Influence of fly ash as a cement addition on the hardened properties of recycled aggregate concrete

The effects of the use of Class F fly ash as a cement addition on the hardened properties of recycled aggregate concrete were determined. In this study, four series of concrete mixtures were prepared with water-to-cement (w/c) ratios of 0.55, 0.50, 0.45 and 0.40. The recycled aggregate was used as 0%, 20%, 50% and 100% replacements of coarse natural aggregate. Furthermore, fly ash was employed as 0% and 25% addition of cement. Although the use of recycled aggregate had a negative effect on the mechanical properties of concrete, it was found that the addition of fly ash was able to mitigate this detrimental effect. Also, the addition of fly ash reduced the drying shrinkage and enhanced the resistance to chloride ion penetration of concrete prepared with recycled aggregate. Moreover, it was found that the drying shrinkage and chloride ion penetration decreased as the compressive strength increased. Compared with the results of our previous study, the present study has quantified the advantages of using fly ash as an additional cementitious material in recycled aggregate concrete over the use of fly use as a replacement of cement.