Flexural behavior of reinforced geopolymer concrete beams with recycled coarse aggregates

Geopolymer recycled aggregate concrete (GRAC) is a new green construction material, which uses geopolymer as the binder and recycled concrete as aggregates. To compare the flexural performance of GRAC and ordinary recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) beams, static loading tests were conducted on seven GRAC beams and three RAC beams. The effects of the replacement ratio of recycled aggregates (RAs), the replacement patterns, and the reinforcement ratio on the flexural behavior of GRAC beams are evaluated. The test data show that the replacement ratio has no significant effect on the cracking pattern, failure mode, or bending capacity of GRAC beams, but the replacement pattern does have an effect. Under a given replacement ratio, replacing only the larger fraction of natural aggregates (NA) with RA improves the concrete strength and crack resistance of both RAC and GRAC beams, compared to that using same replacement percentage for all fractions. Due to the lower elastic modulus and strength of GRAC prepared in this study, the GRAC beams have lower height of neutral axis and greater deflection than RAC beams at the same load level and possess slightly lower cracking load, bending capacity, and ductility. The bending capacity of GRAC beams can be predicted by the formulas proposed for ordinary reinforced concrete beams in the Chinese code GB50010-2010, ACI 318-11, or BS EN 1992-1-1:2004 codes, but the safety margin is generally lower than that of ordinary reinforced concrete beams.