Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72

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Cement & Concrete Composites

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

Compressive stress–strain behavior of steel fiber reinforced-recycled

aggregate concrete
Jodilson Amorim Carneiro a, Paulo Roberto Lopes Lima a,⇑, Mônica Batista Leite a, Romildo Dias Toledo Filho b
a
Post-graduate Program of Civil e Environmental Engineering, Department of Technology, State University of Feira de Santana, Av. Transnordestina, SN, Novo Horizonte, ZIP
44036-900, Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil
b
Civil Engineering Department, PEC/COPPE, Universidade Federal Rio de Janeiro, P.O. Box 68506, 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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

Article history: The use of recycled aggregate from construction and demolition waste (CDW) as replacement of fine and
Received 5 July 2011 coarse natural aggregate has increased in recent years in order to reduce the high consumption of natural
Received in revised form 11 October 2013 resources by the civil construction sector. In this work, an experimental investigation was carried out to
Accepted 20 November 2013
investigate the influence of steel fiber reinforcement on the stress–strain behavior of concrete made with
Available online 27 November 2013
CDW aggregates. In addition, the flexural strength and splitting tensile strength of the mixtures were also
determined. Natural coarse and fine aggregates were replaced by recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) and
Keywords:
recycled fine aggregate (RFA) at two levels, 0% and 25%, by volume. Hooked end steel fibers with
Stress–strain behavior
Steel fiber concrete
35 mm of length and aspect ratio of 65 were used as reinforcement in a volume fraction of 0.75%. The
Construction and demolition waste (CDW) research results show that the addition of steel fiber and recycled aggregate increased the mechanical
Recycled concrete strength and modified the fracture process relative to that of the reference concrete. The stress–strain
behavior of recycled aggregate concrete was affected by the recycled aggregate and presented a more
brittle behavior than the reference one. With the addition of steel fiber the toughness, measured by
the slope of the descending branch of the stress–strain curve, of the recycled concretes was increased
and their behavior under compression becomes similar to that of the fiber-reinforced natural aggregate
concrete.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Over the past several decades, steel fiber reinforced concrete
has been used in many applications such as concrete pavements,
overlays, patching repair of hydraulic structures, thin shells and
precast products [1]. Nowadays, it is well established that the
incorporation of steel fibers improves engineering performance
of structural and nonstructural concrete, including better crack
resistance, increase in ductility and toughness as well as enhance-
ment in resistance to fatigue and impact [2].
From the viewpoint of sustainability if on the one hand the use
of steel fiber reinforced concrete may increase the environmental
impact of the plain concrete due to energy consumption and CO2
emissions related to the production and shipping of the fibers, on
the other hand its use can extend the maintenance free life of
the structures and thus reduce the overall environmental impact
of the construction [3]. To improve the environmental performance
of the steel fiber reinforced concrete, studies have been conducted
regarding the use of metal waste recycled fibers as reinforcement
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 75 3161 8310; fax: +55 75 3161 8117.
E-mail addresses: algeroz@ig.com.br (J.A. Carneiro), lima.prl@pq.cnpq.br (P.R.L.
Lima), mleite.uefs@gmail.com (M.B. Leite), toledo@coc.ufrj.br (R.D. Toledo Filho).
[4–6] as well as the use of recycled aggregates to replace the nat-
ural aggregates [7–9].
Although the use of construction and demolition waste (CDW)
as recycled aggregate in substitution of natural aggregate has been
proved to be a good solution to minimize consumption of natural
resources [10,11], the structural behavior of the CDW-concrete is
not yet fully understood and its use in structural applications is
limited by European and Japanese standards [12,13] and not
authorized by Brazilian the standard [14].
Regarding the properties of CDW-concrete, it has been reported
that the amount of recycled aggregates influences several proper-
ties of this concrete type [15–17]. In particular, it was reported that
under compression loads the CDW-concrete presented an increase
in peak strain and a decrease in the Young’s modulus in compari-
son with those of the natural aggregate mixtures [15,16].
Although it has been demonstrated that the mechanical proper-
ties of steel fiber reinforced concrete depends on the aggregate
type and matrix strength [18,19], there is a lack of information
regarding the mechanical behavior of steel fiber reinforced CDW-
concrete. The main objective of this study is, therefore, to investi-
gate the influence of the addition of steel fiber on the compressive
stress–strain behavior of recycled aggregate concrete. In addition
the bending and splitting strength were also determined. Natural

