Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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Compressive behaviour of concrete structures incorporating recycled

concrete aggregates, rubber crumb and reinforced with steel bre,
subjected to elevated temperatures
Yong-chang Guo a, *, Jian-hong Zhang a, Guang-ming Chen a, Zhi-hong Xie b
a
b

School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 16 September 2013
Received in revised form
12 February 2014
Accepted 15 February 2014
Available online 1 March 2014

In this paper, effects of elevated temperatures on the compressive behaviour of rubber crumb and steel
bre reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (RSRAC) are presented. RSRAC is a new concrete material
proposed by the authors. In the RSRAC, steel bre is used to improve the performances of concrete before
exposure (e.g. ductility, cracking) and after exposure (explosive spalling) to evaluated temperature, and
the inclusion of rubber particles is mainly for the consideration of environment protection and reducing
the risk of spalling after exposure to high temperatures. A series of concrete mixes were prepared with
Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), recycled concrete coarse aggregates (RCA) or natural coarse aggregates
(NCA), 1% steel bre (by volume) and rubber particles with different ne aggregate (sand) replacement
ratios. The compressive properties, including compressive strength, Youngs modulus (stiffness), stress
estrain curves and energy absorption capacity (toughness) of the different concrete mixes subjected to
elevated temperatures (25
C, 200
C, 400
C and 600
C), were obtained in accordance to ASTM standards. The results of weight loss and failure modes were recorded and presented in this study. The results
showed that both the compressive strength and stiffness of concrete mixes decreased after exposure to
elevated temperature, with higher replacement of ne aggregate by rubber leading to lower compressive
strength and stiffness magnitude. Nevertheless, rubber crumbs signicantly enhanced the energy absorption capacity and explosive spalling resistance.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Rubber crumb
Steel bre
Recycled concrete aggregate
Compressive properties
High temperature

1. Introduction
Waste concrete, often referred to recycled concrete aggregate
(RCA), has been reused as a replacement of the natural aggregate
for new concrete mainly for the consideration of environmental
benet and effective utilization of resources. Various authors have
studied the properties of concrete prepared with RCA. However, the
incorporation of RCA leads to a signicant loss of uidity of the
mixture (Mefteh et al., 2013) caused by the attached mortar content
of the RCA. This reduction certainly can be compensated by waterreducing admixtures (Barbudo et al., 2013). It is also known that the
use of recycled aggregates in concrete decreases its strength and
Youngs modulus compared to those of natural aggregate concrete
(Miguel and de Brito, 2012). Poon et al. (2002) reported that the
replacement of coarse and ne natural aggregates by RCA (Recycled

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 20 39322538; fax: 86 20 39322511.

E-mail address: guoyc@gdut.edu.cn (Y.-c. Guo).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.02.036
0959-6526/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concrete Aggregate) at higher levels (e.g. 50% or above) signicantly reduced the compressive strength; while an air-dried
aggregate that contained not more than 50% of RCA was optimal
for producing the Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) with normal
strength (less than 60 MPa) (Poon et al., 2004a,b). It is worth noting
that various methods have been attempted to compensate for the
lower quality (e.g. lower strength, less durability) of concrete
products with recycled aggregates and good results have been
achieved. Kou and Poon (2009) pointed out that the properties
(mainly the compressive strength and tensile splitting strength) of
the self-compacting concretes made from river sand and crushed
ne recycled concrete aggregates (with 0, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%
replacement rates) showed only slight difference with the inclusion
of y ash, demonstrating the feasibility of utilizing ne and coarse
recycled concrete aggregates together with y ash for selfcompacting concretes. It has also been shown that the negative
effect of RCA on durability properties of mixes can be mitigated by
incorporating a certain amount of mineral admixtures, such as y
ash and volcanic ash (Kou and Poon, 2012). These research results

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Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

