Effect of tiles, bricks and ceramic sanitary-ware recycled aggregates on structural concrete properties

Abstract

In this paper, tile ceramic waste (TCW)1, red clay bricks (RCB) and ceramic sanitaryware (CSW) were used as the partial replacement (14-30 wt.%) of natural limestone aggregates to produce structural concrete. The natural and recycled aggregates were characterised, and the strength and density of the hardened concrete were investigated after 7 and 28 curing days at room temperature. The TCW concrete obtained the best compressive strength results (strength gain of up to 7% with 20 wt.% waste after 28 curing days). The mechanical properties of the CSW recycled concrete were similar to those of traditional samples, and slightly diminished with curing time and aggregate substitution, with a maximum strength loss of 5.77% for the 30 wt.% replacement. Although the RCB concrete presented the greatest strength loss (up to 18.4% after 7 curing days), it exhibited the best improvement of the strength with curing time, which resulted in a strength loss of only 11% in the 30 wt.% RCB concretes cured for 28 days. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using TCW and CSW as recycled aggregates in structural concrete production without significantly affecting the developed recycled concrete’s compressive strength.