Thermally Assisted Liberation of Concrete and Aggregate Recycling: Comparison between Microwave and Conventional Heating
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 12
Abstract
Microwave-assisted concrete liberation and aggregate recycling is highlighted by many research groups due to its efficient and effective recycling process. In this paper, a series of experiments are conducted to study the heating results of concrete under microwave and conventional heating processes. The temperature variations of concrete under two different heating approaches are obtained. The crack characteristic and material damage during the different heating processes are illustrated. Particularly, the energy efficiency was investigated for two approaches. Results proved that concretes were broken more effectively under microwave irradiation than in conventional furnaces, and the aggregates can be easily separated under the sufficient power input. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis proved that after microwave treatment, intergranular fractures are formed at mortar-aggregate interfaces, few cracks occurred after conventional heating processes. The research proves that, compared with conventional heating, microwave irradiation could liberate concrete and recycle aggregate effectively, with less heating duration and lower energy input required.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11872287) and the Foundation of Shaanxi Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2019ZDLGY01-10).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 12 • December 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 16, 2021
Accepted: May 3, 2021
Published online: Oct 1, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Mar 1, 2022
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