WATER ABSORPTION AND SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF RECYCLED CONCRETE AGGREGATE FROM DEMOLISHING WASTE OF NAWABSHAH CITY

Abstract

Concrete has been proved to be a leading construction material all over the world. Because of the demand for new structures, new construction is increasing day by day. This rapid demand of structures has increased the requirement of concrete. New structures are being constructed and old structures are being demolished. This results in the generation of construction waste on a large scale. The throwing away of this huge mass of construction waste has happened to a major social and environmental issue all around the world, mostly in developing countries. Therefore, a proper utilization of demolished waste is important in order to deal with this waste and have an alternate material for utilization in concrete.

Therefore, experimental research has been conducted to utilize this waste as recycled coarse aggregates to partially replace natural coarse aggregates. Old concrete was collected from 5 locations in Nawabshah. After collecting all the material we used 5 samples from each source, so we used 25 samples of recycled aggregates. 25 samples of recycled coarse aggregate are tested for water absorption and specific gravity to understand its properties and compare to the natural coarse aggregates. The water absorption of recycled coarse aggregate is greater than the water absorption of natural coarse aggregates. Among these five sites of Nawabshah city, New Naka area’s recycled coarse aggregates have greater water absorption which is 5.8%. The specific gravity of recycled coarse aggregate is lower than the specific gravity of natural coarse aggregates. Among these five sites of Nawabshah city, New Naka & Mehran Hotel area’s have lesser specific gravity which is 2.237. So, these aggregates can be used in new constructions, but it is proposed to be initially utilized in low load areas.