Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 872–877

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Study on the influence of attached mortar content on the properties

of recycled concrete aggregate
Marta Sánchez de Juan a,*, Pilar Alaejos Gutiérrez b
a
Laboratorio de Estructuras y Materiales (CEDEX), Concrete Technology Department, 28014 Madrid, Spain
b
Laboratorio de Estructuras y Materiales (CEDEX), Material Science Area, Spain

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

Article history: Recycled concrete aggregates mainly differ from natural aggregates in that they are composed of two dif-
Received 23 October 2006 ferent materials: natural aggregate and cement mortar attached. It is well known that cement mortar
Received in revised form 29 March 2008 content affects other properties of recycled aggregates: absorption is higher, Los Angeles abrasion coef-
Accepted 14 April 2008
ficient is lower, etc., but the available data that support this statement are scattered, as they were
Available online 17 June 2008
obtained in many individual studies. There is no a general study about the quantitative influence of mor-
tar content on other properties of the recycled aggregate. The objective of this study has been to obtain
Keywords:
experimental relationships between the attached mortar content and other recycled aggregate proper-
Coarse recycled concrete aggregate
Attached mortar
ties, covering a wide range of different aggregates qualities.
Recycled aggregate quality relations The interest of these general relationships is diverse:

 They can be used to establish the mortar content that adversely affects other important properties of
the aggregate for different applications. For example, in this research it has been concluded that only
recycled aggregates with mortar content under 44% could be used of structural concrete. With this cri-
terion, aggregates with bulk specific density higher than 2160 kg/m3, water absorption lower than 8%
and Los Angeles abrasion loss under 40%, are obtained.
 The results can also be useful for recycling plants as they can adjust the production processes using the
relationships to obtain an aggregate with pre-selected properties reducing mortar content, for exam-
ple, by means of several crushing processes.

This research has analyzed data from experimental works carried out in CEDEX and also from literature
review. The results show that the main properties unfavourably affected by the attached mortar content are
density, absorption and Los Angeles abrasion, and correlations between them and attached mortar content
have been obtained and discussed in detail.

Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction One aspect that influences on mortar content is the number of

Recycled concrete aggregates mainly differ from natural aggre-
gates in that they are composed by two different materials: natural
aggregate and cement mortar attached (Fig. 1). Cement mortar is
the origin of the worse properties of recycled aggregates: lower
density, and higher absorption, Los Angeles abrasion and sulphate
content.
These aggregate properties have a negative influence on recy-
cled concrete quality, mainly affecting to concrete properties re-
lated with strain (elasticity, shrinkage, and creep), also durability,
and in a lesser extent strength.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 335 74 01.
E-mail address: msanchez@cedex.es (M.S. de Juan).
crushing processes in the production plants. Increasing the number
of crushing processes, attached mortar content can be diminished
(see Fig. 2), and therefore, aggregate quality can be improved [2–4].
However, this fact causes an increase of production costs, so
that it will be necessary to find a balance between number of
stage-crushing processes and aggregate quality required, according
to each application. This makes necessary to apply quantitative
methods to control recycled aggregate quality.
The objective of this study has been to obtain experimental
relationships between the attached mortar content and other recy-
cled aggregate properties covering a wide range of different aggre-
gates qualities. These general relationships have been used to
establish those properties that are mainly affected by mortar con-
tent and to determine the limit for the mortar content that sub-
stantially affects aggregate properties. This research has analyzed

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2008.04.012
 M.S. de Juan, P.A. Gutiérrez / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 872–877 873

tested for compressive strength to study the influence of original

concrete strength on mortar content.
Finally, additional data of mortar content have been obtained
from other references, so that the final results could be contrasted.

