Proportioning Concrete Mixtures With Recycled Concrete Aggregate

Sustainability is now a high priority goal in the construction industry. One way of achieving this aim is to use recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) for base courses and other purposes. However, RCA is not widely used in new concrete mixtures largely because RCA concrete has been reported to be of inferior quality relative to concretes produced with virgin aggregates. In this article, a new mixture proportioning method for RCA concrete is outlined, and it is demonstrated that the method results in RCA concrete mixtures suitable for structural applications, with predictable short- and long-term properties, and requiring less cement than a concrete mixture of comparable quality made with only virgin aggregates.