Risk of Plastic Shrinkage Cracking in Recycled Aggregate Concrete

Authors: M. Eckert, M. Oliveira

Abstract:

The intensive use of natural aggregates, near cities and towns, associated to the increase of the global population, leads to its depletion and increases the transport distances. The uncontrolled deposition of construction and demolition waste in landfills and city outskirts, causes pollution and takes up space. The use of recycled aggregates in concrete preparation would contribute to mitigate the problem. However, it arises the problem that the high water absorption of recycled aggregate decreases the bleeding rate of concrete, and when this gets lower than the evaporation rate, plastic shrinkage cracking occurs. This phenomenon can be particularly problematic in hot and windy curing environments. Cracking facilitates the flow of liquid and gas into concrete which attacks the reinforcement and degrades the concrete. These factors reduce the durability of concrete structures and consequently the lifetime of buildings. A ring test was used, cured in a wind tunnel, to evaluate the plastic shrinkage cracking sensitivity of recycled aggregate concrete, in order to implement preventive means to control this phenomenon. The role of several aggregate properties on the concrete segregation and cracking mechanisms were also discussed.

Keywords: Recycled Aggregate, Plastic Shrinkage Cracking; Wind Tunnel, Durability.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1127972

References:

[1] A. Sivakumar and M. Santhanam, "A quantitative study on the plastic shrinkage cracking in high strength hybrid fibre reinforced concrete," Cement & Concrete Composites , vol. 29 , p. 575–581, 2007.
[2] A. Almusallam, M. Maslehuddin, M. Abdul-Waris and M. Khan, "Effect of mix proportions on plastic shrinkage cracking of concrete in hot environments," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 12, pp. 353-358, 1998.
[3] M. Eckert, Avaliação da Influência da Retração Inicial no Controlo da Fissuração dos Betões, Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Évora, Évora: Universidade de Évora, 2014.
[4] P. Lura, B. Pease, G. B. Mazzotta, F. Rajabipour and J. Weiss, "Influence of Shrinkage-Reducing Admixtures on Development of Plastic Shrinkage Cracks," ACI Materials Journal, Technical Paper, Vols. 104-M22, 2007.
[5] Pihlajavaara and S.E., A review of the main results of a research on the aging phenomena of concrete: Effect of moisture conditions on strength,shrinkage and creep of mature concrete. Cement Concrete Res., 4(5), 1974, p. 761–71.
[6] F. H. Wittmann, "On the Action of Capillary Pressure on Fresh Concrete,," Cement and Concrete Research , Vols. 6, No. 1, pp. 49-56, 1976.
[7] I. Soroka, "Early Volume Changes and Cracking," in Concrete in Hot Environments, National Building Research Institute,Faculty of Civil Engineering,Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, E & FN SPON, 1993, pp. 101-117.
[8] B. Klemczak and A. Knoppik-Wróbel, Early age thermal and shrinkage cracks in concrete structures- influences of geometry and dimensions of a structutre, Poland, 2011.
[9] P. G. Simpkins, D. W. Johnson and D. A. Fleming, "Drying Behavior of Colloidal Silica Gels," Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vols. 72, No. 10, pp. 1816-1821, 1986.
[10] A. Bentur, Terminology And Definitions in Early Age Cracking in Cementitious Systems ; RILEM TC 181-EAS – Final Report, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology: RILM Puplications S.A.R.L, July 2002, pp. 13-17.
[11] Neville and A.M., Properties of Concrete; 4th Edition, 1995.
[12] Buil and L.M., Contribuition a l`étude du retrait de la pâte de ciment durcissante, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et chaussées, Paris, 1979, p. 67.
[13] Barcelo and e. al, Early Age Shrinkage of concrte: back to the physical mechanisms, UEF conference in Advances in Concrete and Cement, Canada: Mt-Tremblant, August 2000.
[14] W. P. Boshoff and R. Combrinck, "Modelling the severity of plastic shrinkage cracking in concrete," Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 48, p. 34–39, 2013.
[15] R. Combrinck, "Plastic shrinkage cracking in conventional and low volume fibre reinforced concrete, , 2011, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.," MSc Thesis, 2011.
[16] A. Boumiz, Etude comparée des évolutions mecaniques et chimiques de pâte de ciment et mortiers a tres jeune age, PhD-thesis of Univerité Paris 7, 1995.
[17] B. L., S. Boivin, S. Rigaud, P. Acker, P. Clauvaud and C. Boulay, Linear vs Volumetric Autogeneous Shrinkage Measurements: Material Behavior or Experimental Artifact , ref 3, pp. 109-126.
