Reinforced fibrous recycled aggregate concrete element subjected to uniaxial tensile loading

In this study, effect of recycled aggregates and polypropylene fibers on the response of conventionally reinforced concrete element subjected to tensile loading in terms of tension stiffening and strain development was experimentally investigated. For this purpose, concrete prisms of 100x100 mm cross section and 500 mm length having one central deformed steel re-bar were cast using fibrous and non-fibrous Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) with varying percentages of recycled aggregates (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) and tested under uniaxial tensile load. For all fibrous RAC mixes, polypropylene fibers were used at constant dosage of 3.15 kg/m3. Effect of recycled aggregates and fibers on the compressive strength of concrete was also explored in this study. Through studying tensile load versus global axial deformation of composite and strain development in concrete and steel, it was found that replacement of natural aggregates with recycled aggregates in concrete negatively affected the cracking load, tension stiffening and strain development, and this negative effect was observed to be increased with increasing contents of recycled aggregates in concrete. The results of this study showed that it was possible to minimize the negative effect of recycled aggregates in concrete by the addition of polypropylene fibers. Reinforced concrete element constructed using concrete containing 50% recycled aggregates and polypropylene fibers exhibited cracking behavior, tension stiffening and strain development response almost similar to that of concrete element constructed using natural aggregate concrete without fiber.