Technical Paper
Jianzhuang Xiao*
Yuhui Fan
M.M Tawana
Residual compressive and flexural strength
of a recycled aggregate concrete following
elevated temperatures
A recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with different replacement
percentages of recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs) (i.e. 0, 30, 50,
70, 100 %) was investigated experimentally at elevated tempera-
tures. The residual compressive strength as well as the residual
flexural strength of the RAC following elevated temperatures was
studied and evaluated. A relationship between the residual com-
pressive flexural strength of RAC and the elevated temperature
was proposed. Furthermore, the relationship between the resid-
ual flexural strength and the compressive strength of the RAC
was compared and analysed. It was found that both the residual
compressive strength and the residual flexural strength of the
RAC decrease with a rise in temperature, and the effect of the
RCAs replacement percentage on the residual flexural strength
and the residual compressive strength of RAC was found to be
obvious.
Keywords: recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), recycled coarse aggregates
(RCAs), residual compressive strength, residual flexural strength, elevated
temperature
1 Introduction
Rapid developments in the construction industry have led
to a large amount of infrastructure demolition work. This
demolition plus the construction of new buildings have
produced a great deal of construction and demolition
waste. From the viewpoint of environmental conservation
and effective utilization of resources, it is beneficial and
necessary to recycle the waste concrete. The investigation
into recycling waste concrete was initiated in Russia by
Gluzhge [1]. Since then, a significant number of studies
have been carried out to focus on the recycling of waste
concrete in various parts of the world. Previous studies
mainly covered the processing of demolished concrete,
mix design, mechanical properties and durability aspects
[2, 3, 4]. Due to the higher water absorption, higher crush-
ing index and low density of recycled coarse aggregates
(RCAs), the mechanical properties and the durability per-
formance of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) are proved
to be degraded compared with those of natural aggregate
concrete (NAC). However, only a few investigations have
* Corresponding author: jzx@tongji.edu.cn
Submitted for review: 28 September 2012
Revised: 10 December 2012
Accepted for publication: 19 January 2013
168 © 2013 Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin · Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2
DOI: 10.1002/suco.201200037
looked at the mechanical behaviour of recycled concrete
at elevated temperatures. The research undertaken by
Teranishi et al. [5] indicated that the residual compressive
strength of RAC was somewhat lower than that of NAC.
However, no clear relationship was presented or estab-
lished between the RCAs replacement percentage and the
residual compressive strength. The interesting work com-
pleted by Hernández-Olivares and Barluenga [6] shows a
reduction in the curvature of the specimens in fire and a
higher risk of explosive spalling when high-strength con-
crete (HSC) is filled and mixed with recycled rubber. But
no results were given to express the relationship between
the residual mechanical properties and the elevated tem-
peratures after exposure to fire. Terro [7] investigated how
replacing fine and coarse aggregates with recycled glass af-
fects the properties of concrete at elevated temperatures.
He indicated that the compressive strength of concrete
made with recycled glass aggregate decreased by as much
as 20 % compared with its original value as temperatures
increased up to 700 °C.
On the other hand, the fire investigations into nor-
mal concrete (NC) [8], lightweight concrete (LWC) [9],
high-strength concrete (HSC) [10], high-performance con-
crete (HPC) [11] and ultra-high-performance concrete
(UHPC) [12] have revealed that obvious differences exist
regarding the fire behaviour of these different kinds of
concrete. In light of this, the fire performance of RAC has
to be examined in order to understand fully the properties
of this material.
Motivated by the aforementioned facts, an experi-
mental investigation into the fire behaviour of an RAC was
carried out and the effect of elevated temperatures on the
residual compressive strength and the residual flexural
strength of the RAC with different RCAs replacement per-
centages was analysed. The tests in this investigation were
performed at the Advanced Civil Engineering Material
Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education in China at
Tongji University.
2 Description of experiments
2.1 Materials
Portland cement conforming to 32.5 R according to Chi-
nese standard GB175-1999 was adopted in this experimen-
tal investigation. The fine aggregates used were river sand
(siliceous). The siliceous coarse aggregates used were nat-
 J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures

Table 1. Physical properties of natural coarse aggregates (NCAs) and recycled coarse aggregates (RCAs)

Coarse Grading Bulk Apparent Water Crush Needle-slice

aggregate density density absorption index content
[mm] [kg/m3] [kg/m3] [%] [%] [%]

