Mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete under uniaxial loading

In this paper, the compressive strength and the stress-strain curve (SSC) of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with different replacement percentages of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) are investigated experimentally. Concrete specimens were fabricated and tested with different RCA replacement percentages of 0%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 100%, respectively. Uniaxial compression loading is applied in the experiments. Special attention of the analysis is devoted to the failure behaviour and the influences of the RCA contents on the compressive strength, the elastic modulus, the peak and the ultimate strains of RAC. Analytical expressions for the peak strain and the stress-strain relationship of RAC are given, which can be directly used in theoretical and numerical analysis as well as practical engineering design of RAC structures.