Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Effect of brick waste content on mechanical properties of mixed recycled

concrete
Xu Liu, Jin Wu ⇑, Xing Zhao, Pengpeng Yan, Weiyi Ji
College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, No. 29, Yudao Street, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

The composition of mixed recycled coarse aggregate (MRCA) is complex.

Recycled brick coarse aggregate (RBCA) is the weakest phase of MRCA.

RBCA content influences the key properties of MRCA and MRCA concrete significantly.

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

Article history: The main compositions of recycled coarse aggregate produced from demolition waste of brick-concrete
Received 24 September 2020 construction are recycled concrete coarse aggregate (RCCA) and recycled brick coarse aggregate
Received in revised form 8 March 2021 (RBCA), called mixed recycled coarse aggregate (MRCA). This paper presents the results of test on the
Accepted 12 April 2021
specific density (SD), saturated surface dry density (SSD), water absorption (WA), crushing value (CV)
Available online 30 April 2021
of twenty-three groups of MRCA and slump, SSD, cubic compressive strength (fcu), splitting tension
strength (fts), static modulus of elasticity (Ec), flexural strength (ff) of the corresponding MRCA concretes.
Keywords:
The results show that the correlation between WA of MRCA and RBCA content is the strongest, followed
Recycled brick coarse aggregate
Mixed recycled coarse aggregate
by SSD and WA of MRCA. A continuous decrease in SSD and a continuous increase in WA and CV can be
Mixed recycled concrete observed with the increase of RBCA content, however, the SD has no obvious change with the increase of
RBCA content when the SD is measured by drainage method. The cubic compressive strength and elastic
modulus of MRCA concretes always decrease linearly with the increase of RBCA content, and the RBCA
content has no obvious effect on the splitting tension and flexural strength in case the total amount of
RCCA and RBCA is no more than 30%. According to the good correlation between the RBCA content and
the properties of MRCA and MRCA concrete, the prediction model of WA, CV, and SSD of MRCA and fcu,
Ec, and fts of MRCA concrete are established based on the RBCA content.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of the recycled aggregate produced from building rubbles are

Every year, about 1 ton of concrete is produced by per human in
the world[1]. So much natural aggregates extraction leads to high
environmental impacts for the pollutant emission and resource
depletion. On the other hand, the dumping grounds are serious
insufficiency with the increase of construction and demolition
waste (C&DW)[2]. Therefore, recycling C&DW for concrete manu-
facturing is an effective way to relieve environmental pressure.
In past decades, large amount of low-rise and mid-rise buildings
were demolished in China. Annual construction waste accounts
about 40% of the total municipal waste[3]. Most of the demolished
buildings are constructed by concrete and clay bricks. Thus, most
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wujin@nuaa.edu.cn (J. Wu), xingzhao@nuaa.edu.cn (X. Zhao).
MRCA; and the RCCA and RBCA are the main compositions of
MRCA.
Recycled concretes incorporating with RCCA have been
researched for several decades, the collected literatures unani-
mously have a point that there is a minor effect on the physical
and mechanical properties of recycled concretes when the NCA
replaced by RCCA is no more than 30%[4,5,6,7]. However, MRCA
have a higher heterogeneous composition compared to RCCA,
and thus, various researches with the objective of evaluating the
use of MRCA in concrete were implemented in the latest years.
The characteristics of thirty-five groups of MRCA were analyzed
by Agrela et al.[8], and observed that the content of RBCA has an
obvious effect on water absorption (WA) and saturated surface
dry density (SSD) of MRCA. There was a tendency for slump of
MRCA concretes to decrease as the mixing ratio of MRCA increased,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123320
0950-0618/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