Natural 5.0–31.5 1453 2820 0.40 4.04 4.8

Recycled 5.0–31.5 1290 2520 9.25 15.2 6.2

Table 2. Mix proportions of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) [kg/m3]

Mix No. RCAs replacement Cement Sand NCAs RCAs Mixing

percentage water

NC 0 430 555 1295 – 185

RAC-30 30 % 430 534 872 374 185
RAC-50 50 % 430 522 609 609 185
RAC-70 70 % 430 510 357 832 185
RAC-100 100 % 430 492 – 1149 185

ural coarse aggregates (NCAs) and recycled coarse aggre-
gates (RCAs). The latter were obtained from the demol-
ished concrete of the abandoned runway of an airport in
Shanghai. Unfortunately, detailed information on the de-
molished concrete, e.g. design strength, was unknown. Re-
cycled aggregates are crushed as follows: firstly, big blocks
of waste concrete were crushed into smaller pieces; sec-
ondly, the smaller particles were screened. The particle
sizes, which in civil engineering are called „aggregates“,
use the same size regulations as stipulated in normal con-
crete design codes, i.e. 0.5–5.0 mm for recycled fine aggre-
gates and 5.0–31.5 mm for RCAs. The surfaces of recycled
aggregates are very rough when compared with natural ag-
gregates. Most recycled aggregates contain old mortar,
and some recycled aggregates are actually made up entire-
ly of old mortar. The physical properties of the NCAs and
the RCAs were tested and are listed in Table 1.
termine the workability of the mix. The slump value of the
freshly mixed concrete was an average of about 30 mm.
For every RCAs replacement level, the mixtures were cast
using four cube moulds measuring 150 × 150 × 150  mm
and five prism moulds measuring 100 × 100 × 400 mm,
and compacted on a vibration table. They were demould-
ed after 24  h and transferred to a moist-curing room
(20 ± 2 °C, 95 % RH).
3 Heating test
3.1 Test setup
The heating test was undertaken in an unstressed condi-
tion in a DRX-36 electric furnace (Fig.  1) made by Ke-
Cheng Industrial Furnace Equipment Factory, Shanghai.
After 28 days of curing, the RAC specimens were taken
out of the curing room and allowed to dry in ambient con-

2.2 Mix proportion

The ratio of mass of RCAs to mass of all coarse aggregates

is termed the replacement percentage of RCAs. Due to
their high water absorption, the RCAs used were pre-
soaked with additional water before mixing. The quantity
of water applied to pre-soak the RCAs was calculated ac-
cording to the saturated surface-dry condition. The wa-
ter/cement ratio was kept constant at 0.43. There were
five mixes: NC, RAC-30, RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100,
which are shown and described in Table 2. In the case of
an RCAs replacement percentage of 0 %, the natural ag-
gregates were used to produce natural aggregate concrete
(NAC), which served as the reference concrete (control
specimen).

2.3 Preparation of specimens

Preparation and mixing were conducted under laboratory

conditions. The sand, cement and coarse aggregates were
dry-mixed for about 2 min before water was added and fur-
ther mixed for 3–5 min before measuring the slump to de- Fig. 1. The furnace

Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2 169

J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures
ditions (temperature about 25 °C and relative humidity
about 50 %) for at least 2 weeks until the day of the heat-
ing test. Eight different temperature levels (20, 200, 300,
400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 °C) for cubes and five different
temperature levels (20, 200, 400, 600, and 800 °C) for
prisms were adopted in the heating test for every RAC
with a different RCAs replacement percentage. Therefore,
altogether 160 cubes and 125 prisms were heated in this
investigation. All surface changes on the specimens before
and after exposure to elevated temperature were observed
and evaluated.
3.2 Heating regimes
Both the cube and prism specimens were heated in accor-
dance with the curve of ISO 834 [13]. The measured curve
of elevated temperature versus time is shown in Fig. 2,
where the corresponding curve of ISO 834 is also given for
the comparison. After the temperature reached a target lev-
1000
800
Temperature (oC)
600
400
200
0 ranged between 400 and 600 °C, and straw yellow when
0 50 100
Time (min)
Fig. 2. Temperature-time curve of furnace
a) NC
c) RAC-50
Fig. 3. Surface characteristics of the cubes after being heated to 800 °C
170 Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2
el, it was kept constant for > 2 h (soaking period). Under
this regime, the temperature on the surface of the cubes or
prisms can be considered to be the same as the central core
of the specimen [14]. The furnace door was then opened
and the specimens allowed to cool down to room tempera-
ture within the furnace, which took about 12 h.
3.3 Visual observations
Fig. 3 shows that fine cracks appeared on the surfaces of
the cube specimens at a temperature of 800 °C. However,
there were no obvious cracks with a temperature < 700 °C.
When the temperature was < 600 °C, no cracks ap-
peared on the prisms; at 600 °C the surfaces of the prisms
had already cracked, but there were still only a few cracks;
at 800 °C, cracks formed in the prism surface, and many of
these cracks crossed the cross-section of the specimens.
Fig. 4 shows some typical cracks that appeared on the
prism surface after exposure to fire.
During the whole elevated temperature experiment,
no explosive spalling was seen in any RAC. This may infer
that RAC behaves well when exposed to fire and has a
good resistance against explosive spalling.
From the view point of surface colour, different
colours were observed on the heated recycled concrete af-
ter high temperatures. However, it was found that the
colour variation has no obvious relation with the RCAs re-
Test placement percentage. Taking the cubes, for example, the
ISO-834 variation in colour with a rising temperature can be iden-
tified in three main ranges: normal grey when the temper-
ature was below 300 °C, taupe when the temperature
150 200 the temperature exceeded 600 °C. The variation in RAC
colour can be attributed to the change in texture and com-
position, expansion and crystal destruction of hydration
products during heating and cooling.
b) RAC-30
d) RAC-70 e) RAC-100
 J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures

a) RC-30 prism after being heated to 600 oC b) RC-50 prism after being heated to 800 oC

Fig. 4. Surface characteristics of the prisms

4 Compression test and discussion
4.1 Compression test
The compressive strength test for the heated cubes was
completed on a YE-2000 machine with a loading rate of
0.5–0.8 MPa/s. Average values (three specimens) of the
residual compressive strength for RAC with the same
RCAs replacement percentage at the same elevated tem-
perature were calculated and are given in Table 3. Rough-
ly speaking, it can be seen from Table 3 that the residual
compressive strength of RAC decreases with the increase
in the RCAs replacement level for a certain elevated tem-
perature, whereas the residual compressive strength of
RAC decreases with an increase in the exposure tempera-
ture for the same RCAs replacement level.
However, it should be noted here that when the
RCAs replacement percentage is 50 %, there are some ab-
normal residual compressive strength values, especially in
the temperature range 400–600 °C. At present, except for
the knowledge that there is considerable scatter in the
compressive strength of recycled concrete with a 50 %
RCAs replacement level at ambient temperature [15, 16],
no further information has yet become available and this
phenomenon should be investigated further from the as-
pect of the microstructure of recycled concrete.
4.2 Comparisons between concrete with different
RCAs replacement percentages
strength of cubes after fire exposure, the residual-to-initial
ratio (i.e. the ratio of residual strength at elevated temper-
ature T °C to initial strength at 20 °C) of compressive
strength with different RCAs replacement percentages and
the Eurocodes [17] is shown in Fig.  5. Clearly, Fig. 5 re-
veals that the residual compressive strength behaves dif-
ferently for concretes with different RCAs replacement
percentages, which is described as follows: For NC speci-
mens, there is a trough at 200 °C and a crest at 300 °C.
When the elevated temperature is higher than 300 °C, the
curve drops continuously. The curve for RAC-30 speci-
mens changes slowly when the temperature ranges from
200 to 300 °C and from 500 to 600 °C, but drops nearly
linearly when the temperature exceeds 600 °C. The curves
for RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100 are somewhat similar to
each other, i.e. there is a trough at 300 °C and then the
residual strength rises and forms a flat crest between 400
and 500 °C, followed by a sharp decrease. Generally, the
residual-to-initial ratio of compressive strength for con-
cretes with different RCAs replacement percentages ex-
hibits only a few differences when the temperature is <
300 °C. However, the residual-to-initial ratio of compres-
sive strength of RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100 cubes is
much higher than that of RAC-30 cubes when the temper-
ature rises from 400 to 700 °C.
For the residual compressive strength degradation of
normal concrete after high temperatures, it has been
found by investigators such as Xiao and König [8] that

