Experimental Study on Effect of Recycled Reinforced Concrete Waste on Mechanical Properties and Structural behaviour of the Sandy Soil

Abstract In recent years, constructing natural aggregates as a base layer for the roads has increased. Natural resources will run out as long as human consumption of them continues. Recycled concrete aggregate (RC) has thus emerged as a substitute material for the building of road base layers. Additionally, RC can be utilized to create interior city highways. The base layer for roads must have sufficient strength to support the working load on the pavement surface without damage deforming. As a result, the focus of this paper is on enhancing the structural performance of sandy soil reinforced with various RC percentages. The three key factors are relative soil density (Dr = 83 and 97%), recycled concrete aggregate reinforcing levels (RC = 0,5,10,15,20,25,30,40,50 and 100%), and reinforcement layer thickness (R d = 0.0B, 0.5B, B, and 2B where B is the footing model width). Numerous laboratory experiments were conducted in order to examine the impact of important parameters on the properties of the mixtures. The plate bearing tests were carried out using a footing model (250 × 250 mm) inside a tank (1500 × 1500x1000 mm) to ascertain the stress–strain response, bearing capacity ratio (BCR), ultimate bearing capacity, and modulus of elasticity of the tested mixtures. It is clear that raising the RC has no effect on the diameters of the grains. It was found that as RC increased, the mixture's bulk density increased but specific gravity decreased. Maximum dry density rose as RC rose, whereas water content fell. It was noted that BCR unquestionably increased as RC increased for all RC levels and all values of settlement ratios. The appropriate reinforcing layer thickness is suggested to be no more than 2B. As the RC concentration in the sand and R d increased, the difference between two pressure-settlement curves of densities 83% and 97% significantly decreased. Furthermore, when RC reaches 50%, two curves are roughly comparable. At RC = 50%, it is advised that the relative density of 83% is sufficient to produce the same behavior as the relative density of 97%. It was found that as RC and R d grew, the tested mixtures' ultimate bearing capacity and elasticity modulus increased as well. A novel proposed formulas are developed to compute bearing capacity ratio, ultimate bearing capacity, and elasticity modulus of the tested mixtures taking into account the influence of RC, reinforcement layer depth, settlement ratio, and the relative density, and its results agree with the experimental results.