and the tendency became even stronger when the content of RBCA
is increased[9]. The loss of sump can be solved by taking the initial
moisture and WA of MRCA into consideration in the mix design of
MRCA concretes[10], but it would results in a significantly higher
total w/c ratio[11].
The use of MRCA in concrete manufacture is subject to con-
straints due to the material’s higher porosity, WA and lower den-
sity than NCA, which translate into lower mechanical
performances in MRCA concretes[9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Chen et al.
[12] replaced NCA by MRCA at 100% ratio, and the experimental Fig. 1. Grading size distribution of the coarse aggregates.
results showed that the compressive strength of MRCA concretes
is about 75–85% compared to that of NCA concretes when the
RBCAs content varied from 0 to 67%. Martínez et al.[13] also indi- content and slump, SSD, fcu, fts, Ec, ff of MRCA concretes are ana-
cated that replacing NCA by MRCA in concrete will have a signifi- lyzed. And the prediction model of WA, CV, and SSD of MRCA
cant adverse effect on compressive strength, and the decline in and fcu, Ec, and fts of MRCA concrete are also established based
compressive strength was observed to be approximately linear on the RBCA content.
with respect to the replacement ratio. Sheen et al.[16] studied
the effect of brick and tile content on the elastic modulus of con-
crete when the NCA are replaced by MRCA in 100%. The test results
showed that the elastic modulus of MRCA concretes is reduced by 2. Experimental
25% compared with NCA concretes when the brick content reaches
67%, and the elastic modulus tends to slightly reduced as the brick 2.1. Materials
and tile content rising. The test conducted by Rodríguez et al.[15]
showed that the increasing in the RBCA content has a negative Natural river sand with a maximum size of 4 mm was used as
effect on the flexural strength of MRCA concretes for the same sub- fine aggregate (NFA) and crushed rocks with a maximum size of
stitution percentage of RA. However, Yang et al.[9] indicated that 25 mm was employed as natural coarse aggregate (NCA). The RCCA
concretes with different content of RBCA did not significantly affect were obtained from construction and demolish waste recycling
the flexural strength of MRCA concretes. plant named Shoujia in Nanjing. The clay bricks were collected
The properties of MRCA concretes are more unstable compared from two demolished sites and crushed by a giant crushing and
to NCA or RCCA concretes due to the complex composition. Most of sorting machine. The maximum size of RCCA and RBCA is
previous studies focus on the effect of replacement ratio (the 25 mm, and grading size distribution of coarse aggregates is pre-
amount of NCA replaced by MRCA) on the properties of concrete, sented in Fig. 1.
there are few literatures on the correlation between RBCA content MRCA were mixed by NCA, RCCA and RBCA in different propor-
and the properties of MRCA and MRCA concretes. This study firstly tions. The physical and mechanical properties of aggregate are
aimed to investigate the correlation between RBCA content and SD, illustrated in Table 1, and all the parameters were tested according
SSD, WA , CV of MRCA; secondly, the correlation between RBCA to GB/T14685-2011.

Table 1
Properties of aggregates.

Items NCA(%) RCCA(%) RBCA(%) SD(kg/m3) SSD(kg/m3) WA(%) CV(%)

NCA 100 0 0 2736 2706 0.81 14.5
RCCA 0 100 0 2530 2418 3.02 15.6
RBCA 0 0 100 2412 1975 11.14 28.8
MRCA1 85 15 0 2717 2646 1.16 14.4
MRCA2 85 10 5 2723 2643 1.74 14.6
MRCA3 85 5 10 2708 2600 2.58 14.5
MRCA4 85 0 15 2713 2583 3.12 15.7
MRCA5 70 30 0 2679 2615 2.04 14.5
MRCA6 70 25 5 2669 2584 2.24 14.9
MRCA7 70 21 9 2662 2551 3 14.5
MRCA8 70 16 14 2690 2558 3.48 14.5
MRCA9 70 12 18 2687 2551 3.61 16
MRCA10 70 8 22 2648 2505 4.4 16.1
MRCA11 70 3 27 2658 2466 4.81 17.5
MRCA12 70 0 30 2662 2462 5.11 17.1
MRCA13 55 45 0 2643 2562 1.33 14.2
MRCA14 55 40 5 2642 2524 2.74 14.6
MRCA15 55 34 11 2652 2516 3.59 15.3
MRCA16 55 27 18 2666 2499 4.72 15.6
MRCA17 55 20 25 2664 2474 5.44 16.8
MRCA18 55 14 31 2657 2436 6.17 17.7
MRCA19 55 7 38 2659 2425 6.92 17.7
MRCA20 55 0 45 2660 2403 7.83 18.6
MRCA21 40 60 0 2620 2484 2.88 14.5
MRCA22 40 30 30 2621 2346 6.03 16.7
MRCA23 40 0 60 2637 2326 10.09 20.3
NFA – – – 2551 – – –

Note: SD represents specific density; SSD represents saturated surface dry density; WA represents water absorption; CV represents crushing value.

2
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

2.2. Concrete mixtures

In this experimental, different compositions proportion of

MRCA were studied by incorporating pre-determined percentages
of NCA, RCCA and RBCA. To evaluate the properties of concrete
made with various recycled aggregate compositions, one group of
NCA concrete with target strength of 35 MPa and twenty-three
groups of MRCA concretes were manufactured. Both the w/c ratio
of NCA concrete and MRCA concretes are 0.58. Concretes were
labeled as NxCyBz, where N is natural coarse aggregate, C is recy-
cled concrete coarse aggregate and B is recycled brick coarse aggre-
gate; and  ,y and z represent the volume fraction of N, C and B,
respectively. For instance, N70C15B15 represents the MRCA
including 70%NCA, 15%RCCA and 15%RBCA.The mixture propor-
tions and slump of concretes were listed in Table2.
All concrete mixtures were prepared in laboratory mixer using
the same mixing procedure. The slumps were determined immedi-
ately after mixing and before concrete specimens casting. The tar-
get slump for all concrete mixtures was fixed at around
40 ± 10 mm. RCCA and RBCA were immersed in water for 10 min
before the mixing procedure, due to its higher WA compared with
NCA.

2.3. Specimen preparation

The compressive and splitting tensile strength were measured

on five cubic specimens (100 mm  100 mm  100 mm), respec-
tively. Five prism specimens (100 mm  100 mm  300 mm)were
used to determine elastic modulus and three prism specimens
(100 mm  100 mm  400 mm)were used to determine flexural
strength. All the specimens were cast in plastic moulds (except
for the 100 mm  100 mm  400 mm prism specimens which were
Fig. 2. Test set-up for elastic modulus test.
casted in steel moulds) and compacted using a vibrating table.
Specimens were demoulded 24 h after casting and cured in a
humidity room at 20 ± 2℃ in the water until 28 day ages. the influence of end constraint on the stress state of the speci-
mens[17], only the longitudinal displacement in the middle part
3. Testing methods of the specimen (200 mm) along the height of prism specimens
was measured in this test. A load sensor was placed between the
The compressive, splitting tensile, flexural strength and slump specimen and loading plate to measure the axial load applied on
were measured according to GB/T 50081–2019. The test set-up the prismatic specimen. The longitudinal displacements and the
showed in Fig. 2 was used to test elastic modulus. To eliminate load synchronously were recorded by a dynamic data acquisition

Table 2
The mix proportion of concrete.

Concrete mixtures Waterkg/m3 Cement kg/m3 NCAkg/m3 RCCAkg/m3 RBCAkg/m3 Sandkg/m3 Slumpmm
N100C0B0 185 319 1176 0 0 720 40
N85C15B0 185 319 999 176 0 720 38
N85C10B5 185 319 999 117 52 720 47
N85C5B10 185 319 999 59 104 720 49
N85C0B15 185 319 999 0 155 720 40
N70C30B0 185 319 823 353 0 720 51
N70C25B5 185 319 823 294 52 720 46
N70C21B9 185 319 823 247 96 720 44
N70C16B14 185 319 823 188 145 720 52
N70C12B18 185 319 823 141 186 720 58
N70C8B22 185 319 823 94 228 720 61
N70C3B27 185 319 823 35 280 720 68
N70C0B30 185 319 823 0 311 720 64
N55C45B0 185 319 646 529 0 720 59
N55C40B5 185 319 646 470 52 720 60
N55C34B11 185 319 646 400 114 720 60
N55C27B18 185 319 646 317 186 720 117
N55C20B25 185 319 646 235 259 720 69
N55C14B31 185 319 646 164 321 720 127
N55C7B38 185 319 646 82 394 720 70
N55C0B45 185 319 646 0 466 720 66
N40C60B0 185 319 470 705 0 720 66
N40C30B30 185 319 470 353 311 720 84
N40C0B60 185 319 470 0 622 720 90