In order to evaluate the influence of the different RCAs re- 1.2

placement percentages on the residual compressive
1.0
Table 3. Mean values of the residual compressive strength of recycled
compressive strength
Relative residual

aggregate concrete (RAC) [MPa] 0.8

Temperature NC RAC-30 RAC-50 RAC-70 RAC-100 0.6 NC

[oC] RC-30
0.4 RC-50
20 38.2 39.6 37.9 33.3 33.3 RC-70
200 32.3 30.9 34.4 29.3 29.3 0.2 RC-100
300 34.6 30.5 26.0 24.5 28.4 EC2 [17]
400 30.5 28.4 31.8 30.1 31.0 0.0
500 25.1 23.0 34.0 29.7 32.5 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
o
600 22.4 23.5 33.4 27.9 27.0 Exposure temperature ( C)
700 17.4 14.8 24.9 18.7 17.9
Fig. 5. Comparison of the residual compressive strengths of RAC with
800 10.5 9.1 8.5 7.8 7.7
different RCAs replacement percentages

Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2 171

J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures

when the temperature is < 300 °C, the concrete strength 4.4 Suggested modes for residual compressive strength
fluctuates with the strength at ambient temperature. The of RAC
residual compressive strength starts to drop when the ele-
vated temperature is > 300 °C. When the temperature ex- Based on the test results, the residual compressive
ceeds 400 °C, the residual compressive strength starts to strengths of RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100 cubes are rela-
decrease drastically. At 800 °C it drops to < 20 % of its tively similar to each other, whereas that of RAC-30 shows
strength at ambient temperature. But for the RAC in this a distinctive difference. Therefore, the test data for the
investigation, the residual compressive strength shows a residual-to-initial ratio of RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100
rise when the elevated temperature is > 300 °C. This rising were put together.
trend becomes stronger with the increase in the RCAs re- Using a method of least squares, the regress curves
placement percentage. Beyond 400 °C, when the RCAs re- are shown in Fig. 7 and the corresponding formulae can
placement percentage is 30 %, the residual compressive be written as follows:
strength of RAC is lower than that of normal concrete;
when the RCAs replacement percentage is ≥ 50 %, the RAC-30:
residual compressive strength of the RAC becomes higher T /f 20 = 1.018–0.088 (T/100) (R = 0.95) T < 300 °C
f cu (1a)
cu
than the one for normal concrete. According to the pub-
lished literature that focuses on the mechanical behaviour T /f 20 = 0.93–0.059 (T/100) (R = 0.92) 300 °C ≤ T < 600 °C
fcu cu
of the RAC at ambient temperature, the RCAs replace- (1b)
ment percentage should be controlled at no greater than
30 % [3, 18]. This could not be confirmed considering the T /f 20 = 1.62–0.174 (T/100) (R = 0.99) 600 °C ≤ T < 800 °C
fcu cu
results of the investigations described in this paper. (1c)
RAC-50, RAC-70 and RAC-100:
4.3 Comparisons between concrete with different T /f 20 = 1.015–0.075 (T/100) (R = 0.98) T < 300 °C
f cu (2a)
cu
kinds of aggregate
T /f 20 = 0.489+0.096 (T/100) (R = 0.94) 300 °C ≤ T < 500 °C
fcu cu
For a better understanding of the characteristics of the (2b)
residual compressive strength of RAC following elevated
temperatures, Fig. 6 summarizes the relationships between T /f 20 = 2.086–0.224 (T/100) (R = 0.97) 500 °C ≤ T ≤ 800 °C
fcu cu
the residual-to-initial ratio of compressive strength and the (2c)
elevated temperature for concretes with different types of
aggregate. Fig. 6 shows the recycled concrete with 100 % For simplicity, the authors further unify Eqs. (1) and (2) in-
RCAs replacement percentage, which is considered as being to Eq. (3) to estimate the relative residual compressive
representative of RAC due to the fact that other concretes strength of RAC with the RCAs replacement percentage
were all mixed with one kind of coarse aggregate. The ≥ 30 %. This curve associated with Eq. (3) is also plotted
results in Fig. 6 are taken from [17, 19], where SA, CA and in Fig. 6 for comparison.
LWA refer to siliceous aggregates, calcareous aggregates
and lightweight aggregates respectively. It can be seen from T /f 20 = 1.0 – (T – 20)/975 T ≤ 800 °C
f cu (3)
cu
Fig. 6 that the residual compressive strength of the RAC is
lower than that of concrete with other coarse aggregates where
when the temperature is < 300 °C, but surpasses that of T
f cu residual compressive cube strength of RAC at an ele-
other concretes when the temperature ranges from 400 to vated temperature of T °C
700 °C. Accordingly, the relationship between the residual 20 compressive cube strength of RAC at 20 °C (ambient
fcu
compressive strength and the elevated temperature of other temperature)
concretes cannot be simply extended to the RAC. R value of correlation coefficient

