Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
and Building
Received 24 June 2004; received in revised form 9 December 2004; accepted 31 January 2005
Available online 23 March 2005
Abstract
A study was recently conducted at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to investigate the possibility of using recycled concrete
aggregates and crushed clay brick as aggregates in unbound subbase materials. The results showed that the use of 100% recycled
concrete aggregates increased the optimum moisture content and decreased the maximum dry density of the subbase materials com-
pared to those of natural subbase materials. Moreover, the replacement of recycled concrete aggregates by crushed clay brick further
increased the optimum moisture content and decreased the maximum dry density. This was mainly attributed to the lower particle
density and higher water absorption of crushed clay brick compared to those of recycled concrete aggregates. The CBR values
(unsoaked and soaked) of the subbase materials prepared with 100% recycled concrete aggregates were lower than those of natural
subbase materials. The CBR values further decreased as the replacement level of recycled concrete aggregates by crushed clay brick
increased. Nevertheless, the soaked CBR values for all recycled subbases were greater than 30%, which is a minimum strength
requirement in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the recorded percentage swells for all subbases were less than 0.13% which can be con-
sidered negligible.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Construction and demolition waste; Recycled concrete aggregates; Crushed clay brick; Subbase
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2005.01.045
C.S. Poon, D. Chan / Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 578585 579
increased with an increase in water absorption of the 2.2. Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)
aggregates. Nataatmadja and Tan [3] tested the resilient
response of a subbase material made with four dierent Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) was produced in
recycled aggregates. They found that the resilient re- a recycling facility located in Tuen Mun in Hong Kong.
sponse of a subbase material made with recycled aggre- The properties of the recycled concrete aggregates are
gates was comparable to that made with natural summarized in Table 2.
aggregate. Also, the resilient response of a subbase
material was found to be dependent on the strength of
the original concrete, the amount of softer material in 2.3. Crushed clay brick (CB)
the recycled aggregates and the akiness index of
RCA. Molenaar and van Niekerk [4] found that the A clay brick partition wall (Fig. 1) sourced from a
mechanical characteristics of an unbound base course demolition site in North Point in Hong Kong was
made with recycled concrete and masonry rubble were delivered to our laboratory for this study. The parti-
mainly governed by the degree of compaction. Further- tion wall was crushed manually using a hammer to
more, Hansen and Angelo [5] found that it was possible produce both coarse and ne aggregates ranged from
to enhance the engineering properties of clayey soils for 20 to <5 mm and they are referred to as crushed clay
earthwork purposes by mixing the soils with recycled brick (CB) in this study. Crushed clay brick mainly
concrete ne aggregates. contained brick rubble and also a high amount of ad-
In this paper, the feasibility of blending recycled con- hered mortar and other impurities such as tile, wood
crete aggregates and crushed clay brick as subbase mate- and dust. These impurities were not removed prior to
rials was studied. The results were compared with the the experiment. The properties of crushed clay brick
subbase materials prepared with natural aggregates. are listed in Table 3.
This study was of great importance since landlls and
reclamation sites in Hong Kong will be exhausted in
2.4. Comparison of individual aggregate properties
the near future. If recycled concrete aggregates and
crushed clay brick can be re-used as subbase materials,
Each value presented in Tables 13 is an average of
it would greatly alleviate the demand and extend the ser-
two measurements. Test methods employed for deter-
vice life of the dumping facilities in Hong Kong.
mining the properties of the aggregate are included in
each table [610].
2. Materials In general, natural aggregates had the highest den-
sity values followed by recycled concrete aggregate
2.1. Natural aggregate (NA) and crushed clay brick. In contrast, crushed clay brick
had the highest water absorption values, followed by
Crushed granite was used as the natural aggregate in recycled concrete aggregate and natural aggregate. In-
this study. Its properties are summarized in Table 1. deed, the high amount of adhered mortar attached to
Table 1
Properties of natural aggregates
Properties Aggregate size Test method
40 mm 20 mm 10 mm <5 mm
Density-SSD (kg/m3) 2622 2660 2577 2579 BS 812 Part 2
Density-oven-dry (kg/m3) 2594 2644 2562 2492
Water absorption (%) 1.06 0.57 0.59 3.51
Ten percent nes dry (kN) 190 BS 812 Part 111
Ten percent nes soaked (kN) 190
Water-soluble sulphate content (g/L) 0.025 BS 1377 Part 3
Soundness % 97.5 BS 812 Part 121
Particle size distribution (mm) Percent passing (%)
50.0 100 BS 812: 103.1
37.5 96.9 100
20.0 2.09 92.1
14.0 0.1 36.0 100
10.0 8.35 95.9
5.0 0.41 13.5 97.3
2.36 1.18 77.7
1.18 58.0
0.6 41.9
0.3 19.2
580 C.S. Poon, D. Chan / Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 578585
Table 2
Properties of recycled concrete aggregates
Properties Aggregate size Test method
40 mm 20 mm 10 mm <5 mm
Density-SSD (kg/m3) 2487 2546 2580 2310 BS 812 Part 2
Density-oven-dry (kg/m3) 2411 2493 2523 2093
Water absorption (%) 3.17 2.17 2.29 10.3
Ten percent nes dry (kN) 146 BS 812 Part 111
Ten percent nes soaked (kN) 109
Water-soluble sulphate content (g/L) 0.032 BS 1377 Part 3
Soundness % 96.3 BS 812 Part 121
Particle size distribution (mm) Percent passing (%)
50.0 100 BS 812: 103.1
37.5 96.4 100
20.0 3.98 98.4
14.0 0.23 31.4 100
10.0 4.73 93.8
5.0 0.18 7.6 100
2.36 1.6 73.6
1.18 48.3
0.6 31.1
0.3 17.7
Fig. 1. Photograph of a clay brick partition wall derived from the demolition site in North Point, Hong Kong.
