The Flexural and Compressive Strength of Recycled Concrete

Abstract

Limitations in natural resources have drawn the necessity to develop sustainable solutions for the future of the concrete industry. Kuwait has joined the world’s effort to encourage recycling by reducing the amounts of construction and demolition wastes sent to landfills, through the usage of recycled aggregates in Portland Cement concrete mixes. In this research, an experimental program was designed to test the effect of substituting virgin coarse aggregates with recycled aggregates obtained from demolished concrete. Four different concrete mixes were designed at a strength of 30MPa, with different partial replacement percentages of 100%, 50%, and 0%. All mixes were tested for workability. Samples were cast from each mix and tested for the flexural strength as well as the compressive strength; all results were compared to a control mix. Results demonstrated that in spite of the slight effect noted on both flexural and compressive strength, good quality concrete can still be achieved.