Experiment on durability of recycled concrete under coupling multi-factors of load and corrosion freeze-thaw

Recycled aggregate concrete has obtained worldwide attention as an important part of sustainability. In the aspect of durability of recycled concrete under coupling multi-factors, a number of devices were designed and installed to investigate the durability of recycled concrete. In previous studies, the concrete specimen was tightened by the screws to apply a prestress with the jack, and then specimen was put in the devices for the durability test, which was difficult to operate and prone to stress loss. In this paper, in order to better research the durability of concrete under coupling multi-factors, we designed a coupling mechanism of alternated with loading and freeze-thaw cycles in salt-solution to replace the traditional mold loading to accurately simulate the simultaneous interaction of freezing thawing, corrosion and load. The coupling protocol was designed with repetitive load and 25 time’s freeze-thaw cycles alternately 2 times in the salt-solution, in which the maximum stress level (the applied stress to 28 days compressive strength) of repetitive load is 0, 40%, 70%. The specific operation was that specimens were loaded repetitively for the first time, then they were freeze-thawed in the salt-solution for 25 time’s cycles, after that, they were repetitively loaded again, and freeze-thawed in the salt-solution for another 25 time’s cycles. The experiment on compressive strength and microhardness of recycled concrete and natural concrete under coupling action was carried out. In the macroscopic test, compressive strength loss of each specimen was measured under the above mentioned coupling protocols. At the same time, the microhardness across the ITZs between the coarse aggregate and the cement matrix was measured before and after 50 freeze-thawing cycles for the control specimens. The macro test results showed that the stress level of the coupling action increased from 40% to 70%, the compressive strength loss of both recycled concrete and natural concrete increased from 1.8% and 71.3% to 27.2% and 100% respectively. It is implied that the durability of recycled concrete under coupling action is better than that of natural concrete, and the loading mechanism with high stress level will accelerate the deterioration of both recycled concrete and natural concrete. The micro test results showed that the microhardness values gradually increased with the increases of distance from the interface of natural aggregate and cement paste, the microhardness losses were 8.1% and 23.8% of the interface of both recycled aggregate and natural aggregate before and after the coupling action respectively. It can be seen that the interface transition zone was the weakest part of the concrete, and the decreasing rate of microhardness of the interface transition zone in natural aggregate specimens was faster than that of recycled aggregate after 50 time’s freeze-thaw cycles in salt-solution. The environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) test results indicated that the bond strength and plastic deformation ability of interface of natural aggregate are better than that of recycled aggregate before freeze-thaw cycles, while the ability to resist freeze-thaw at the interface transition zone of recycled aggregate was better than natural aggregate after freeze-thaw cycles. The related results can provide an insight into the long-term performance of recycled concrete subjected to harsh environmental conditions and thus to promote practical application of recycled aggregate concrete in the future.