Concrete creep with recycled aggregates: a review

Abstract

Creep is one of the most important properties of concrete, but the use of Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) can significantly affect this property. In this sense, the objective of the present article was to carry out a review of the literature on creep in concrete with RCA, considering its influence, causes and reduction actions. The methodology consisted of a Systematic Literature Review (RSL) for the time period from 2007 to 2021 (first quarter). Different databases were used to search for scientific information, limited to journal articles and in English. The results show that the Coarse Recycled Concrete Aggregate (CRCA) is the most used in the selected studies, increasing the creep with the degree of substitution of the natural aggregate; however, there is no clear trend with Fine Recycled Concrete Aggregate (FRCA), whose results are limited in the literature. It is shown that creep depends on several factors such as the w/c ratio, age of the load, etc. Among the main causes, most studies claim that creep is due to old mortar adhered to RCA, but also some actions are proposed to reduce creep in concrete with RCA. It can be concluded that the use of RCA is a sustainable alternative for the production of concrete, but more research is needed to fully understand the influence of RCA concrete creep and consolidate its use to industrial levels.