have clearly promoted the promising use of RCA in construction. To

date, RAC has been successfully applied in pavements and building
structures in China, as shown by Li et al. (2009).
Steel bre reinforced concrete (SFRC) was recognised to improve
the brittleness and lower tensile capacity of plain concrete. The
studies showed steel bres inside concrete matrix can increase the
toughness and cracking resistance of concrete mainly due to the
bridging/tying effects of steel bres on surrounding concrete, but
have little effect on the compressive behaviour of concrete probably
because of the reduction/loss of the above effects in concrete under
compression (Atis and Karahan, 2009; Olivito and Zuccarello, 2010).
Yang et al. (2006) and Gao et al. (2007) showed that when recycled
aggregate concrete is reinforced with a certain amount of steel bres, its compressive performance is similar or slightly lower than
the natural aggregate concrete reinforced with equivalent amount
of steel bres, but signicantly higher than ordinary plain concrete.
This suggests that steel bre reinforced recycled aggregate concrete
may be used to replace ordinary concrete in the construction of
structural members. Furthermore, steel bres have been extensively used to improve the ductility of concrete. It has been found
that steel bres can reduce spalling and cracking and improve the
residual strength of concrete after exposure to elevated temperatures (Peng et al., 2006; Poon et al., 2004a,b). In particular, Poon
et al. (2004a,b) showed that the energy dissipation capacity
(toughness) of SFRC subjected to high temperatures can be almost
two times that of plain concrete. Existing research also indicated
that when steel bre content is higher than 1.5% by volume of the
concrete, the increase of steel bre content results in little
improvement or even reduction of the above performances of
concrete (e.g. residual strength, toughness) (Lau and Anson, 2006).
As a result, many of the current studies of steel bre reinforced
concrete used around 1.0% steel bres.
The fast development of automotive industry after the Second
World War has led to the rapid accumulation of waste tire rubber.
Waste tire rubber is extremely difcult to degrade in landll
treatment. As a result, the treatment of waste tire rubber has
recently become a world-known environmental problem. Existing
studies showed that concrete performances can be signicantly
improved by including recycled rubber crumbs obtained from
waste tires into the basic concrete composition (HernndezOlivares and Barluenga, 2004; Lau and Anson, 2006; HernndezOlivares et al., 2002; Son et al., 2011; Khaloo et al., 2008)
Hernndez-Olivares et al. (2002) showed that a small volumetric
fraction of crushed tire rubber crumbs are of great contribution to
the dynamic behaviour of concrete under low-frequency dynamic
actions. Mustafa Maher Al-Tayeb et al. (2013) received the similar
conclusion that the use of hybrid rubberized concrete beam improves exural impact performance of the beam during dynamic
loading compared to static loading. Moreover, the addition of
rubber improved the toughness and deformation ability of the
normal concrete. Son et al. (2011) found that the rubber crumbs
may greatly improve the deformation capacity of the concrete
although the compressive strength of concrete may be slightly
reduced. Khaloo et al. (2008) indicated that the brittleness of
concrete can be signicantly decreased with increasing rubber
content, with the crack width and crack propagation velocity in the
rubberized concrete (i.e. concrete with rubber content) being
obviously lower than those of plain concrete. Li et al. (2009) also
obtained the similar conclusions in their experimental study on
high strength concrete lled by recycled rubber. Furthermore, it has
been found that rubber crumbs can effectively reduce the risk of
explosive spalling and strength loss rate of concrete after exposure
to elevated temperatures (Hernndez-Olivares and Barluenga,
2004). This is because rubber crumbs, if burnt after exposure to
evaluated temperatures, can release space for the escaping of water

vapour in concrete and thus protect the concrete body from

explosive spalling (Li et al., 2011). Apparently, the inclusion of
rubber in concrete composition not only reduces the risk of
explosive spalling and strength loss rate for concrete subjected to
elevated temperatures, but also has a signicant environment
advantage as mentioned above.
Recently, it has been found that rubber content had no adverse
impact on the bridging and tying effects of steel bres on surrounding concrete and the positive synergy between steel bres
and rubber particles has the advantage of enhancing the resistance
to shrinkage cracking (Turatsinze et al., 2006) and improving the
fracture behaviours even subjected to elevated temperature (Guo
et al., 2014).
Against the above background, rubberized steel bre reinforced
recycled aggregate concrete (RSRAC) was proposed by the authors
(China invention patent No.: ZL. 201010019345.3). This new type of
material has been coined based on the following considerations: 1)
the steel bre is used to improve the performances of concrete both
before exposure (e.g. toughness, ductility, cracking) and after
exposure (explosive spalling) to evaluated temperatures, 2) the
inclusion of rubber particles is mainly for the consideration of
environmental protection and reducing the risk of spalling after
exposure to high temperatures, and 3) the benecial interaction
exists between steel bre and rubber as mentioned above. The
enhanced ductility and resistance to crack of RSRAC make it suitable in structures subjected to dynamic load, such as the pavement
of road and bridge, while its improved resistance to explosive
spalling makes it useful in re-resistant structures. Several series of
tests have been conducted in the authors research group to
investigate the different behaviours of the proposed RSRAC. This
paper presents the study on the effects of crumb rubber content on
the compressive behaviours (residual strength, Youngs modulus,
stressestrain relationship and energy dissipation ability) of RSRAC
subjected to elevated temperatures. From test results presented in
this paper, a preliminary understanding of the compressive failure
mechanism of RSRAC after exposure to elevated temperatures can
be achieved. This study thus provides a basis for the further
research on RSRAC and its potential applications.
2. Experimental details
A total of 6 groups of specimens, each consisting of 12 standard
cylinders with dimensions of 150 mm  300 mm (diameter and
height), were designed and prepared in this research. In the
following context, basic properties of the constituent materials
used, their mix proportioning, specimen preparation procedures
and loading scheme will be explained.
2.1. Materials
The cementitious material used in this study was ordinary
Portland cement with a strength of 42.5 MPa according to Chinese
standard GB175-2007. Fine aggregates were naturally sourced
medium-coarse rive sand with a specic gravity of 2.69, a neness
modulus of 2.52 and water absorption rate of 0.8%. Natural coarse
aggregates were obtained from limestone and had a maximum
particle diameter of 12.5 mm. Recycled concrete coarse aggregates
used in the present study (with aggregate size ranging from 4.75 to
12.5 mm) were made from crushed waste concrete. The water absorption rates of the natural coarse aggregate and the recycled
coarse aggregate are 0.76% and 3.82% respectively, and the specic
gravity of them is separately 2.65 and 2.43. Crumb rubber used in
this study was obtained from waste tires through the process of
crushing, cleaning and screening; the rubber has an average particle diameter corresponding to 14e20 sieve size (i.e. 0.85e