3
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

system. Hydraulic servo universal testing machine with the capac-
ity of 1000 kN was used to exert the uni-axial compression force on
specimens at the rate of 1.0 kN/s. The secant value of the line
between zero point and 0.4 times the peak stress was calculated
as elastic modulus.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Correlation between RBCA content and properties of MRCA
Fig. 3 shows the relationship between RBCA content and prop-
erties of MRCA (SSD, SD, WA and CV) when the NCA content is 85%,
70%, 55% and 40% respectively. Regardless of the NCA content, a
continuous decrease in SSD and a continuous increase in WA and
CV with increasing content of RBCA can be observed. The increase
in WA and decrease in SSD are constituent with former research
[8], and explained by the high porosity of RBCA and old attach mor-
tar of RCCA. The crushing value test provides a relative measure of
the resistance of the aggregates to crushing under a gradually
applied compressive load [18], and the CV of aggregates is signifi-
cantly influenced by intrinsic fabric [19], grain size and angularity
[20]. The CV of NCA, RCCA and RBCA is 14.5%, 15.6% and 28.8%,
drainage water decreases with the increase of RBCA content.
Therefore, the SD of MRCA does not decrease with the increase of
RBCA content.
Correlation coefficient between RBCA content and SSD, SD, WA,
CV of MRCA under various NCA content are shown in Table 3. A
regression equation describes a line in a two-variable space
defined by the equation y = ax + b; and R2 is a regression coefficient
describing the correlation between experimental data and the
regression result, which presents the accuracy level of the predic-
tion model. In order to analyze the correlation, qualitative criteria
were established by Britoet al.[21]so that the correlation value
could be classified. The classification is presented in Table 4. The
correlation coefficients between RBCA content and SSD, SD, WA,
CV of MRCA are 0.2679, 0.8612, 0.9846 and 0.8229, respectively;
and the corresponding correlation degree is classified into ‘‘Not
acceptable”, ‘‘Good”, ‘‘Very good” and ‘‘Good” according to Table 4.
Eq.(1)~(3) show the prediction model of WA, SSD, and CV of MRCA
based on the RBCA concrete.
8
>
> WAMRCA ¼ 0:1344r RBCA þ 1:1420 R2 ¼ 0:9894 85%NCA
>
< WA
MRCA ¼ 0:1064rRBCA þ 1:9243 R2 ¼ 0:9807 70%NCA
ð1Þ
>
> WA ¼ 0:1362r RBCA þ 1:8970 R2 ¼ 0:9790 55%NCA
>
:
MRCA

respectively. Due to the porous structure, higher elongated and flat WAMRCA ¼ 0:1202rRBCA þ 2:7283 R2 ¼ 0:9894 40%NCA
particles content, the CV of RBCA is about twice as much as that of where WAMRCA is the water absorption of MRCA concretes; r RBCA is
NCA and RBCA. The CV of MRCA has almost no change with the the ratio of RBCA content to the total coarse aggregate.
increase of RCCA content, thus the increase in CV of MRCA is 8
mainly contributed to the incorporation with RBCA. >
> SSDMRCA ¼ 0:0046r RBCA þ 2:6528 R2 ¼ 0:8647 85%NCA
>
< SSD
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the SD of MRCA has no obvious MRCA ¼ 0:0050r RBCA þ 2:6141 R2 ¼ 0:7721 70%NCA
change with the increase of RBCA content. For the coarse aggre- > ¼ 0:0034r RBCA þ 2:5537 R2 ¼ 0:9749 55%NCA
>
> SSDMRCA
gate, the SD is the ratio of material mass to the volume of drained :
SSDMRCA ¼ 0:0026r RBCA þ 2:4643 R2 ¼ 0:6864 40%NCA
water when the SD is measured by drainage method. RBCA is por-
ous material, due to the opening pore of RBCA, the volume of ð2Þ

Fig. 3. SSD, SD, WA and CV of MRCA versus RBCA content.

4
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

Table 3
Correlation between SSD, SD, WA, CV of MRCA and RBCA content.

