Evaluation of the compressive strength of concrete resulting from recycled aggregates in IRAN construction projects

Given the decreasing trend of natural resources, demands for recycled materials is rising in the near future, making concrete recycling as a significant and environmental alternative than leaving concrete wastes unused, especially in places where costs for supplying natural materials are high or in places where concrete waste disposal has problems. Recycled aggregate concrete construction methods need to be seriously reviewed. In many cases, recycled materials are used as applicable aggregates in foundation sand sub grades, road construction, and also are used in precast concrete parts, which greatly reduce the transportation cost. Obviously, by taking advantage of experiences of managing concrete recycling in other countries, some issues and problems in the area of concrete recycling in Iran could be overcome. The results of this research showed that, if the recycled aggregates are used in the construction of new concrete, the compressive strength of the resulting concrete is less than that of the concrete made of natural materials, but it would not be dramatically reduced. Hence these recycled aggregates would not be useless, but will have a high potential in many structural applications such as foundations and precast parts.

Keywords:

Recycled aggregates , Concrete , Compressive strength , Iran construction projects