3. Characterization of recycled concrete aggregates

3.1. Test method for attached mortar content

There is no standard method to measure attached mortar con-

tent in recycled aggregate, so all the methods found in literature
have been previously analyzed:

– Treatment with a solution of hydrochloric acid [2–4]: This

method consists on the dissolution of cement paste attached
when recycled aggregate is immersed into a solution of
hydrochloric acid. It can not be used with limestone, because
acid also attacks the aggregate.
– Production of a new concrete [5–7]: This method consists on
the production of a new concrete made with recycled aggre-
Fig. 1. Materials of recycled concrete aggregates.
gate and new coloured cement, so mortar surface is easily
data from experimental works carried out in CEDEX and also from detected in a slice specimen by means of the different colour
different studies from literature. between both natural aggregate and new mortar.
This study is included into the experimental works carried out – Thermal treatment [8,9]: This method consists on several
by The Central Laboratory of Structures and Materials (CEDEX), cycles of soaking in water and heating of the aggregate.
aimed to establish the requirements that recycled concrete aggre-
gates should fulfil for structural concrete application [1]. If we compare results obtained with these three methods (Fig.
2), we can observe that the first two methods have been mostly
used. Also, the range of results is very wide (between 25% and
2. Experimental programme
70% without considering those obtained with several crushing pro-
cesses). Very limited results have been found for the thermal
In this study, a periodical control along one year of fifteen sam-
method.
ples coming from a stationary recycling plant in Madrid (TEC REC
Finally, the thermal method has been chosen in this study be-
Tecnología y Reciclado) has been carried out.
cause it can be used for all kind of aggregates (including limestone)
The recycling process of the plant consists of a double impact
and it is easier to do. Next, a more detailed explanation of this
crushing, and separation with vibrating screens. Metallic elements
method is included:
are removed by a magnetic conveyor belt and big impurities, such
as plastics, paper, glass, etc are extracted by hand. Different mate-
 A recycled aggregate sample (mi) is prepared, previously remov-
rials are produced by the plant, such as masonry, asphalt and con-
ing all kind of impurities as bricks, asphalt, plastics, wood, etc.
crete aggregates. This last material was selected in this study.
The sample is immersed in water for 2 h, so that attached mortar
The batched samples were graded at the laboratory selecting 4/
be almost completely saturated.
16 mm fraction prior testing, and afterwards divided into 4/8 mm
 Next, the sample is dried in a muffle at a temperature of 500 °C
and 8/16 mm fractions, in order to establish aggregate size influ-
for 2 h (Fig. 4). Then, the sample is immersed into cold water.
ence on recycled aggregate properties.
This heating origins water vapour in the saturated mortar and
In addition, other properties required to aggregates for struc-
the sudden cooling causes stress and cracks in the mortar, so
tural concrete have been studied: density, absorption, Los Angeles
that can be easily removed.
abrasion and sulphate content.
 After these steps, some mortar usually remains attached, so it is
Furthermore, in each sampling at the recycling plant, four cores
necessary to remove it by means of a rubber hammer or scratch-
were extracted from several concrete blocks at the stockpiles, and
ing the surface.
 When all the mortar has been removed, the sample is screened
by 4 mm sieve, obtaining the coarse aggregate (mf).
 Mortar content is calculated as follows:

mi  mf
% attached mortar ¼  100
mi
Several crushing
processes

3.2. Results

According to experimental results, 4/8 mm fraction have a mor-

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 tar content from 33% to 55%, while it ranges from 23% to 44% for 8/
Attached mortar content (%)
16 mm fraction (Table 1).
Thermal treatment: 4 results from references 8 and 9
Coloured cement: 15 results from references 5, 6 and 7
The results are lower than those collected from literature, rang-
Acid solultion: 21 results obtained from references 2, 3 and 4 ing from 25% to 64% (40 results obtained from references [2–9]).
The differences are mainly due to by the test method used, as
Fig. 2. Attached mortar content for different test methods.
874 M.S. de Juan, P.A. Gutiérrez / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 872–877

