| Summary: | Several studies related to sustainable concrete construction have encouraged development of composite binders, involving Portland cement, industrial by-products, and concrete mixes with partial replacement of natural aggregate with recycled aggregate. In this paper, the effects of incorporating silica fume (SF) in the concrete mix design to improve the quality of recycled aggregates in concrete are presented. Portland cement was replaced with SF at 0%, 5% and 10%. Specimens were manufactured by replacing natural aggregates with recycled aggregates. Two size fractions (4/12 mm and 8/22 mm) as recycled aggregates were used and four series of concrete mixtures were produced. In all concrete mixtures, a constant water/binder ratio at 0.50 was used and concrete mixtures with a target initial slump of S4 class (16–21 cm) were prepared. Concrete properties were evaluated by means of compressive strength, tensile splitting strength, water absorption and ultrasonic pulse velocity and it was found that, using 10% SF as a cement replacement for recycled aggregate concretes enhanced the mechanical and physical properties of concrete. At all the test ages the tensile splitting strength gain of the natural aggregate concrete mixture (NA) with and without SF was higher than that of the recycled concrete mixtures. Continuous and significant improvement in the tensile splitting strength of recycled aggregate concretes incorporating SF was observed. Similar to compressive strength test results, concrete incorporating 10% SF and containing 4/12 mm fraction recycled aggregates showed better performance among recycled aggregate concretes.
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