1.2
1.2
1.0
Residual-to-initial ratio of

Residual-to-initial-ratio of

1.0
compressive strength

compressive strength

0.8
0.8
0.6
CEN:SA
0.6
CEN:CA
0.4 RAC-30
CEN:LWA Eq. (1)
0.4
CEB:SA RAC-50, 70, 100
0.2 CEB:LWA Eq. (2)
0.2 Eq. (3)
RAC-100
0.0
0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Exposure temperature (oC) Exposure temperature (oC)

Fig. 6. Comparison between concretes with different kinds of coarse aggregate Fig. 7. Regress for the test results of recycled aggregate concrete

172 Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2

 J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures

5 Flexure test and discussion
5.1 Flexure test
The flexural strength test on the prisms was carried out af-
ter they were exposed to high temperatures. The test was
carried out by a YEW-300B testing machine, which has a
maximum load of 300 kN; the loading rate was 0.05–
0.08 MPa/s. Data was acquired by LM-02 Smart Acquisi-
tion Data Collection. The loading pattern is demonstrated
in Fig. 8. The value for the test results should be obtained
in line with the regulations in [20]. After taking off the val-
ue at the failure point and ignoring all the values that ex-
ceed the average value by 15 %, take the average value of
all the prisms at the same elevated temperature, see
Table 4. It can be concluded from Table 4 that the residual
flexural strength of RAC does not obviously vary with the
increase in the RCAs replacement level under a certain el-
evated temperature, whereas the residual flexural strength
of RAC decreases as the exposure temperature rises for
the same RCAs replacement level.
strength of RC-50 continues to decrease with the change
in temperature, and its rate of decrease is greater than that
of all the other replacement percentages. Overall, the
residual flexural strength of recycled concrete following
elevated temperatures of 200–400 °C is relatively stable,
above 400 °C it decreases substantially, and when it reach-
es 800 °C the residual flexural strength is almost zero. In
comparison with the residual compressive strength follow-
ing elevated temperatures, the influence of the RCAs re-
placement percentage on the residual flexural strength is
not very significant.
5.3 Suggested modes for residual flexural strength of RAC
For convenience of use in engineering projects, and at the
same time in view of the RAC residual flexural strength at
elevated temperatures, the authors divided the recycled
concrete residual flexural strength in this study into three
stages for preliminary regression. The regression curve is
demonstrated by Fig. 10. The regression formulae are:

5.2 Comparisons between concrete with different f fT/f f20 = 1.058 – 0.0029T 20 °C ≤ T ≤ 200 °C (4a)
RCAs replacement percentages
f fT/f f20 = 0.53 – 0.00027T 200 °C ≤ T ≤ 400 °C (4b)
In order to evaluate the influence of the different RCAs re-
placement percentages on the residual flexural strength of f fT/f f20 = 1.117 – 0.00174T 400 °C ≤ T ≤ 600 °C (4c)
prisms after exposure to elevated temperatures, the resid-
ual-to-initial ratio of flexural strength with different RCAs
Residual-to-initial ratio of flexural strength

replacement percentages is shown in Fig. 9. It can be 1

clearly seen that the change in the residual flexural NC
strength of recycled concrete for different replacement 0.8 RC-30
percentages following high temperature exposure is al-
RC-50
most the same: the change is very slow between 200 and 0.6
RC-70
400 °C, very rapid above 400 °C. The residual flexural
RC-100
0.4

0.2

0
0 200 400 600 800

Exposure temperature (oC)

h
Fig. 9. Comparison of the residual flexural strength of RAC with different
RCAs replacement percentages
h h h
L=3h+100
Residual-to-initial ratio of flexural strength

1
NC
Fig. 8. Loading sketch for the flexural strength
0.8
RC-30
RC-50
0.6
Table 4. Mean values of the residual flexural strength of recycled aggre-
RC-70
gate concrete (RAC) [MPa]
0.4 RC-100

Temperature NC RAC-30 RAC-50 RAC-70 RAC-100 Eq.(4)

0.2
[oC]

20 5.83 5.70 5.08 4.81 4.51 0

200 2.19 2.83 2.61 2.14 1.97 0 200 400 600 800

400 3.09 2.27 1.44 2.61 2.05 Exposure temperature (oC)