Table 3
Properties of crushed clay brick
Properties Aggregate Size Test Method
20 mm 10 mm <5 mm
Density-SSD (kg/m3) 1916 2147 2042 BS 812 Part 2
Density-oven-dry (kg/m3) 1618 1797 1560
Water absorption (%) 18.4 19.5 30.9
Ten percent nes dry (kN) 49 BS 812 Part 111
Ten percent nes soaked (kN) 35
Water-soluble sulphate content (g/L) 0.206 BS 1377 Part 3
Particle size distribution (mm) Percent passing (%)
37.5 100 BS 812: 103.1
20.0 98.9
14.0 54.2 100
10.0 8.75 94.9
5.0 1.37 7.6 100
2.36 1.4 65.5
1.18 43.5
0.6 31.3
0.3 23.1
C.S. Poon, D. Chan / Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 578585 581
Table 7
Grading of blended subbases
Sieve Size (mm) Percent passing (%)
Control Series I Series II
100 RCA 75 RCA 50 RCA 100 RCA 75 RCA 50 RCA
50 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
37.5 100 99.3 100 100 98.7 100 100
20.0 79.5 79.5 80.2 80.3 79.0 80.0 80.0
10.0 68.7 67.7 66.5 69.6 67.8 67.7 67.9
5.0 35.6 40.0 32.0 33.7 40.1 33.8 30.4
0.6 9.89 12.3 6.5 7.81 9.26 13.2 8.59
0.075 0.59 1.09 0.53 1.35 1.04 0.47 0.36
2.20
Control
100RCA (Series I)
2.10
75RCA (Series I)
50RCA (Series I)
2.00
100RCA (Series II)
1.80
1.70
1.60
1.50
1.40
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Moisture Content (%)
(OMC) and the corresponding maximum dry densities highest maximum dry density and the lowest optimum
(MDD) are summarized in Table 8. The shape of the moisture content. Since the grading of each subbase
curves and the obtained values diered considerably. was similar, the dierence in the maximum dry density
The control mixture with natural aggregates had the and the optimum moisture content was mainly attrib-
uted to the physical properties of natural aggregates
Table 8 which had the highest particle density and were less por-
Summary of optimum moisture content (OMC) and maximum dry ous compared to those of recycled concrete aggregate
density (MDD) for seven subbase materials and crushed clay brick.
Blend Optimum Maximum dry It was found that the incorporation of coarse crushed
moisture content (%) density (Mg/m3) clay brick increased the optimum moisture content and
Control 8.6 2.15 decreased the maximum dry density (Fig. 4) as a result
Series I
of the high water absorption and the low particle den-
100RCA 11.8 2.02 sity of the crushed clay brick particles. The irregular
75RCA 12.7 1.97 shape of the crushed clay brick particles due to manual
50RCA 16.0 1.82 crushing possibly increased the amount of voids within
Series II the material and led to a decrease in the maximum dry
100RCA 14.9 1.92 density as well. The results also showed that the mix-
75RCA 15.3 1.87 tures with ne recycled concrete aggregate had higher
50RCA 19.0 1.74
maximum dry densities and lower optimum moisture
2.05
100RCA
2.00
Maximum dry density (Mg/m^3)
75RCA
1.95
100RCA Series II
y = -0.0404x + 2.5061
1.90 75RCA 2
R = 0.9666
1.85 Series I
y = -0.047x + 2.5716
50RCA
1.80 2
R = 0.9986
Series I 50RCA
1.75
Series II
1.70
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Fig. 4. Trend in maximum dry density and optimum moisture content with increasing coarse crushed clay brick content.