[18] A. Radocea, "A model of plastic shrinkage," Mag. Concr. Res, vol. 46 , p. 125–132, 1994.
[19] A. Leemann, P. Nygaard and P. Lura, "Impact of admixtures on the plastic shrinkage cracking," Cement & Concrete Composites, vol. 46, pp. 1-7, 2014.
[20] J. Mora-Ruacho, R. Gettu and A. Aguado, "Influence of shrinkage-reducing admixtures on the reduction of plastic shrinkage cracking in concrete," Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 39, p. 141–146, 2009.
[21] J. Saliba, E. Rozière, F. Grondin, and A. Loukili, "Influence of shrinkage-reducing admixtures on plastic and long-term shrinkage," Cement & Concrete Composites , vol. 33, p. 209–217, 2011.
[22] A. Leemann , P. Lura and R. Bolliger , "Internes Curing für den Beton (in German).," Baublatt, 2011.
[23] J. Branch, A. Rawling and D. Hannant, "The effects of fibers on the plastic shrinkage cracking of high strength concrete," Material and Structures, vol. 35, pp. 189-194, 2002.
[24] N. Banthia and R. Gupta, "Influence of polypropylene fiber geometry on plastic shrinkage cracking in concrete," Cement and Concrete Research , vol. 36 , p. 1263 – 1267, 2006.
[25] O. S. Baghabra Al-Amoudi, T. O. Abiola and M. Maslehuddin, "Effect of superplasticizer on plastic shrinkage of plain and silica fume cement concretes," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 20, p. 642–647, 2006 .
[26] D. Ravina and R. Shalon, Shrinkage of fresh mortars cast under and exposed to hot dry climate conditions. In Proc. RILEM/CEMBUREAU Colloq. on Shrinkage of Hydraulic Concretes; Vol. II, Edigrafis, Madrid, 1961.
[27] N. E. 9.-1. 2011, Ensaios das propriedades geométricas dos agregados. Parte 11: Ensaio para classificação dos constituintes de agregados grossos reciclados, 20011.
[28] NP EN 933-1, Ensaios das propriedades geométricas dos agregados. Parte 1: Análise granulométrica, Método de peneiração, IPQ, 2000.
[29] NP EN 12620, Agregados para betão, IPQ, 2004.
[30] NP EN 933-9, Ensaios das propiedades geométricas dos agregados, Parte 9: Determinação do teor de finos, Ensaio do azul de metileno, IPQ, 2002.
[31] NP EN 933-8, Ensaios das propriedades geométricas dos agregados, Parte 8: Determinação do teor de finos, Equivalente de areia, IPQ, 2002.
[32] NP EN 933-4, Ensaios das propriedades geométricas dos agregados, Parte 4: Determinação da forma das partículas-Índice de Forma.
[33] NP EN 1097-2, Ensaios das propriedades mecânicas e físicas dos agregados, Parte 2: Método para a determinação da resistência à fragmentação, 2002.
[34] 1-4. N. EN, nsaios das propriedades térmicas e de meteorização dos agregados. Parte 4: Determinação da retração por secagem, IPQ, 2002.
[35] J. Yang, Q. Du and Y. Bao, "Concrete with recycled concrete aggregate and crushed clay bricks," Construction and Building Materials , vol. 25, pp. 1935-1945, 2011.
[36] B. Mas, A. Cladera, T. del Olmo and F. Pitarch, Influence of the amount of mixed recycled aggregates on the properties of concrete for non-structural use, Construction and Building Materials 27, 2012, pp. 612-622.
[37] D. Matias, J. de Brito, A. Rosa and D. Pedro, Mechanical properties of concrete produced with recycled coarse aggregates – Influence of the use of superplasticizers, Construction and Building Materials 44, 2013, pp. 101-109.
[38] P. B. Cachim, Mechanical properties of brick aggregate concrete,Construction and Building Materials 23, 2009, p. 1292–1297.
[39] C. S. Poon and D. Chan, Feasible use of recycled concrete aggregates and crushed clay brick as unbound road sub-base Construction and Building Materials 20, 2006, p. 578–585.
[40] J. Yang, Q. Du and Y. Bao, Concrete with recycled concrete aggregate and crushed clay bricks,Construction and Building Materials 25, 2011, pp. 1935-1945.
[41] I. Vegas, J. Ibañez, A. Lisbona and A. Sáez de Cortazar, Pre-normative research on the use of mixed recycled aggregates in unbound road sections. Constr Build Mater, 2011.
[42] W. Zhang, M. Zakaria and Y. Hama, "Influence of aggregate materials characteristics on the drying shrinkage properties of mortar and concrete," Construction and Building Materials, vol. 49, p. 500–510, 2013.
[43] R. Smith and L. Collis, Aggregates, sand, gravel and crushed rock aggregates for construction purposes, 3 (Special Edition) ed., vol. 17, Geological Society.
[44] NP EN 206-1, Betão. Parte 1: Especificação, produção e conformidade.
[45] M. Eckert and M. Oliveira, "Mitigation of the negative effects of recycledt aggregate water absorption in concrete technology," XVII. ERMCO Congress, 2015.
[46] NP EN 12350-2, Ensaios do betão fresco, Parte 2: Ensaios de abaixamento, Portugal: IPQ, 2002.
[47] NP-1387, Determinação dos dempos de presa, 1976.