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LITERATURE REVIEW General introduction The main difference between conventional concrete (CC) and RAC is that RAC contains RAs, which are made of natural stone aggregates and mortar attached to them. The presence of this mortar has a series of implications on the behavior of RAC, mostly due to the higher porosity and permeability of this material: RAC tend to have higher water absorption; lower durability performance (Kwan et al. 2012; Olorunsogo and Padayachee 2002), which can be mitigated with fly ash (Kou et al. 2012); lower workability; and, most probably, lower mechanical performance, reflected mainly on a decrease of the Young's modulus E (Fonseca et al. 2011; Kou et al. 2012). Studies regarding shrinkage and creep show that these properties tend to increase with the use of RA (Ferreira et al. 2011; Poon et al. 2002). Despite in some cases deteriorating the properties of concrete, the use of RA is not barred by this effect. Furthermore, the studies that compare RAC properties with regulations and engineering codes (Gonçalves and de Brito 2010) are almost unanimous in concluding their compliance.

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