0958-9465/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2013.11.006
66 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72
aggregate was replaced by recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) or recy-
cled fine aggregate (RFA) at two levels, 0% and 25%, by volume.
Hooked end steel fibers were used as reinforcement in a volume
fraction of 0.75%. The effect of the aggregate amount and fiber rein-
forcement was evaluated for peak stress and strain, elastic modu-
lus, Poisson ratio, flexural strength and by the Brazilian test
method for splitting tensile strength. The cracking mechanism
was investigated by the analysis of the axial, lateral and volumetric
stress–strain curves.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Cement and water
The physical and chemical properties of the used Portland ce-
ment (CP V ARI – ASTM Type III) are presented in Table 1. Tap
water was used in all mixtures.
2.1.2. Aggregates
The construction and demolition waste (CDW) used in this
study were initially crushed using a jaw crusher and then sieved
to produce the recycled fine aggregate (RFA) and recycled coarse
aggregate (RCA) (see Fig. 1). Visual observations indicate the rough
surface texture of recycled aggregates that was composed by
approximately 55% of mortar, 20% of concrete and 25% of brick.
Fine quartz sand was used as natural fine aggregate (NFA)
whereas the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) was a granite type
stone. The physical properties of the aggregates are shown in
Table 2. The particle distribution curves of the aggregates and ce-
ment are shown in Fig. 2.
Hooked end steel fibers in a volume fraction of 0.75% (corre-
sponding to a dosage of 60 kg/m3) with 35 and 0.55 mm of length
and diameter, respectively, were used as reinforcement.
2.2. Mixture proportion and production
The mixtures were divided into two groups: plain concrete and
steel fiber concrete. In each group four concretes were produced
and the mix proportion are shown in Table 3. The natural aggre-
gates were replaced by 25% of RFA, by 25% of RCA or by 50% of
mixed recycled aggregate (25% of RFA + 25% of RCA). The water/ce-
ment ratio was kept constant for all mixtures. Minor adjustments
in the weight proportions of the aggregates were made to compen-
sate for the differences in the densities of the natural and recycled
aggregates. As the water absorption of the recycled aggregate is
larger than that of the natural aggregate (see Table 2), superplast-
icizer was added to the CDW-mixtures (see Table 3) to avoid
modification in the water/cement ratio of the mixes. The
Table 1
Physical and chemical properties of the Portland cement.
Initial set time
Final set time
Compressive strength (MPa) 1 days
3 days
7 days
28 days
Chemical composition (%) CaO
SiO2
SO3
Al2O3
Fe2O3
MgO
K2O
Others
Specific gravity (g/cm3)
workability, measured by the slump test, was kept in the range
of 110 ± 20 mm. For the steel fiber reinforced concrete mixtures
the superplasticizer content was increased to, respectively, 1.7,
5.0, 5.9 and 8.2 kg/m3 to the mixtures REF (NA-concrete), RFA,
RCA and RFCA (CDW-concrete mixtures).
Concrete mixtures were produced using a 320 dm3 mechanical
mixer. The following sequence of mixing was observed: (i) addition
of the coarse aggregate; (ii) addition of 70% of the water; (iii) addi-
tion of the cement; (iv) addition of the remaining water and (v)
addition of the fine aggregate. A mixing time of 10 min was used
to guarantee the homogeneity of the concrete. When steel fibers
were used, they were dispersed manually during this period.
External vibration was using during casting. After removing the
specimens from the molds they were cured in a fog chamber at
23 ± 2 °C and 100% relative humidity until the age of the tests.
2.3. Test procedures
Compressive tests were carried out in cylindrical specimens of
dimensions 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm in height, after
28 days of cure. Three specimens were tested on a 1000 kN Shima-
dzu testing machine at a rate of axial displacement of 0.05 mm/
min. The lateral and axial strain were measured using three electri-
cal transducers (LVDT), as shown in Fig. 3, and were continuously
recorded, together with the corresponding loads, using a 32-bit
data acquisition system taking four readings per second.
Volumetric strains were calculated as [20]:
em ¼ ea þ 2eL ð1Þ
where ea = axial strain and eL = lateral.
Compressive strength (fc), corresponding to peak stress, was
obtained directly of the stress–strain curves. The elastic modulus
(Ec) and Poisson coefficient (m) were calculated using Eqs. (2) and
(3), respectively:
rc2  rc1
Ec ¼ ð2Þ
ea2  0:000050
eL2  eL1
m¼ ð3Þ
ea2  0:000050
were rc2 is the stress corresponding to the 40% of the peak stress;
rc1 is the stress corresponding to a strain of 0.00005; ea2 is the strain
at the stress level rc2; eL2 is the lateral strain at the stress level rc1;
eL2 is the lateral strain at the stress level rc2.
Four points bending tests were carried out according to the Bra-
zilian standard NBR 12142/94 using three prismatic specimens of
dimensions 150  150  750 mm. The tests were executed in a
1000 kN testing machine at a rate of axial loading of 200 N/s (see
the test setup in Fig. 3b).
Splitting tensile test were carried out according to the Brazilian
standard NBR 7222/94 using three cylindrical specimens of dimen-
sions 100 mm in diameter and 200 mm in height (see test setup in
Fig. 3c). The specimens were tested using a 2000 kN testing ma-
2 h 40 min chine at a rate of axial loading of 500 N/s and using a load cell of
3 h 30 min 50 kN.
20.0 The statistical analysis of the obtained results was carried out
33.4
using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to define the significance of
35.1
47.3 control variables (RFA, RCA and Steel Fibers) and of the interaction
66.4 between them.
15.5
5.7
4.0
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.7
3.1 3.1. Mechanical properties
1.1
0.5
Table 4 presents the mean values (with the coefficient of varia-
3.1
tion in parentheses) of the compressive strength (fc), elastic
 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72 67

