Effective Utilization of Chopped Basalt Fiber and Pozzolana Slurry TRCA for Sustainable Recycled Structural Concrete with Improved Fire Resistance
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 3
Abstract
In recent times, the employment of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) for sustainable infrastructure development has enticed special interest from the research community owing to a greater emphasis on resource conservation and environmental protection. To apply such concrete in the modern-day construction industry, in-depth knowledge and thorough understanding of its fire resistance is imperative and an urgent need at the present time. Hence, this experimental study investigates the effect of elevated temperatures (25°C–800°C) on residual mechanical, physical, and microstructure performances of RAC strengthened via the coupling effect of chopped basalt fiber (BF) and pozzolana slurry treated recycled concrete aggregate (TRCA). To mimic real building fire conditions, concrete test specimens were heated to a specific target temperature in a controlled heating manner, and then their performance was assessed in terms of residual properties including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, mass loss, physical appearance, and microstructure. Overall, the test findings revealed significant enhancement in residual properties of modified recycled concrete prepared by combined utilization of BF and TRCA. Moreover, in comparison with a reference sample, the BF-based recycled concrete demonstrated lower mass loss and surface degradation, especially beyond 400°C, that is attributed to the excellent thermal stability and reinforcing effect of BF. The microstructure observation evidenced improved matrix quality that contained better interfacial transition zones alongside added nucleation sites by BF. Lastly, based on the experimental data, simplified numerical relationships are established that will help predict the postfire performance of BF-reinforced sustainable concrete.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was supported by the City University of Hong Kong (Project No. ARG 9667238) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China through a research grant awarded to the City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute (Project No. 12072165).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 3 • March 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 29, 2021
Accepted: Jun 2, 2022
Published online: Dec 16, 2022
Published in print: Mar 1, 2023
Discussion open until: May 16, 2023
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