R2Indexes NCA content (%) Mean value

85 70 55 40
SD 0.0472 0.0402 0.3962 0.5879 0.2679
SSD 0.8647 0.9190 0.9749 0.6864 0.8612
WA 0.9894 0.9807 0.9790 0.9894 0.9846
CV 0.5845 0.7721 0.9731 0.9619 0.8229

Table 4
Qualitative classification of the correlation values [21]

Classification Values range

Very good R2  0.95
Good 0.80  R2＜0.95
Acceptable 0.65  R2＜0.80
Not acceptable R2＜0.65

where SSDMRCA is the saturated surface dry density of MRCA

concretes.
8
>
> CV MRCA ¼ 0:0760r RBCA þ 14:230 R2 ¼ 0:5845 85%NCA
>
< CV
MRCA ¼ 0:1031rRBCA þ 14:027 R2 ¼ 0:7721 70%NCA
ð3Þ
>
> CV ¼ 0:1000r RBCA þ 14:151 R2 ¼ 0:9731 55%NCA
>
:
MRCA

CV MRCA ¼ 0:0967r RBCA þ 14:267 R2 ¼ 0:9619 40%NCA

where CV MRCA is the crushing value of MRCA concretes.
Fig. 4. Relation between WA and SSD.

4.2. Water absorption and saturated surface dry density

WA of MRCA ranges from 1.16% to 10.09%, while SSD ranges
from 2.326 to 2.646 kg/dm3 (Fig. 4), the higher the WA of MRCA,
the lower the SSD will be. There is a negative correlation between
WA and SSD, and the correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.8218) can be
classified into the grade of ‘‘Good”. One of the most obvious attri-
butes between MRCA and NCA is the higher WA of MRCA, and part
of the water added in the mix for cement hydration will fulfill the
immersible pores of RCCA and RBCA, resulting in the reduction of
concrete workability. This drawback can be made up through a
process of aggregates pre-soaking, thus the SSD of MRCA must be
taken into account during the process of concrete mixing.
4.3. Water absorption and crushing value
in total amount of RCCA and RBCA. The similar result was obtained
by Sheen et al.[16] and Poon et al.[24]. Poon et al.[25] indicated
that the high water content inside the RCCA and RBCA may result
in ‘‘bleeding” during casting. The WA of RCCA and RBCA used in
this investigation is 3.02% and 11.14%, respectively. The high WA
of RBCA will lead to a higher amount of free water in fresh con-
crete, and result in an increasing trend of slump of MRCA concretes
with the increase in total amount of RCCA and RBCA.
4.4.2. Saturated surface dry density
The influence of the RBCA content on the SSD of MRCA con-
cretes incorporated with 30% NCA is shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen

WA of MRCA ranges from 1.16% to 10.09%, while CV ranges from

14.4% to 20.3% (Fig. 5), the higher the WA of MRCA, the higher the
CV will be. There is a positive correlation between WA and CV, and
the correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.9023) can be classified into the
grade of ‘‘Good”. The WA is used to assess the porosity of aggre-
gates, recycled aggregates with a higher WA tends to be weaker
in strength [22]. Thus, there is a good relationship between the
WA and CV of MRCA.

4.4. Correlation between RBCA content and physical-properties of

MRCA concretes

4.4.1. Slump
The use of MRCA reduces the fluidity of concrete, and results in
a negative effect on the workability. In order to prevent a rapid loss
of concrete workability, the MRCA were pre-wetted for 10 min[23],
and then dried the aggregates by a towel before mixing. The target
slump is 40 ± 10 mm, and Fig. 6 shows that all the slumps of MRCA
concretes are more than 35 mm. It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the
slumps of concretes present an increasing trend with the increase Fig. 5. Relation between WA and CV.

