Performance of self-compacting concrete made with coarse and fine recycled concrete aggregates and ground granulated blast-furnace slag

This paper reports the effects of coarse and fine recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) on fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) containing ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) as cement replacement. For this purpose, three SCC mixes groups, were produced at a constant water to binder ratio of 0.38. Both fme and coarse recycled aggregates were used as natural aggregates (NA) replacement at different substitution levels of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% by volume for each mix group. Each group, included 0, 15% or 30% GGBFS as Portland cement replacement by weight. The SCC properties investigated were self-compactability parameters (i.e., slump flow, T500 time, V-funnel flow time, L-box passing ability and sieve stability), compressive strength, capillary water absorption and water penetration depth. The results show that the combined use of RCA with GGBFS had a significant effect on fresh and hardened SCC mixes. The addition of both fme and coarse recycled aggregates as a substitution up to 50% of natural aggregates enhance the workability of SCC mixes, whereas the addition from 50 to 100% decreases the workability, whatever the slag content used as cement replacement. An enhancement of workability of SCC mixes with recycled aggregates was noticed as increasing GGBFS from 0 to 30%. RCA content of 25% to 50% as NA replacement and cement replacement of 15% GGBFS seems to be the optimum level to produce satisfactory SCC without any bleeding or segregation. Furthermore, the addition of slag to recycled concrete aggregates of SCC mixes reduces strength losses at the long term (56 and 90 days). However, a decrease in the capillary water absorption and water permeability depth was noticed, when using RCA mixes with slag.