Fracture Mechanical Properties of Cement Based Composites with Various Amount of Waste Aggregates

The importance of sustainability and recycling has become increasingly recognized and understood in academia and industry over the last several decades. Recycling of construction and debris waste is one of many avenues that provide a great opportunity to prevent waste material from entering landfills and reduce the construction industry reliance on decreasing natural resource supplies. The research program focused on fracture parameters of cement based composites with various amount of waste aggregate was conducted. There were prepared composites based on specifically composed aggregates (mixture of natural sand and red waste ceramic aggregate). There was utilized simplex experiment design. Altogether, 6 mixtures of aggregates were prepared. The aim of this contribution is to present and compared basic fracture parameter values. Flexural and compressive strength and fracture toughness were of special interest. All of these tests are important for a practical application of concrete with ceramic aggregates for structures.