5
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al.
Fig. 6. Slump of MRCA concretes.
Fig. 7. SSD of MRCA concretes (NCA content: 70%).
from Fig. 7 that the SSD of MRCA concretes decreases with the
increase in RBCA content. The reason for this is that the SSD of
RCCA and RBCA are lower than that of NCA. The SSD of
N70C30B0 and N70C0B30 is 2.2% and 5.2% lower than that of
N100C0B0, respectively. Zong et al. [26] also indicated that the
density of hardened concrete decreased from 2.478 kg/dm3 for
concrete with 0% RBCA to 2.170 kg/dm3 for concrete with 50%
RBCA. There is a negative correlation between RBCA content and
SSD of MRCA concrete, and the correlation coefficient
(R2 = 0.9560) can be classified into the grade of ‘‘Very good”. Eq.
(4) shows the relationship between RBCA content and SSD of MRCA
concretes incorporating with 70% NCA.
SSDMRCAconcrete ¼ 0:0023r RBCA þ 2:4377 R2 ¼ 0:9560
where SSDMRCAconcrete is the SSD of MRCA concretes.
4.5. Correlation between RBCA content and mechanical properties of
MRCA concretes
The relationships between RBCA content and mechanical prop-
erties of MRCA concretes are shown in Fig. 8. The mechanical prop-
Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320
erties include cubic compressive strength, splitting tension
strength, modulus of elastic and flexural strength. The correlation
coefficients between RBCA content and mechanical properties of
MRCA concretes at various NCA content are listed in Table 5.
4.5.1. Cubic compressive strength
The compressive strength after 28 days of aging is the most
commonly used to assess performance of concrete[27]. It is well
know that the coarse aggregate is one of the key factors to deter-
mine the strength of concrete[25]. The strength of RBCA is weaker
than that of NCA obviously, and the concrete incorporating with
RBCA inevitably lead to a negative effect on the compressive
strength[28,29]. Thus, the relationship between compressive
strength of MRCA concretes and the RBCA content is necessary to
be investigated.
According to the results of linear fitting shown in Fig. 8 and
Table 5, the correlation coefficients between RBCA content and
compressive strength of MRCA concretes incorporating with 85%,
70%, 55% and 40% NCA are 0.8986, 0.8611, 0.7791 and 0.6978,
respectively; and the corresponding correlation degree can be
classed into ‘‘Good”, ‘‘Good”, ‘‘Acceptable” and ‘‘Acceptable”
respectively. The correlation decrease with the decrease of NCA
content. It is mainly due to the internal curing effect of RCCA and
RBCA. RCCA and RBCA were pre-wetted before mixing, and the
absorbed water act as internal curing water and continued hydra-
tion in the later stage of curing period. Thus, the hydration degree
of MRCA concrete is higher than that of NCA concrete, and result-
ing in the cement paste of MRCA concrete more dense[44,45]. The
research results of Chen et al.[46] and wu et al.[47] indicated that
the internal curing effect gradually increased with the increase of
RBCA content, and the internal curing effect will compensate the
reduction of compressive of concrete caused by the weak strength
of RBCA. Consequently, with the decrease of NCA content, the cor-
relation coefficients between RBCA content and compressive
strength of MRCA concretes become weak. Eq.(5) shows the rela-
tionship between RBCA content and compressive strength of MRCA
concretes at various NCA content.
8
>
> f cu ¼ 0:1780rRBCA þ 37:810 R2 ¼ 0:8986 85%NCA
>
<f ¼ 0:1305rRBCA þ 35:557 R2 ¼ 0:8611 70%NCA
cu
ð5Þ
>
> f ¼ 0:1067rRBCA þ 31:597 R2 ¼ 0:7791 55%NCA
>
: cu
f cu ¼ 0:0867rRBCA þ 30:167 R2 ¼ 0:6978 40%NCA
From Fig. 8, the continuous decrease in compressive strength
with increasing RBCA content can be observed at various NCA con-
tent. The compressive strength of NCA concrete is 38.05 MPa, the
compressive strength of MRCA concretes is 66.5% ~ 99% that of
NCA concrete. The main reason for the decrease of compressive
strength is the higher WA and weaker strength of RBCA and
attached mortar of RBCA. Poon et al. [24,25] also indicated that
the water inside the recycled aggregate particles may move toward
the cement matrix in case of the aggregate used in SSD state, and
this process will lead to a higher w/c ratio of recycled concrete.
With regard to NCA concrete, the failure of concrete is usually ini-
tiated from the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between NCA and
mortar, which is the weakest phase of NCA concrete. However, as
shown in Fig. 9, the RBCA was fractured rather than the ITZ in
ð4Þ MRCA concrete, while NCA and RCCA were not fractured. From this,
it can be seen that RBCA is the weakest phase in coarse aggregate
skeleton system of MRCA concrete, and incorporation with RBCA in
concrete will lead to the concrete prematurely failure. Thus, the
reduction of compressive strength is expected.
4.5.2. Splitting tension strength
The splitting tension strength can indirectly present the ability
of concrete to resist the tensile forces, such as force induced by the
6
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

Fig. 8. Mechanical properties of MRCA concretes versus RBCA content.

