Evaluation of the impact of recycled concrete aggregates on the durability of concrete

Abstract

The building industry has one of the most significant contributions to global warming due to the production of building materials, transportation, building activities and demolition of structures. When the buildings and structures reach the end of their life-span, they are commonly demolished, and debrice is landfield or backfilled if it is evaluated as non-contaminated inert construction and demolition waste (CDW). Implementation of circularity of material and circular economy can significantly reduce pollution and reduce the need for natural resources and opening of new CDW landfills. The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) is one of the possibilities, how to reduce the depletion of raw materials for concrete production. Concrete is the most used building material worldwide, and aggregates constitute 70% of its volume. RCA can replace a certain amount of natural aggregates (NA), and concrete will still perform as required. Aim of this master thesis will be the evaluation of RCA itself, concrete with RCA and its durability performance, particularly freeze-thaw resistance, chloride migration coefficient, resistance to water under pressure and shrinkage. Performance of concrete with two different amounts of RCA will be compared to reference concrete with NA.