The shear strengths of various recycled aggregates

The use of recycled aggregates produced from construction and demolition wastes in geotechnical applications has gained importance in recent years due to environmental concerns and increasing costs. However, the heterogeneity of these recycled aggregates significantly affects the engineering properties of the materials and limits their use. In this study, it is focused on determining the differences arising from the said heterogeneity in order to increase the use of recycled aggregate in fillings. Accordingly, large-scale shear box and California Transport Ratio (CBR) experiments were conducted on nine different recycled aggregates generated as waste as a result of different construction works. The effects of relative density and water content parameters were investigated in the experiments. In addition, the results of the experiments were compared with the results of similar experiments on natural aggregates obtained from a local quarry. As a result, it was determined that as the compressive strength of the concrete obtained from recycled aggregate or the percentage of natural aggregate in the recycled aggregate increased, the internal friction angles and CBR values also increased. Also, the increase in the relative density of the recycled aggregates improved their shear strength. On the other hand, it has been determined that the high optimum water content of the crushed bricks affects the geotechnical properties negatively.