient and inconclusive data and information on the engineering properties of RCA had limited the reliability and design specifications of RCA to date. In light of this, this paper, as a first step of a comprehensive research, aims to investigate the feasibility of the application of RCA obtained from construction and demolition wastes for the replacement of part of coarse aggregates in asphalt mixture. As the suitability of aggregates for using in asphalt mixtures is determined based on the aggregate characteristics, including physical and mechanical properties of the aggregates, an experimental program is set up to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of RCA. This laboratory investigation included the measurement of compressive strength and workability of RCA, particle shape, water absorption, flakiness index, crushing value, deleterious materials and weak particles, wet/dry strength variation, and particle density. In addition, the comparison of RCA properties with virgin aggregates has been included as part of this investigation and this paper presents the results of these investigations on RCA, basalt, and the mix of RCA/basalt.

Recycling of Aggregates from Construction Demolition Wastes in Concrete: Study of Physical and Mechanical Properties

This work is focused on the study of valuation of recycled concrete aggregates, by measuring certain properties of concrete in the fresh and hardened state. In this study, rheological tests and physic-mechanical characterization on concretes and mortars were conducted with recycled concrete whose geometric properties were identified aggregates. Mortars were elaborated with recycled fine aggregate (0/5mm) and concretes were manufactured using recycled coarse aggregates (5/12.5 mm and 12.5/20 mm). First, a study of the mortars was conducted to determine the effectiveness of polycarboxylate superplasticizer on the workability of these and their action deflocculating of the recycled sand. The rheological behavior of mortars based on fine aggregate recycled was characterized. The results confirm that the mortars composed of different fractions of recycled sand (0 /5) have a better mechanical properties (compressive and flexural strength) compared to normal mortar. Also, the mechanical strengths of concretes made with recycled aggregates (5/12.5 mm and 12.5/20 mm), are comparable to those of conventional concrete with conventional aggregates, provided that the implementation can be improved by the addition of a superplasticizer.