Modeling of the flexural tensile strength of concrete made with recycled aggregates from CDW

Abstract

The increasing shortage of natural resources used by the building industry and the environmental problems caused by construction and demolition waste (CDW) have motivated the use of aggregates produced from those waste in the composition of concrete. Several studies have demonstrated that, in general, the concrete produced with these aggregates, when compared with the conventional, displays changes in important engineering properties, such as reduction of the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. Nevertheless, some experimental studies have indicated that it is possible use it in the production of structural elements with satisfactory mechanical behavior. In this scenario, there is the need to make numerical analysis to evaluate the possibility of prediction of the mechanical behavior of concretes with CDW recycled aggregates. In accordance with this need, this paper aims to reproduce the results of flexural strength of concrete containing CDW recycled aggregates, through numerical modeling based in the Finite Element Method (FEM), performed with the DIANA® software. The results indicate that it is viable to utilize the developed model for the prediction of the flexural tensile strength of recycled concretes.