Table 5
Correlation between fcu, fts, Ec, ff of MRCA concrete and RBCA content.

R2Indexes NCA content (%)

85 70 55 40
fcu 0.8986 0.8611 0.7791 0.6978
fts 0.1052 0.5825 0.9040 0.9737
Ec 0.7160 0.7671 0.8396 0.9024
ff 0.4000 0.6125 0.6552 0.9286

0.5825, 0.9040 and 0.9737, respectively; and the corresponding

correlation degree can be classed into ‘‘Not acceptable”, ‘‘Not
acceptable”, ‘‘Good” and ‘‘Very good”, respectively. It indicates that
the RBCA content has no obvious effect on the splitting tension
strength in case the total amount of RBCA and RCCA is no more
than 30%. Once the total amount of RBCA and RCCA more than
30%, the splitting tension strength will decrease linearly with the
increase of RBCA content, and the relationship between RBCA con-
tent and splitting tension strength of MRCA concretes can be
shown as Eq.(6). The decline of splitting tension strength could
be explained by a weak interfacial zone between the recycled
aggregates and cement paste [28,29].
(
f ts ¼ 0:0256rRBCA þ 3:5831 R2 ¼ 0:9040 55%NCA
ð6Þ
f ts ¼ 0:0083r RBCA þ 3:4833 R2 ¼ 0:9737 40%NCA
Fig. 9. Failure mode of MRCA concrete under uniaxial compression.

