| One of the major challenges faced by civil engineering industry is to execute projects in harmony with nature. This is achieved to some extent by judicious use of natural resources in construction practices. In recent years, the demand for construction materials has grown tremendously, so has the amount of construction and demolition waste, putting huge pressure on the environment. This has encouraged the use of recycled aggregate in concrete, which not only allows for a more efficient life cycle of natural resources but also contributes to environmental protection leading to sustainable development. In this study recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) are used in the production of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in varying percentage replacements of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) The use of sustainable technologies such as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and/or recycled material is expected to positively affect the performance of concrete mixtures. However, it is important to study and qualify such mixtures and check if the required specifications of their intended application are met before they can be implemented in practice. This study presents the results of a laboratory investigation of Self Consolidating concrete (SCC) containing sustainable technologies. A total of 20 concrete mixtures were prepared and tested. Mixtures were divided into five different groups, with constant water to cementitious material ratio of 0.38, based on the Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) content: 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of coarse aggregate (CA) replaced by RCA. All mixtures were designed to achieve a target slump flow higher than 500 mm (19.7 in). The control mixture for each group was prepared with 100% Portland cement while all other mixtures were designed with 50% of Portland cement substituted by a combination of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) such as class C fly ash, and granulated blast furnace slag. Several properties of fresh concrete were investigated in this study such as: flow ability, deformability; filling capacity, and resistance to segregation. Moreover, the compressive strength at 3, 14, and 28 days, the tensile strength, the unrestrained shrinkage up to 90 days and permeability were investigated. Partial replacement of the cement using Supplementary Cementitious Materials resulted in smaller 28-days-compressive strength compared to those of the control mixes. Based on the results of this study, it is not recommended to replace the natural coarse aggregate in self-consolidating concrete by more than 75% of RCA.Although, the partial replacement of cement by Supplementary Cementitious Materials had an adverse effect on the 28-days-compressive strength, most of the mixes have exceeded the SCC minimum requirements, including those with up to 100% RCA. Finally, several mix designs from the study have met the minimum Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) compressive strength requirements for several engineering applications such as pavements and bridges. This suggests that a practical application of results from the research is feasible in the near future. |
