Evaluation of the fatigue behavior of recycled aggregate concrete

In this research, recycled aggregate concretes produced with partial and total coarse aggregate replacement and control concretes with different increasing water/cement ratios have been cast to study the material’s behavior in response to repeated compressive loads using the Locati method. The results show that the methodology can be used to fix the limit interval where the fatigue limit is found. In particular, for the same water/cement ratio, the recycled aggregate concrete presents a higher loss of stiffness at the same test conditions. Furthermore, the use of recycled aggregate implies a reduction in the ability to resist fatigue cycles. These differences are increased for low water/cement ratios, as in this case the main factor is the lower strength capacity of the aggregate. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.