For low-carbon sustainability, recycled rubber particles (RPs) and recycled aggregate (RA) could be used to make rubber-modified recycled aggregate concrete (RRAC). The characteristics (compressive strength and peak strain) of RRAC with various amounts of RA and RPs after heating at various temperatures were studied in this work. The results show that high temperatures significantly decreased the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), whereas the addition of RA (e.g., 50%) and RPs (e.g., 5%) can mitigate the negative effect caused by high temperatures. The peak strain can also be improved by increasing the replacement ratios of RA and RP. Support vector regression (SVR) models were trained using a total of 120 groups of UCS and peak strain experimental datasets, and an SVR-based multi-objective optimization model was proposed. The excellent correlation coefficients (0.9772 for UCS and 0.9412 for peak strain) found to illustrate the remarkable accuracy of the SVR models. The Pareto fronts of a tri-objective mixture optimization design (UCS, strain, and cost) were successfully generated as the decision reference at varying temperature conditions. A sensitivity analysis was performed to rank the importance of the input variables where temperature was found as the most important one. In addition, the replacement ratio of RA is more important compared with that of the RP for both the UCS and strain datasets. Among the mechanical properties of concrete, compressive strength and peak strain are two key properties. This study provides guidance for the study of RRAC constitutive models under high temperatures.
26 October 2022 in Construction and Building Materials
The utilization of recycled aggregates made from construction wastes and recycled rubber made from waste tires is an effective method to realize the sustainable development. Thus, this study aims to determine the feasibility of using recycled aggregate concrete containing rubber, named rubberized recycled aggregate concrete (RRAC) as a new type of green-building material. The experimental carbon emissions test verified RRAC as a low-carbon material. In addition, the residual mechanical properties of RRAC were investigated under elevated temperatures. After exposure at 200, 400, and 600 C for 60 min, the stress−strain curve, compressive strength, energy absorption capacity, and spalling resistance of RRAC with recycled aggregate replacement ratios of 50 and 100%, rubber contents of 0, 5, 10, and 15% were explored with microstructural analysis. Moreover, empirical models were proposed to describe the effects of heated temperatures and rubber contents on the stress–strain relationship of RRAC. The results indicated that the rubber particles could reduce the spalling of specimens based on the vapor pressure theory. Therefore, this study provided scientific guidance for the design of structures made with RRAC for resisting high temperatures.
2 April 2025 in Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering