Compression Dispersion Efficiency of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Struts At Different Load Concentration Ratios

Infrastructure development activities in India have increased many folds in recent times. This has resulted in increase in the demand of construction materials like cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate etc. Huge quantities of concrete wastes are produced due to demolition of old structures. If recycled aggregate from this waste is used for construction purpose, it will not only make the structures economical and eco-friendly butwill also solve the problem of waste disposal.Recycling old waste concrete by crushing and grading into coarse aggregates for use in new structural concrete is drawing the attention of engineers, environmentalists and researchers since last three decades. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the compression dispersion behaviour of struts of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) and recycle coarse aggregate (RCA) at different load concentration ratio and aspect ratio. For the study, struts of 450 mm height and 75mm thickness with varying widths starting from 75mm to 450mm, using NCA and RCA concrete, were cast. The testing of struts was carriedout on loading frame of capacity 500 kN. The struts were tested to failure under in-plane compressive load applied through symmetrically placed steel plate (75×75×10) mm at top andbottom of the struts.