Table 1
Characterization of recycled aggregates

Property Test method Individual results (15 samples) Spanish

specification (EHE)
[10]
4/8 mm 8/16 mm
Attached mortar (%) Ref. [8] 46-45-43-33-45-44-44-44-46-55-54-39-36- 36-39-42-25-31-32-26-23-44-40-40-31-26- –
37- 39-
Bulk specific density (kg/ UNE-EN -2.24-2.30-2.21-2.14-2.18-2.16-2.04-2.05- -2.33-2.29-2.37-2.27-2.29-2.34-2.28-2.22- 62.00
dm3) 1097-6 2.01-2.03-2.16-2.14-2.14-2.09 2.14-2.22-2.29-2.27-2.26-2.18
Water saturated surface-dry UNE-EN 2.37-2.4-2.42-2.37-2.32-2.34-2.33-2.26-2.24- 2.43-2.45-2.41-2.47-2.40-2.42-2.45-2.41-2.36- –
density (kg/dm3) 1097-6 2.25-2.33-2.32-2.31-2.30 2.33-2.37-2.41-2.40-2.39-2.35
Water absorption (%) UNE-EN 7.0-7.5-5.1-7.1-8.4-7.5-8.3-11.0-9.9-11.5- 4.6-5.1-5.2-4.2-5.8-5.3-4.9-5.8-6.3-8.8-6.9-5.3- 65
1097-6 10.8-7.9-8.3-8.7-9.7 5.9-5.3-7.5
Los Angeles abrasion (%) UNE-EN 37-38-40-35-39-37-39-40-42-41-41-38-38-36-42 640
1097-2
Total sulphur content as UNE-EN 0.40-0,57-0.75-0.52-0.61-0.45-0.43-0.50- 0.30-0.52-0.51-0.43-0.48-0.34-0.40-0.38-0.50 61
SO2
3 (%) 1744-1 0.54
fc of tested cores (N/mm2) UNE-EN 41-48-34-36-26-29-20-21-22-25-14-27-29-40 –
12390-3

() Unavailable data.

the majority of results from literature were obtained with coloured 4.2. Relationship between mortar content and density
concrete and acid attack methods. If only results from thermal
treatment are considered, more similar values to the experimental Figs. 4 and 5 show the relationship between mortar content and
results of this research are obtained. density both for experimental results and literature: the higher
Table 1 includes the experimental results of the fifteen samples amount of attached mortar, the lower the density is.
for each fraction (except for sulphate content that was tested only Differences found between experimental study and other refer-
for samples 2–10). Attached mortar unfavourably affects recycled ences must be again explained by the different test method used
aggregate properties because the mortar is a porous material: main for attached mortar content, as was described in Section 3.2.
properties affected are density, absorption, Los Angeles abrasion,
and sulphate content. These results are drawn in Figs. 3–10, and
2700
will be discussed in the following sections.
A great dispersion of results can be observed, mainly caused by 2600
Bulkspecificdensity (kg/m3)

y (literature) = -5,20x + 2653

the different sources and quality of original concretes crushed in R2 = 0,60
2500
the plant. These results show the heterogeneity of the recycled
aggregates and confirm the necessity to limit and control its prop- 2400
erties for different applications.
2300

4. Relationship between mortar content and other aggregate 2200

properties y (experimental) = -8,82x + 2546
2100 R2 = 0,53

4.1. Relationship between mortar content and aggregates fraction size 2000
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Experimental results and others extracted from literature are Attached mortar content (%)
shown in Fig. 3. As can be seen, attached mortar content is higher Literature Experimental results
as the fraction size is lower. Only a tendency but not a significant
Fig. 4. Relationship between mortar content and bulk specific density.
regression can be adjusted so it means that other factors also influ-
ence on attached mortar content of recycled aggregates.