600 0.76 0.18 0.51 0.10 0.61
800 0 0 0 0 0 Fig. 10. Regress on the relationship between the residual flexural strength
and elevated temperatures

Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2 173

J. Xiao/Y. Fan/M. M. Tawana · Residual compressive and flexural strength of a recycled aggregate concrete following elevated temperatures
Ratio of flexural strength to compressive 0.2
0.15
strength
0.1
0.05
0
0 200 400
Exposure temperature (oC)
Fig. 11. Ratios of the residual flexural to the compressive strength of RAC
where
f fT residual flexural strength of RAC at an elevated tem-
perature of T °C
f f20 flexural strength of RAC at 20 °C (ambient tempera-
ture)
6 Comparisons between residual compressive
and flexural strength of RAC
Based on the tests on the residual compressive strength
and the residual flexural strength of RAC following elevat-
ed temperatures, the ratio of the residual flexural strength
to the residual compressive strength following elevated
temperatures was analysed comparatively as shown in
Fig. 11.
It can be seen from Fig. 11 that at room temperature
the ratios of the flexural to compressive strength of the
RAC with different RCAs replacement percentages are all
basically about 0.15, and they all show a downward trend
with an increase in the elevated temperature. The ratios of
the RCAs replacement percentages 30, 70 and 100 % grad-
ually decrease between 200 and 400 °C. When the RCAs
replacement percentage is 50 %, it shows a downward
trend with an increase in temperature, and shows a much
greater decrease compared with the other replacement
percentages. At 600 °C the ratio is already very small, and
at 800 °C, since the RAC residual flexural strength is basi-
cally zero, the ratio is also zero. Generally, the ratio of
NAC’s flexural strength to compressive strength is be-
tween 0.1 and 0.2 [5], and the result of this study at room
temperature would be around 0.15, i.e. at room tempera-
ture the relationship between recycled concrete’s flexural
strength and compressive strength is basically the same as
NAC.
7 Summary and conclusions
Under the conditions of this experimental investigation
the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) The recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) cubes and
prisms behave well when exposed to fire. No explosive
spalling occurred when the RAC was heated to elevat-
ed temperatures of up to 800 °C. This indicates that the
RAC has sufficient explosive spalling resistance. How-
174 Structural Concrete 14 (2013), No. 2
ever, RAC with a lower water/cement ratio should be
NC investigated in the future.
RC-30 2) The residual compressive strength of the RAC has an
RC-50
obvious change from falling to rising when the temper-
ature is about 300 °C. Up to this variation a rising trend
RC-70
occurs until 500 °C. Whereas the residual compressive
RC-100 strength of natural aggregate concrete (NAC) generally
exhibits a falling trend when the temperature is
> 400 °C.
3) When the replacement percentage of recycled coarse
aggregates (RCAs) is 30 %, the residual compressive
600 800
strength of RAC is lower than that of natural aggregate
concrete. But when the RCAs replacement percentage
is not less than 50 %, the residual compressive strength
of RAC is higher than that of NAC on the whole. The
higher the RCAs replacement percentage, the clearer
the trend becomes.
4) Eqs. (1) and (2) are proposed to calculate the residual
compressive strength of the RAC when the RCAs re-
placement percentage is 30 % and greater (i.e. 50, 70
and 100 %) respectively. For simplicity, Eq. (3) can be
used to estimate the residual compressive strength of
RAC at elevated temperatures, irrespective of the RCAs
replacement percentage.
5) The residual flexural strength of RAC gradually de-
creases on the whole following elevated temperatures.
Eq. (4) can be used to calculate and predict the residual
flexural strength of RAC following elevated tempera-
tures. When compared with the residual compressive
strength at elevated temperatures, the effect of RCAs
replacement percentage on the residual flexural
strength at elevated temperatures is not very signifi-
cant.
6) At room temperature the ratio of the flexural strength
to the compressive strength of RAC is 0.15, which is al-
most the same as NAC. After exposure to elevated tem-
peratures, the ratio of the residual flexural strength to
the residual compressive strength of RAC gradually de-
creases as the elevated temperature increases.
Acknowledgements
This work was sponsored by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51178340) and Chinese National
973 Plan (2012CB719703). This assistance is highly appre-
ciated. The authors would like to thank Mr. Yunbiao
Huang for his contribution to the test. Special thanks are
extended to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dehn of MFPA Leipzig/Univer-
sity of Leipzig, Germany.
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