Fig. 1. (a) Coarse and (b) fine recycled aggregate.

Table 2 Observing the results of the ANOVA (see Table 5) it can be seen
Properties of the natural and recycled aggregates. that for all isolated factors the calculated F-values are higher than
Properties Fine aggregates Coarse aggregates the corresponding tabulated F-values at a confidence level of 95%.
NFA RFA NCA RCA
This indicates that all variables affect the compressive strength of
the reference mix. The utilization of fine recycled aggregate (RFA)
Maximum size aggregate (mm) 2.4 4.8 25.0 19.0
Fineness 2.32 2.34 7.16 6.54
has, however, a higher effect than the use of coarse recycled aggre-
Specific gravity (kg/dm3) 2.54 2.44 2.81 2.50 gate (RCA) and steel fiber (FIBER). It is also verified that the inter-
Bulk density (kg/dm3) 1.45 1.33 1.49 1.12 actions AC and BC, between each type of recycled aggregate and
Water absorption rate (%) 0.76 13.32 0.35 6.6 steel fiber, significantly affect the compressive strength of the ref-
Particles smaller than 150 lm(%) 0.8 8.6 0.7 2.2
erence mixtures.
Both increase and decrease in the strength of CDW-concrete
have been reported in the technical literature and the extent of this
variation is related to the type of aggregate used, natural aggregate
replacement ratio, water/cement ratio and moisture condition of
the recycled aggregate. For example, Cabral et al. [21] found that
the CDW-concrete containing recycled aggregate from ceramic
bricks has higher compressive strength than the reference mixture
and this was associated to possible pozzolanic reactions. Xiao et al.
[15] studied the use of recycled coarse aggregate in replacement
ratios ranging from 30% to 100% and found that up to a replace-
ment level of 30% the reduction in the compressive strength of
the natural aggregate concrete is not significant. Regarding to the
influence of the water/cement ratio on the strength of CDW-con-
crete, studies conducted by Chen et al. [22] indicate that although
the presence of CDW affects the mechanical performance of the
concrete, the effect is more obvious at lower water/cement ratio.
Fig. 2. Granulometric distribution curves of the aggregates and Portland cement.
Choi and Yun [23] verified that the use of both coarse and fine
recycled aggregate results in increment of the compressive
Table 3
strength of CDW-concrete when compared with the strength of
Mix proportions for the reference (NA-concrete) and CDW-concrete. the concrete containing natural aggregate. The authors attributed
this behavior to the high bonding strength between the coarse
Materials Plain concrete (kg/m3)
recycled aggregate and the surrounding paste. The increase in
REF RFA RCA RFCA the bond between grains and paste was explained by the angular-
Cement 399 399 399 399 ity of the coarse aggregate particles and the residual cementation
NFA 882 663 882 663 on the surface of the recycled aggregate particles [24]. According
RFA 216 216
to [25] the rough surface texture of aggregate permits a good
NCA 858 858 647 647
RCA 192 192 mechanical interlocking between the two materials due to some