4.5.3. Static modulus of elasticity

development of autogenous shrinkage. The correlation coefficients
between RBCA content and splitting tension strength MRCA con-
cretes incorporating with 85%, 70%, 55% and 40% NCA are 0.1052,
7
From the point of the design of structures, not only compressive
strength but modulus of elastic is also important[30]. The elastic
modulus should be as a three-phase composite: aggregate, cement
paste and the ITZ between them[31,32,33,34]. Based on Voigt’s
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al.
Fig. 10. Failure mode of MRCA concrete by flexure.
model for the elastic modulus of composite materials, the Ec of
concrete can be expressed as Eq.(7)[35].
EC ¼ ECA V CA þ ECP V CP þ EITZ V ITZ
where ECA, ECP and EITZ represent the elastic modulus of coarse
aggregate, cement paste and ITZ, respectively; and VCA, VCP and VITZ
represent the corresponding volume fractions, respectively.
According to Chinese specification of mix proportion design
(JGJ-55–2011) [36], the volume fraction of coarse aggregates to
the volume of concrete may be estimate to be 0.7. The elastic mod-
ulus of NCA varies from 69.0 to 88.7GPa with a mean value of
73.5GPa[31,32,37,38,39,40]. While the elastic modulus of cement
paste varies from 12.0 to 23.8GPa, which only 23% of the elastic
modulus of NCA; and the elastic modulus of ITZ can be estimated
to be 50% of that of cement paste[41,42]. Thus, the elastic modulus
of concrete is strongly linked to the coarse aggregate skeleton
rather than cement paste and ITZ.
According to the results of linear fitting shown in Fig. 8 and
Table 5, the correlation coefficients between RBCA content and
elastic modulus of MRCA concretes under 85%, 70%, 55% and 40%
NCA content are 0.7160, 0.7671, 0.8396 and 0.9024, respectively;
and the corresponding correlation degree can be classed into
‘‘Acceptable” , ‘‘Acceptable”, ‘‘Good” and ‘‘Good”, respectively. Eq.
(8) shows the relationship between RBCA content and elastic mod-
ulus of MRCA concretes. The correlation increase gradually as the
total content of RCCA and RBCA rising. It is mainly due to the fact
that the elastic modulus of concrete is strongly linked to coarse
aggregate, and the higher RBCA content, the more pronounced
the effect on the elastic modulus of MRCA concretes.
8 and elastic modulus of MRCA concretes always decrease lin-
>
> Ec ¼ 0:3640rRBCA þ 31:58 R2 ¼ 0:7160 85%NCA
>
< E ¼ 0:1369r
c RBCA þ 27:365 R2 ¼ 0:7671 70%NCA
> Ec ¼ 0:1187rRBCA þ 26:792
> R2 ¼ 0:8396 55%NCA
>
: sion strength in case the total amount of RBCA and RCCA is
Ec ¼ 0:1317rRBCA þ 26:583 R2 ¼ 0:9024 40%NCA
Regardless of NCA content, it can be seen from Fig. 8 that the
increase of RBCA content always has a significant negative effect
on the elastic modulus of MRCA concrete, and the result is proved
by the researches of Kou et al.[14] and Rodríguez et al.[15]. Sáez
et al.[43] indicated that the elastic modulus of RBCA is 32.52
GPa, which is much lower than that of NCA. In addition, the elastic
modulus of concrete depends almost on the modulus of coarse
aggregate, thus, the concrete incorporating with RBCA, a decrease
of elastic modulus is expected.
4.5.4. Flexural strength
According to the results of linear fitting shown in Fig. 8 and
Table 5, the correlation coefficients between RBCA content and
flexural strength of MRCA concretes incorporating with 85%, 70%,
55% and 40% NCA are 0.4000, 0.6125, 0.6552 and 0.9286, respec-
Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320
tively; and the corresponding correlation degree can be classed
into ‘‘Not acceptable” , ‘‘Not acceptable”, ‘‘Acceptable” and ‘‘Good”,
respectively.
As shown in Fig. 8(a), the flexural strength of MRCA concretes
has no decrease with the increase of RBCA concrete when the
NCA content is 85%. Fig. 8 (b) and Fig. 8 (c) also show that RBCA
content up to 15% has no negative effect on the flexural strength
of MRCA concretes. In case of the RBCA content exceeds 15%, the
flexural strength would be reduced, but the decline was not signif-
icant. Compared with NCA concrete, the flexural strength of
N70C0B30, N55C0B45 and N40C0B60 decreased 15%, 17% and
11%, respectively. Yang et al.[9] also reported that flexural strength
of concrete was not significantly influenced with the RBCA content
up to 50%.
The fracture surface of concrete subjected to flexure presents
two types of failure mode. The NCA in the MRCA concrete is frac-
tured at the ITZ between coarse aggregate and mortar, and the
RBCA is fractured through the aggregate (Fig. 10). This indicates
that the RBCA has a relatively low Young’s modulus, and the con-
ð7Þ centration of tension stress along the ITZ can be alleviated by
incorporating the RBCA in concrete. Hence, the flexural strength
of MRCA concretes has no obvious influenced with the total con-
tent of RCCA and RBCA up to 30%. It is well known that the ITZ
between RCCA and mortar is weaker than that of NCA, and the pos-
itive effect described above will be covered by the negative effect
of porous feature of RBCA and weak ITZ between RCCA and mortar
when the total content of RCCA and RBCA exceeds 30%.
5. Conclusion
The relationships between RBCA content and the physical–me-
chanical of twenty-three groups of MRCA and corresponding MRCA
concretes were tested in this paper, and the conclusions are shown
below.
(1) The physical–mechanical properties of MRCA have a strong
linear correlation with RBCA content except for the SD. A
continuous decrease in SSD and a continuous increase in
WA and CV can be observed with the increase of RBCA con-
tent, while the SD have no obvious change with the increase
of RBCA content. Both of the SSD and CV of MRCA have a
‘‘Good” correlation with WA.
(2) The slump of MRCA concretes is unaffected by RBCA content
because the MRCA were pre-soaked before mixing.
(3) Regardless of NCA content, the cubic compressive strength
early with the increase of RBCA content.
ð8Þ (4) The RBCA content has no obvious effect on the splitting ten-
no more than 30%, and the correlation between RBCA con-
tent and splitting tension strength is ‘‘Not acceptable”. Once
the total amount of RBCA and RCCA more than 30%, the split-
ting tension strength will decrease linearly with the increase
of RBCA content, and the correlation between RBCA content
and splitting tension strength is ‘‘Good”. The RBCA content
affected on the flexural strength is similar with splitting ten-
sion strength.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xu Liu: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft,
Resources. Jin Wu: Supervision, Funding acquisition. Xing Zhao:
Methodology, Software, Validation. Pengpeng Yan: Investigation,
Formal analysis, Data curation. Weiyi Ji: Investigation, Formal
analysis, Data curation.
8
X. Liu, J. Wu, X. Zhao et al. Construction and Building Materials 292 (2021) 123320

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