584 C.S. Poon, D. Chan / Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 578585
contents compared to the mixtures containing ne brick with recycled concrete aggregate possibly led to
crushed clay brick. This was mainly caused by the dier- a poorer interlocking system which decreased the load
ence in the density and the water absorption between transfer capability of the subbase materials.
these two materials. On the other hand, mixtures 100RCA, 75RCA and
Furthermore, the results revealed that the mixtures 50RCA in Series II achieved CBR values of 38%, 40%
containing ne recycled concrete aggregate were more and 35%, respectively. The use of crushed clay brick as
sensitive to the change in the moisture compared to the ne aggregate obviously decreased the strength of
the mixtures containing ne crushed clay brick. There- the subbase materials. Although the same blend ratios
fore, it is essential to compact the blended materials pre- (by weight) were used for both series, the dierence in
pared with ne recycled concrete aggregate at as close to density between the two materials resulted in a totally
the optimum moisture content as possible in order to dierent material volume. Due to the lower particle den-
achieve better compaction. Conversely, mixtures incor- sity of crushed clay brick, the volume of the ne aggre-
porated crushed clay brick as the ne aggregate had less gate in Series II was greater than the volume of the ne
sharp moisturedry density curves. Furthermore, it is aggregate in Series I. As a result, the volume ratio of
also interesting to note that all the mixtures prepared coarse to ne aggregates was lower for the mixtures in
with the recycled materials were more susceptible to Series II than that of the mixtures in Series I. The lower
the moisture variation on the dry side of the optimum coarse to ne aggregates volume ratio possibly
moisture content than on the wet side of the optimum decreased the CBR values compared to those of Series
moisture content. I. Furthermore, the intrinsic strength of ne crushed
clay brick could also decrease the bearing strength of
the subbase materials as well. Moreover, it was observed
5. California bearing ratio (CBR) that mixtures in Series II had relatively uniform results
when the content of coarse crushed clay brick increased.
CBR tests were performed for all seven subbase mate- When a portion of coarse recycled concrete aggregate
rials after they were compacted at their corresponding was replaced by coarse crushed clay brick, the volume
optimum moisture contents. CBR tests were carried ratio of coarse to ne aggregates increased accordingly.
out in both unsoaked and 4-day soaked conditions However, the possible increase in the CBR value as a
and the results are summarized in Fig. 5. result of the increase in the coarse to ne aggregate vol-
In an unsoaked condition, the subbase using natural ume ratio was oset by a decrease in the CBR value due
materials had the highest CBR value (85%). Mixtures to the incorporation of crushed clay brick which had a
100RCA, 75RCA and 50RCA in Series I had CBR val- relatively low intrinsic strength. That was possibly the
ues of 66%, 62% and 43%, respectively. The CBR value reason for similar CBR values obtained in Series II as
gradually decreased as the coarse crushed clay brick the coarse crushed clay brick content increased.
content increased. One possible reason was the lower Furthermore, it can be seen from Fig. 5 that the inu-
intrinsic particle strength of crushed clay brick which ence of the 4-day soaked period was found negligible on
led to a decrease in the overall bearing strength of the the CBR values of all the subbase materials. In Hong
subbase materials. Furthermore, blending crushed clay Kong, a soaked CBR value of 30% is considered a
100
90
85 82
80 Unsoaked
70 66 66 4-day soaked
62 62
60
CBR (%)
50 47
43
40 42
40 38 36 35 35
30
20
10
0
Control 100RCA(I) 75RCA (I) 50RCA (I) 100RCA(II) 75RCA (II) 50RCA (II)
Subbase Mixtures (SeriesNo.)
Fig. 5. CBR values (unsoaked and 4-day soaked) for each subbase material.
C.S. Poon, D. Chan / Construction and Building Materials 20 (2006) 578585 585
minimum strength requirement of a subbase [14]. The 4. The use of crushed clay brick lowered the CBR value.
results of this study proved that recycled concrete aggre- 5. The subbase using crushed clay brick as the ne
gate and crushed clay brick can be blended together to aggregate had a lower CBR value compared to the
produce a subbase which meets the prescribed require- subbase using recycled concrete aggregate as the ne
ment. Moreover, the recorded swells for all subbases aggregate.
were less than 0.13% after a 4-day soaked period, which 6. A 4-day soaked period had a negligible inuence on
can be considered negligible. the CBR values of the recycled subbases.
7. It was feasible to blend recycled concrete aggregate
and crushed clay brick to produce a subbase with a
6. Conclusions soaked CBR value of at least 30%, which is a mini-
mum requirement in Hong Kong.
This paper presents the result of an investigation on 8. All recycled subbases had a negligible swell after a 4-
the use of recycled concrete aggregate and crushed clay day soaked period.
brick as aggregates in unbound subbases materials. Prior
to the study, the aggregate properties were rst evalu-
ated. The following dierences were found between the
natural aggregate, recycled concrete aggregate and Acknowledgements
crushed clay brick:
The authors thank the Environment and Conserva-
1. Natural aggregate had the highest density, followed tion Fund, the Woo Wheelock Green Fund and the
by recycled concrete aggregate and crushed clay brick. Hong Kong Polytechnic University for funding support.
2. Crushed clay brick had the highest water absorption
value, followed by recycled concrete aggregate and
natural aggregate.
3. The ten percent nes values indicated that natural References
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