Shear strength of recycled concrete beams

This paper reports on the shear behaviour of concrete made with recycled concrete aggregates. Tests have been performed on recycled aggregates and on two concrete mixes (conventional concrete and recycled concrete with 50% of recycled coarse aggregates). For every concrete, four reinforced beams with different amount of transverse reinforcement were made and were tested to failure. The results showed that whereas the deflections and the ultimate loads were little affected by the different types of concretes, in recycled concrete beams, cracking was premature. Experimental results were compared using theoretical models Modified Compression Field Theory and current codes. Both predicted the shear behaviour of the new recycled concrete well. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.