Performance of High-strength Concrete Made with Recycled Ceramic Aggregates

Recent scientific concerns to achieve sustainability in construction have suggested the implementation of using recycled aggregate in concrete because it has the potential to reduce the demand for extraction of natural raw materials and decrease the volume of wastes landfilled. In this respect, this study aims to investigate the suitability of using ceramic tile (CT) and ceramic sanitary (CS) wastes as coarse aggregate in the production of high-strength concrete (HSC). Different concrete mixes were produced by partial replacement of 10%, 20% and 30% of natural coarse aggregate with recycled aggregates. Besides investigating the characteristics of recycled aggregate, slump, compressive strength, initial and final absorption and chloride ion penetration depth of HSC specimens were evaluated and compared with that of plain HSC. Results showed that using recycled ceramic aggregates increased the superplasticizer dosage to maintain the target slump. Although by the incorporation of high percentage of CT or CS aggregate, compressive strength of HSCs was reduced compared with reference HSC, it is possible to produce HSC with 28-days compressive strength higher than 60.7 MPa. Moreover, the absorption and chloride ion penetration depth of recycled aggregate incorporated HSC were higher than those of estimated for plain concrete. Generally, waste ceramic aggregate at optimum replacement ratio can be used in the sustainable development of HSC.