Water 216 216 216 216 penetration of cement paste into the open surface pores in the
Superplasticizer (%) 2.6 2.5 5.2 coarse aggregate particles. The described mechanisms may explain
the superior mechanical behavior observed in the present study for
the recycled concretes. In addition, as in the present study the
workability of the CDW-concrete was guaranteed by the use of
modulus (E), Poisson ratio (m), splitting tensile strength (ftd) and superplasticizer, the higher absorption capacity of the recycled
flexural strength (ftf) for the studied mixtures. Tables 5 and 6 pres- aggregates resulted in an early age reduction in the w/c ratio
ent the results of the statistical analysis. around the grains. In a later stage this water may have been rea-
The results indicate that the compressive strength and the ten- lised back to the mixture contributing to an overall increment in
sile and flexural strength increased with the addition of the recy- the mechanical performance of the CDW concrete.
cled aggregate to the reference mixture. The maximum The addition of steel fiber to the NA-concrete improved its
increment (of about 25%) was observed in the compressive mechanical performance (compressive, tensile and bending
strength of the mixture containing both types of recycled aggre- strength) due to the greater resistance to sliding of pre-existing
gates (mix RFCA). microcracks and by reduction of wing-cracks growth rate due to
68 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72

Fig. 3. Test setup: (a) compression; (b) bending and (c) splitting tensile test.

Table 4 no significant influence of each type of recycled aggregate (RFA

Mechanical properties of the studied mixtures (coefficient of variation (%) in and RCA) is observed (see Table 6). The elastic modulus did not
parentheses).
show any significant change for the studied variables. Similar re-
Mix Compressive test Indirect tensile test sponse was reported by Gonzalez-Fonteboa et al. [27] that have
fc (MPa) E (GPa) m ftd (MPa) ftf (MPa) found little reduction (<5%) in the elastic modulus of CDW-con-
Plain concrete
crete containing 20% of recycled aggregate. Ramakrishnan et al.
REF 29.9 (0) 31.1 (3) 0.17 (12) 3.21 (7) 3.62 (12) [28] also verified that the addition of low content of steel fiber to
RCA 32.6 (7) 32.1 (2) 0.16 (2) 3.17 (10) 3.34 (13) concrete did not influence its elastic properties.
RFA 34.1 (4) 31.0 (5) 0.18 (28) 3.28 (17) 3.92 (12) The presence of steel fiber, on the other hand, show significant
RFCA 37.7 (5) 29.2 (3) 0.18 (9) 3.53 (8) 4.09 (12)
influence on the splitting and flexural strength of the studied mix-
Steel Fiber (SF) reinforced concrete tures. For example, the splitting and flexural strength of the CDW-
SF-REF 34.3 (0) 30.9 (3) 0.19 (1) 3.96 (10) 3.92 (1)
concrete were increased by about 20–26% and 8–36%, respectively,
SF- RCA 36.9 (2) 28.5 (5) 0.20 (7) 3.87 (13) 4.62 (7)
SF-RFA 40.5 (1) 30.2 (9) 0.18 (1) 3.91 (11) 4.21 (3) with the fiber addition to the mixtures.
SF-RFCA 41.5 (7) 32.1 (6) 0.18 (14) 4.48 (5) 5.57 (1)

