Mechanical Properties and ITZ Microstructure of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Using Carbonated Recycled Coarse Aggregate

The effect of carbonation treatment and mixing method on the mechanical properties and interfacial transition zone（ITZ） properties of recycled aggregate concrete（RAC） was investigated. Properties of recycled concrete aggregate（RCA） were tested firstly. Then, five types of concretes were made and slump of fresh concrete was measured immediately after mixing. Compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of hardened concrete were measured at 28 d. Meanwhile, the microstructure of RAC was analyzed by backscattered electron（BSE） image. It was found that the water absorption ratio of carbonated recycled concrete aggregate（CRCA） was much lower when compared to the untreated RCA. Comparatively, the apparent density of CRCA was not significantly modified. The concrete strength results indicate that the mix CRAC-2 prepared with CRCA by adopting two-stage mixing approach shows the highest compressive strength value compared to the other mixes. The microstructural analysis demonstrate that the mix CRAC-2 has a much denser old ITZ than the untreated RAC because of the chemical reaction between CO2 and the hydration products of RCA. This study confirms that the ITZ microstructure of RAC can be efficiently modified by carbonation treatment of RCA and encourages broadening the application of construction and demolition wastes.

Relation between Modulus of Elasticity and Compressive Strength of Ultrahigh-Strength Mortar with Mixed Silicon Carbide as Fine Aggregate

Ultrahigh-strength mortar mixed surface-oxidized silicon carbide as a fine aggregate was prepared by means of press-casting followed by curing in an autoclave. The relation between modulus of elssticity up to 111 GPa and compressive strength up to 360 MPa of mortar mixed silicon carbide was discussed and it was revealed that the contributions of the aggregate hardness and of the interfacial strength between the aggregate and the cement paste on the elasticity of mortar were imporant.

An empirical method for estimating surface area of aggregates in hot mix asphalt

Bitumen requirement in hot mix asphalt （HMA） is directly dependent on the surface area of the aggregates in the mix, which in turn has effect on the asphalt film thickness and the flow characteristics. The surface area of aggregate blend in HMA is calculated using the specific surface area factors assigned to percentage passing through some specific standard sieve sizes and the imaging techniques. The first process is less capital intensive, but purely manual and labour intensive and prone to human errors. Imaging techniques though eliminating the human errors, still have limited use due to capital intensiveness and requirement of well-established ]aboratories with qualified technicians. Most of the developing countries like India are shortage of well-equipped laboratories and qualified technicians. To overcome these difficulties, the present mathematical model has been developed to estimate the surface area of aggregate blend of HMA from physical properties of aggregates evaluated using simple laboratory equipment. This model has been validated compared with the existing established methods of calculations and can be used as one of the tools in different developing and under developed countries for proper design of HMA.

Two-component Brownian coagulation: Monte Carlo simulation and process characterization

The compositional distribution within aggregates of a given size is essential to the functionality of com- posite aggregates that are usually enlarged by rapid Brownian coagulation, There is no analytical solution for the process of such two-component systems, Monte Carlo method is an effective numerical approach for two-component coagulation, In this paper, the differentially weighted Monte Carlo method is used to investigate two-component Brownian coagulation, respectively, in the continuum regime, the free-molecular regime and the transition regime. It is found that （1） for Brownian coagulation in the continuum regime and in the free-molecular regime, the mono-variate compositional distribution, i.e., the number density distribution function of one component amount （in the form of volume of the component in aggregates） satisfies self-preserving form the same as particle size distribution in mono-component Brownian coagulation; （2） however, for Brownian coagulation in the transition regime the mono-variate compositional distribution cannot reach self-similarity; and （3） the bivariate compositional distribution, i.e., the combined number density distribution function of two component amounts in the three regimes satisfies a semi self-preserving form. Moreover, other new features inherent to aggregative mixing are also demonstrated; e.g., the degree of mixing between components, which is largely controlled by the initial compositional mass fraction, improves as aggregate size increases.