Towards the Application of Recycled Coarse Aggregate Sourced from Large Panel System Buildings in the Manufacturing of Self-Compacting Concrete

Abstract

Today, endless discourses about Large Panel System (LPS) buildings take place to ask whether the residents should be concerned about their flats being demolished. Taking into account: turning from the "machine for housing" created by Le Corbusier to modern construction, sudden disasters like gas explosion, progressive collapse, planned demolitions, the trend can result in the creation of huge amounts of waste. LPS buildings are usually located in areas of dense urban development. Recycling of these wastes is very problematic. Because concrete load bearing panels seem to be in good condition, there is urgent need to evaluate the possibility of recycling them, e.g. as coarse aggregate in a new concrete mix. Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) seems promising with its practical feature that it does not have to be vibrated during concreting, which in turn leads to a reduction in noise, making it a perfect material for investments in areas of dense urban development. Such solution would allow to eliminate the transport of waste, and at the same time to reduce it. The aim of the research is to preliminary evaluate the properties of Recycled Coarse Aggregate (RCA), acquired from the Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) of LPS residential building. The results of the sieve analysis in the products of 4-8 mm showed little irregular grains content, amounted to 5.9 % of the selected representative sample. Because no study before analysed RCA from LPS, there is a need of further research focusing on properties of acquired aggregate and concrete. The novelty of the manuscript lies in conducting preliminary research towards the recycling LPS for new SCC.