2700
80
Saturated dry-surface density (kg/m3)

2600 y (literature)= -3,07x + 2565

70
Attachedmortar content (%)

R2 = 0,60
2500
60
2400
50
2300
40
2200
y (experimental) = -5,63x + 2579
30 R2 = 0,52
2100

20 2000
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Maximum size (mm) Attached mortar content (%)
Literature Experimental results Literature Experimental results

Fig. 3. Attached mortar content versus fraction size. Fig. 5. Relationship between mortar content and saturated surface-dry density.
 M.S. de Juan, P.A. Gutiérrez / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 872–877 875

Extrapolating the linear regressions, we can study the intersec- 50

tion points with axis of coordinates, in the case of experimental re-
sults. If x = 0, which means no mortar content, the average value of
bulk specific density and saturated surface-dry density of a normal

Los Angeles abrasion

natural aggregate can be obtained, set on 2546 kg/m3 and 2579 kg/ 40

m3, respectively. In the same way, when x = 100%, which means

that all recycled aggregate is mortar, the correlation gives the aver-
age values of bulk specific density and saturated surface-dry den-
30
sity of a normal mortar, set on 1665 kg/m3 and 2000 kg/m3.

4.3. Relationship between mortar content and absorption

44%
20
Fig. 6 shows the relation between attached mortar content and 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
water absorption of recycled aggregate: when mortar content in- Attached mortar content (%)
creases, water absorption increases too. Literature Experimenta results
The Spanish specification regarding water absorption of aggre-
gates for concrete is 5%. To satisfy it, mortar content should be very Fig. 8. Relationship between mortar content and Los Angeles abrasion.

low, less than 26%, using thermal treatment or less than 39%
according to literature (acid attack or coloured concrete methods).
These values are hardly reached for usual recycled aggregates.
A unique and better regression is obtained if absorption and
density results for both literature and experimental study are re-
lated, as can be seen in Fig. 7. This figure, where mortar content
is not considered, confirms that previous differences found in Figs.
3–10 between experimental and literature results come from the
different test method used for mortar content.
14
12
y (experimental) = 0,18x + 0,36
10
Absorption (%)
4.4. Relationship between mortar content and Los Angeles abrasion
According to European Standard EN-12620 ‘‘Aggregates for con-
crete”, categories ranging from LA25 to LA50 have been obtained, for
‘‘Los Angeles” results of the recycled aggregates (Fig. 8).
In Los Angeles abrasion test all the attached mortar of recycled
aggregate is powdered, apart from the abrasion suffered by the
natural aggregate. For this reason, both properties are expected
to be related. So, Fig. 8 shows that when attached mortar content
is high, Los Angeles abrasion increases too, although only a ten-
dency between both properties is obtained.
Conforming to Spanish standard for structural concrete, Los
Angeles coefficient should be lower than 40%. All samples with at-
tached mortar content lower than 44% fulfil this limit as can be ob-
R2 = 0,50 served in Fig. 8. By using linear regressions obtained in Figs. 4 and 6

8
(experimental data), recycled aggregates with an attached mortar
content under 44% have a bulk specific density higher than
6 2160 kg/m3 and absorption lower than 8%.

4
4.5. Sulphate content
y (literature)= 0,11x + 0,66
2 R2 = 0,59
Recycled aggregates may have higher sulphate content than the
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 natural ones due to sulphates from cement of attached mortar.
Attached mortar content (%) Fig. 9 confirms this relation and shows that those samples with
Literature Experimental results higher mortar content also have higher sulphate content. Anyway,
conforming to European standard EN-12620 ‘‘aggregates for
Fig. 6. Relationship between mortar content and absorption.
concrete”, sulphate content limit of 1% is satisfied by all the
samples.

2700

2600
y (all results) = -53,84x + 2660
Bulk specific density (kg/dm )

0.80
3

2500 R2= 0,74

Sulphate content SO3= (%)

2400 0.70

2300 0.60

2200
0.50
2100 y (experimental) = 0.09x0.47
0.40 R2 = 0.37
2000

1900 0.30
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Absorption (%) Attached mortar content (%)
Literature Experimental results 4/8 mm fraction 8/16 mm fracion

Fig. 7. Relationship between bulk density and absorption. Fig. 9. Relationship between mortar content and sulphate content.
876 M.S. de Juan, P.A. Gutiérrez / Construction and Building Materials 23 (2009) 872–877

