Shrinkage property is a significant indicator of the durability of concrete, and the shrinkage of green recycled concrete is particularly problematic. In this paper, construction waste was crushed and screened to generate simple-crushed recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA). The SCRCA was then subjected to particle shaping to create primary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (PPRCA). On this basis, the PPRCA was particle-shaped again to obtain the secondary particle-shaped recycled coarse aggregate (SPRCA). Under conditions where the dosage of cementitious material is 300 kg/m3 and the sand rate is 38%, a new high-belite sulphoaluminate cement (HBSAC) with low carbon emission and superior efficiency was used as the basic cementitious material. Taking the quality of recycled coarse aggregate (SCRCA, PPRCA, and SPRCA) and the replacement ratio (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) as the influencing factors to prepare the green recycled concrete, the workability and shrinkage property of the prepared concrete were analyzed. The results show that the water consumption of green recycled concrete decreases as the quality of the recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) increases and the replacement ratio decreases, provided that the green recycled concrete achieves the same workability. With the improvement of RCA quality and the decrease of replacement ratio, the shrinkage of recycled concrete decreases. The shrinkage performance of green recycled concrete configured with the SPRCA completely replacing the natural coarse aggregate (NCA) is basically the same as that of the natural aggregate concrete (NAC).
Alkaline electrolyzed water, a kind of clean green water with excellent characteristics such as high activity, strong alkalinity, high ion penetrating ability, electrical charge, and good molecule adsorption, was significant to the resource utilization of industrial fly ash waste. This paper studies highly active potassium-based alkaline electrolyzed water’s impact, compared with ordinary water, on the cement hydration process using microstructural methods such as a hydration heat test, differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, and Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image analysis. Fly ash cement-based materials were first prepared with alkaline electrolyzed water as the mixing water. The alkaline electrolyzed water’s influence on fly ash paste workability and the mechanical properties of fly ash mortar for varying fly ash proportions were ratified. Then alkaline electrolyzed water with the best pH value was selected to prepare fly ash concrete, and its durability was studied. The test results showed that it is feasible to increase the utilization rate of fly ash by using alkaline electrolyzed water. Furthermore, it promoted the process of cement hydration, increased the rate of the hydration reaction, and the promotion effect increased with the increase in pH value of the alkaline electrolyzed water, and also promoted the effective decomposition of the vitreous shell of fly ash to stimulate its early activity. Concurrent tests with ordinary water paste showed that the water requirement for normal consistency and setting time with alkaline electrolyzed water paste were significantly less. Alkaline electrolyzed water also solved the problem related to the low early strength of fly ash mortar. Furthermore, using alkaline electrolyzed water with an optimum pH value of 11.5 to prepare fly ash concrete effectively reduced concrete’s carbonation depth and carbonation rate and lessened the chloride ion migration coefficient.
Green recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) with high strength and low shrinkage is prepared based on recycled coarse aggregate produced by the particle-shaping and aggregate-strengthening method and green low-carbon new cement. This not only effectively alleviates the shortage of natural resources, but also improves the performance of recycled aggregate concrete, which is of great significance for multi-channel resource utilization of construction waste. In this study, three kinds of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), including simple crushing recycled coarse aggregate (JD-RCA), one-time particle-shaping recycled coarse aggregate (KL-RCA) and two-time particle-shaping recycled coarse aggregate (EKL-RCA), were prepared from the preparation technology of recycled aggregate, and high belite sulphoaluminate cement with excellent performance was used. The effects of aggregate quality, aggregate replacement ratio, and cementitious material content on mechanical properties and shrinkage properties of green recycled aggregate concrete were studied in comparison with ordinary Portland cement-based recycled aggregate concrete. The testing results show that the particle-shaping method can effectively improve the aggregate quality. The compressive strength and dry shrinkage performance of recycled aggregate concrete made of particle-shaped aggregate are only a little different from those of natural aggregate concrete, and even the performance of recycled aggregate is better than that of natural aggregate concrete under the condition of a low replacement ratio of recycled aggregate. In addition, high belite sulphoaluminate cement-based recycled aggregate concrete (HBRAC) not only has early strength and rapid hardening, but also has excellent drying shrinkage resistance, and its shrinkage rate can be reduced to more than 75% compared with ordinary Portland cement-based recycled aggregate concrete (OPRAC).