Compressive mechanical performance and microscopic mechanism of basalt fiber-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete after elevated temperature exposure

Abstract

To improve the mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) after elevated temperature exposure, this study employed basalt fiber (BF) as reinforcing material incorporated into RAC. The replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA), the content of BF, and the temperature were utilized as the change parameters, and 27 groups of basalt fiber reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (BFRRC) specimens were designed to carry out the compressive strength test after elevated temperature. The heating rate was set at 2.5 °C/min to avoid any possible explosion of the cylindrical specimen during the heating process. The specimens were treated for 6h after reaching the desired temperature, and then the furnace door was opened for natural cooling to room temperature. After observing the physical properties of the specimens, the basic mechanical properties test was carried out, and the microscopic mechanism was analyzed in depth by electron microscopy. The results showed that the defects inherent in RCA and the continuous accumulation of elevated temperature damage gradually reduced the compressive mechanical performance of BFRRC but that the toughening and cracking-resistance action of BF effectively improved the compressive mechanical performance of BFRRC. BF enhanced the compressive mechanical performance of RAC through bridging and crack resistance action mechanisms, but the higher the temperature became, the smaller the enhancement was. The cube compressive strength and axial compressive strength of the specimens decreased with the increase of temperature. With the same replacement ratio and fiber dosage, increasing the temperature from 300 °C to 600 °C, the decrease in cube compressive strength and axial compressive strength was the most significant, which was between 36.4 %–48.1 % and 51.1 %–62.6 %, respectively.