3.2. Stress–strain behavior of the CDW-concrete and SF CDW-concrete

Table 5
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the compressive strength test results. Typical examples of stress–strain curves are presented in Figs. 4
and 5. As can be seen a work softening behavior is observed for the
Factor Degree of Mean Calculated F Tabulated Significance
freedom squares F (at 95%
compressive failure of the NA and CDW-concrete mixtures. Com-
(df) (MS) probability) paring the shape of the curves it can be noted that although the
A – RFA 1 62.017 50.95 4.49 Yes
constitutive relationships are not identical, they have a similar pat-
B – RCA 1 5.782 4.75 4.49 Yes tern at pre-peak zone.
C – FIBER 1 13.530 11.11 4.49 Yes Four stages of cracking can be identified in the pre-peak zone of
AB 1 0.432 0.36 4.49 No stress–strain curve of plain concrete in compression [27,29,30], as
AC 1 8.906 7.32 4.49 Yes
shown in Fig. 6. In stage I, despite of the presence of pores and
BC 1 21.244 17.45 4.49 Yes
ABC 1 2.926 2.40 4.49 No internal microcracks between aggregates and matrix before load-
ERROR 16 1.220 ing, at relative low loads the microcracks will not propagate and
the microstructure can be stationary. The concrete can be assumed
as linear elastic in this stage. The point A, which is referred as the
Table 6 onset of localized cracking, is the point where the stress–strain
Significance of factors affecting the elastic modulus, Poisson ratio and tensile and curve deviates from linearity. The internal microcracks start to
bending strength. open at this level of stress (first-crack strength – rA). The interfa-
Factor E m ftd ftf cial microcracks propagate at point B, which is referred as crack
A – RFA No No No No
initiation stress (rB) and corresponds to the point where the volu-
B – RCA No No No No metric strain curve deviates from linearity (end of stage II). At stage
C – FIBER No No Yes Yes III there is instability of the microcracks initiated at the paste-
AB No No No No aggregate interface and they propagate in different directions into
AC No No No No
the concrete and coalesce as a single or several major cracks at
BC No No No Yes
ABC Yes No No No Point C referred as critical stress (rC) and correspond to the point
where the volumetric strain achieve its maximum value. At stage
IV the major cracks propagate stably until one of them reach its
critical length at point D. As a result, the specimen exhibits its peak
wing-crack bridging [26]. The addition of steel fiber to the CDW- compressive strength (Point D). After the peak stress, the major
concrete benefitted its mechanical performance in a similar way. cracks automatically propagate even though the applied load de-
For example, the compressive strength of the RCA, RFA and RFCA creases. The post-peak deformation is called work softening. It is
mixtures was increased by about 10–19% with the addition of characterized by the descendent branch of the stress–strain curve,
the steel fiber to the mixtures. which has a negative tangential stiffness kt (see Fig. 9) that can be
Regarding to the effect of the recycled aggregate on the elastic used as a measure of brittleness of the material [31].
modulus, Poisson ratio, splitting and bending strength of the NA- In Table 7 it is presented the stresses corresponding to the
concrete, the results obtained in the present study indicate that points A, B and C whereas the values corresponding to point D
 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72 69

Fig. 4. Typical stress–strain curves for plain CDW-concrete under compression load.

Fig. 5. Typical stress–strain curves for SF CDW-concrete under compression load.

Fig. 6. Cracking stages of concrete in compression.

were presented in Table 4. The relationship between the first crack
strength, crack initiation stress and critical stress and the peak
stress (fc) are shown in Fig. 7.
The results show that the addition of coarse, fine and mixed
recycled aggregate to the reference mixture led to both slight in-
creases and decreases in the ratio rA/fc. The same trend was ob-
served for the ratio rB/fc. The ratio rC/fc, on the other hand,
presented some reduction (from 0.86 to 0.81–0.85) with the pres-
ence of the recycled aggregate. Unlike natural aggregate concrete,
which propagation of cracking occurs through the cement paste,
in concrete with recycled aggregate the crack can also propagate
through the aggregate due to the presence of grains with lower
strength and stiffness. In these aggregates, tensile stresses occur-
ring at the tip of the aggregate and the high levels of tangential
stresses that may occur in the matrix close to the interface and
aggregate surface may affect the fracture process of the concrete
[32]. Observing the surface failure of the specimens subjected to
axial compression and splitting tensile test (see Fig. 8) it can be
seen the rupture of few grains of recycled aggregate. Another factor
that may have affected the cracking pattern of the studied CDW-
concretes is the modification in the transition zone that may be-
come stronger due to rough and porous surfaces and the more
70 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72

Table 7
Cracking stresses and tangent stiffness of the descending branch of the stress–strain curves.

Mix Pre-peak stresses level (MPa) Tangent stiffness of the post-peak zone (GPa)
rA rB rC kt (see Fig. 9)
Plain concrete
REF 14.3 (1) 20.8 (1) 25.7 (5) 3.2
RCA 17.4 (16) 22.7 (21) 26.3 (14) 4.7
RFA 16.0 (16) 20.2 (3) 29.0 (1) 4.2
RFCA 13.5 (6) 18.0 (7) 34.3 (3) 4.4
Steel fiber reinforced concrete
SF-REF 16.8 (5) 18.9 (3) 27.4 (3) 1.8
SF-RCA 15.4 (7) 25.0 (9) 29.9 (2) 2.7
SF-RFA 19.7 (14) 24.1 (16) 33.6 (1) 1.1
SF-RFCA 20.6 (3) 26.3 (1) 35.0 (4) 1.8

Fig. 7. Influence of steel fiber on the normalized cracking stresses of CDW-concretes. Stress level A, B and C are indicated in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8. Failure surfaces of CDW-concrete under tensile and compressive loads.

compatible strength and elastic properties of the coarse recycled
aggregate and surrounding mortar. Similar behavior was also re-
ported by [33] with respect to lightweight concrete.
The influence of steel fiber on the first-crack strength (rA), crack
initiation stress (rB) and critical stress (rC) of natural and recycled
concrete is shown in Fig. 7. It is verified that, to the NA-concrete
(REF), the presence of fiber increases the ratio of first-crack
strength to the ultimate strength, and reduces the stress-strength
ratio at the initiation point and at critical stress. Similar results
were obtained by Mangat and Azari [34] for NA-steel fiber rein-
forced concrete.
An increase of the rA/fc is also observed to steel fiber recycled
concrete containing fine recycled aggregate (RFA and RFCA
mixtures) and it can be explained by considering that at low
 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72 71