60 Main conclusions obtained from the analysis of results are as

Compressive strength of original concrete (N)

follows:
50
– Quality of recycled concrete aggregate is lower than natural
40 aggregate quality, due to the mortar that remains attached
to natural aggregate, but there are not general available rela-
30 tionships between this property and others affected in the
recycled aggregate, which has been the main objective in
20 this research.
– Several test methods to obtain mortar content of recycled
10
aggregate have been found in literature. Mortar content
results are very different depending on the test applied
0
(25–70%) for treatment with hydrochloric acid solution,
20 30 40 50
Los Angeles abrasion (%) (25–65%) for the production of a new concrete, and (40–
Literature Experimental results 55%) for thermal treatment. This last method was chosen
in this study as it can be used for all kind of aggregates
Fig. 10. Relationship between Los Angeles abrasion and compressive strength of (including limestone) and it is easier to do.
original concrete.
– The amount of mortar attached to fine fraction is higher than
to coarse fraction: wide ranges of 23–44% for 8/16 mm frac-
tion and 33–55% for 4/8 mm fraction have been obtained in
The extra sulphate content provided by recycled aggregates can fifteen samples, which also shows the great heterogeneity of
be theoretically estimated (referred to concrete weight or mortar recycled aggregates.
weight) taking into account, that according to European standard – The main properties unfavourable affected by mortar con-
for cement EN 197-1 [11], sulphate content in cements has to be tent are absorption, density, Los Angeles abrasion, and sul-
lower than 4%. For an average concrete mix, the maximum sul- phate content. General relationships covering a wide range
phate content provided by cement paste, expressed as percentage of recycled aggregate qualities have been adjusted for them.
of concrete or mortar weight, is as follows: These relationships can be used to establish the recycled
aggregates requirements for different applications.
1300 kg coarse %SO2
3 ðin concreteÞ
– For example, recycled aggregate of good quality for the pro-
aggregate 0:04  275 duction of structural concrete could be obtained selecting
¼  100
600 kg sand 1300 þ 600 þ 275 þ 0:23  275 aggregates with mortar content under 44%. With this crite-
¼ 0:50% rion, aggregates with bulk specific density higher than
275 kg cement %SO2
3 ðin mortarÞ 2160 kg/m3, water absorption lower than 8% and Los Ange-
180 l water 0:04  275 les abrasion loss under 40% (LA40), are obtained. This quality
¼  100 ¼ 1:20%
600 þ 275 þ 0:23  275 of recycled aggregate can be produced controlling original
concrete strength, over 25 N/mm2.
Taking into account that the recycled aggregate comes from
crushed concrete, its sulphate content must be around the calcu-
lated value (SO3 = 0.50%) which is just in the middle of the experi- 7 Future research
mental range obtained with the fifteen samples tested: from
0.35% to 0.75%. This means that the main source of sulphate content The general relationships obtained in this research can be ap-
is provided by the cement paste. plied to study the influence of different crushing processes on mor-
Moreover, in the correlation of Fig. 9, for 100% of mortar con- tar content of recycled aggregates, so that the recycling plants can
tent, SO2 adjust the production processes and reduce mortar content based
3 would be set on 0.80%, near the 1.20% (maximum value
estimated). on the aggregate quality required.

5. Relationship between recycled aggregate quality and Acknowledgements

compressive strength of original concrete
This experimental work has been supported by the General
The influence of original concrete strength on mortar content Direction of Quality and Environmental Evaluation of the Ministry
has also been evaluated, but no clear relation has been observed. of Environment in Spain.
However, if Los Angeles abrasion and compressive strength of Recycled aggregate samples have been collected, thanks to the
experimental data and other references are compared (Fig. 10), a collaboration of the company TEC REC Tecnología y Reciclado SRL.
tendency is observed, as has already been pointed out in other
studies [12].
From correlation in Fig. 10, recycled aggregates with Los Ange- References
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