Properties of recycled aggregate concrete made with recycled aggregates with different amounts of old adhered mortars

•The mortar contents are related to original concrete and the prior crushing received.•The presence of residual mortar in RAs led to their poorer aggregate properties.•RA of good quality can be used to fully replace NA to produce concrete.•The constructed ANN models are able to evaluate the properties of RAC accurately.•The constructed ANN models can facilitate the wider application of RA in concrete.

This paper presents the experimental results of a study on comparing the difference in properties of recycled aggregates (RAs) with varying amounts of old adhered mortar obtained from different sources and evaluating the influence of the different RAs on the mechanical and durability properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC). Four concrete mixes (one with natural aggregate and three others with recycled aggregates) with 28 day target compressive strength varying from 30 MPa to 80 MPa are designed by using each RA to fully replace NA. The properties of RAC are also modeled by using the artificial neural networks (ANN) method.The experimental results show that the performance of RAs from different sources varied greatly and RA of good quality can be used to produce high strength concrete with hardened properties comparable to those of the corresponding natural aggregate concrete (NAC). The comparison of the predicted results based on the ANN models and the experimental values indicated that the ANN method could be used to evaluate the properties of RAC made with RAs derived from different sources. This will facilitate the wider application of RA in concrete.