The influence of steel fiber and recycled aggregate on the post

peak behavior of concrete can be observed from the stress–strain
curves presented in Fig. 9 (see the toughness index kt presented
in Table 7). The sudden failure under compression is a result of
the tensile splitting loads in planes perpendicular to the direction
of the principal tensile strain and to the reduced possibility to
redistributing the stresses in the matrix. A steeper descending
branch can be observed in the stress–strain curves of the CDW-
concrete indicating the lower toughness of this concrete family
in comparison to the NA-concrete.
For normal, lightweight or high-performance concretes it is
verified that a decrease in the slope of the descending branch of
the stress–strain curve is obtained by the addition of fibrous rein-
forcement [33,35–38]. In this work, the addition of discontinuous
steel fibers to the CDW-concrete reduced the unstable propagation
of macrocracks and allowed a ductile post-peak behavior as a re-
sult of crack bridging. Observe that the post-peak behavior of
CDW-concrete become quite similar to that of the NA-concrete
which indicate a very most important contribution of fiber addi-
tion to this concrete family.
Fig. 9. Effect of CDW-aggregate and fiber addition on the descending branch of the
stress–strain curves of NA-concrete (REF).
3.3. Modeling the stress–strain behavior of the steel fiber reinforced
CDW-concrete

compressive stress levels, such as the first crack strength the ten- The stress–strain behavior of the steel fiber reinforced CDW-
sile and shear stresses induced in the material during the compres- concrete was modeled using the following analytical expressions
sion test are sufficiently small for the fiber–matrix bond strength proposed by Ezeldin and Balagaru [38]:
to be adequate in arresting the growth of cracks. For these fc b eecoc
mixtures (RFA and RFCA mixtures) it is verified that the presence ¼ ð4Þ
fcf b  1 þ ð ec Þb
of fibers increased the ratio rB/r with respect to mixtures without eco
fibers. Thus, the presence of fiber had a positive effect to restore
the level of crack initiation stress of recycled concrete, equating b ¼ 1:093 þ 0:7132ðRIÞ0:926 ð5Þ
it to the concrete with natural aggregate.

Fig. 10. Analytical versus experimental stress–strain curves for fiber reinforced CDW-concrete.
72 J.A. Carneiro et al. / Cement & Concrete Composites 46 (2014) 65–72
where fcf = compressive strength of fiber concrete; eco = strain corre-
sponding to the compressive strength; fc, ec = stress and strain val-
ues on the curve, respectively. RI is the reinforcing index that
combines the effect of both the fiber volume fraction of steel fibers
and their aspect ratio L/d. The coefficients values in Eq. (5) were ta-
ken directly from [38].
As can be seen in Fig. 10 the use of the analytical expressions
are in good agreement with experimental results indicating that
they can be extended to steel fiber-concrete containing recycled
aggregate. More studies are, however, needed to further validate
the model for this material.
4. Conclusions
From the test data and analysis presented in this work the fol-
lowing conclusions can be obtained:
 The use of recycled aggregate in substitution of natural aggre-
gate increased the compressive, bending and tensile strength
of the reference mixture. No significant change was observed
in the elastic modulus of the studied mixtures. The fracture
process of the reference concrete was modified by the CDW
addition and both slight increases and decreases in the first
crack strength, crack initiation stress and critical stress were
observed.
 The addition of steel fiber and recycled aggregate increased all
mechanical properties of the CDW-concrete and better con-
trolled its fracture process. The fiber addition was particularly
useful to control the post-crack regime of the stress–strain
curve of the recycled concrete mixtures. With the addition of
steel fiber the toughness, measured by the slope of the descend-
ing branch of the stress–strain curve, of the recycled concretes
was increased and their behavior under compression becomes
similar to that of fiber-reinforced natural aggregate concrete.
 The analytical expressions proposed to model the stress–strain
behavior of steel fiber reinforced NA-concrete were used in the
present study. A comparison between the analytical and
experimental curves shows that they are in good agreement
indicating the possibility of their use to model the behavior of
steel fiber-recycled aggregate concrete. More studies are, how-
ever, needed to further validate the model.
Acknowledgements
Authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supporting given
by FAPESB, FAPERJ, CNPq and CAPES (PROCAD) to the execution
of the present research project.
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