Effect of Curing Temperature on the Shrinkage of Concrete Containing Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement: Experimental and Numerical Study

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the effect of curing temperatures (20°C, 40°C, and 60°C) and incorporation rates of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) on the mechanical properties and shrinkage of concrete made with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP-C). Five mixes were produced for this study: one with natural coarse aggregate and four with four replacement ratios of coarse RAP (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%). The results show that the use of RAP reduces the workability and adversely affects the mechanical performance of RAP-C. Moreover, this study found that the total shrinkage increases with coarse RAP content. However, the total shrinkage of RAP-C decreases as the curing temperature increases: for concrete made with 100% RAP, a 20% reduction in total shrinkage was observed at 60°C compared to conventional concrete at 180 days. In addition, to predict the total shrinkage of RAP-C, finite element analysis using ANSYS© software based on the maturity approach and the two-phase serial model is used. The numerical results are in close agreement with the experimental data.