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

1.40 mm according to ASTM-E11-09e1 (ASTM, 2009)), a specic

gravity of 1.05, and a melting temperature of 170
C. The steel bres
used were shear-wave type steel bres with a length of 32 mm, an
aspect ratio of 45 and a tensile strength of 600 MPa. This type of
steel bres, which were made from ordinary steel, with a melting
temperature of 1538
C and a density of 7.82 g/cm3, are loose in
form at delivery as shown in Fig. 1. In addition, a commercially
available naphthalene-based super-plasticizer with a solid content
of 30% and a water-reducing rate of 20% was used as admixture to
achieve the required workability of the concrete mixes. The amount
of plasticizer was determined as 1.0% by weight of cement based on
slump tests according to BS 1881: Part 102 (BS, 1983). Appearances
of recycled concrete aggregates, crumb rubber and steel bres are
shown in Fig. 1.
2.2. Mix proportioning
In this study, a total of 6 concrete mixes, each with a different
mix proportion, were designed and prepared to study the effect of
crumb rubber content on the axial compressive behaviour of RSRAC
mixes subjected to elevated temperatures (25
C, 200
C, 400
C
and 600
C). The coarse aggregates of the rst mix were the natural
aggregates; while in the remaining 5 mixes, recycled concrete aggregates were used to fully replace the natural coarse aggregates by
volume, which is referred to as recycled concrete with or without
rubber crumb in the following context. In the ve recycled concrete
mixes, the crumb rubber content was followed by 0%, 4%, 8%, 12%
and 16% (by volume) of sands. The 6 concrete mixes used the same
water-to-cement ratio of 0.35 and contained 1.0% steel bres by the
concrete volume as mentioned previously. Furthermore, additional
3.82% water (by the weight of RCA) was added to the 5 rubberized
concrete mixes to cater for the higher water absorption of RCA.
Details of the mix proportions are summarized in Table 1.
2.3. Specimen preparation
The concrete mixes mentioned above were prepared in a concrete mixer. For each of the concrete mixes, 12 standard cylinders of
150 mm in diameter and 300 mm in height were cast using plastic
molds. Concrete cylinders of the same mix were mixed and casted
in the same batch to ensure the uniformity. The procedure of preparing the concrete mixture is as follows, with a reference to ASTM
C 192 (ASTM, 2006). Coarse aggregates and steel bres were rst
added to the mixer followed by approximately one third of water
required, then the mixer was started and the mixing continued for
1.5 min until sands, crumb rubber and cement were added to the
rotating mixer gradually, after which the mixing continued for
another 1.5 min. The rest water mixed with super-plasticizers was
added to the mixer, mixing continued for 2 min. Fresh mixes were
measured for workability by concrete slump test according to ASTM
C 143. After being casted, concrete specimens were covered with
plastic membrane sheets and kept in the laboratory at the room
temperature for 24 h. Then the specimens were removed from the
molds and cured in still water at 23
C for 28 days, and then
conditioned in an environmental chamber at a temperature of 25
C
and a relative humidity of 75% for another 60 days before being
heated to the prescribed temperatures.
2.4. Test method
Among 12 cylindrical specimens in each mix, three were tested
immediately after the conditioning without being heated (at the
room temperature of 25
C), the remaining 9 specimens were
divided into 3 groups and subjected to 3 temperature exposure
conditions (200
C, 400
C and 600
C) in an electrical furnace. In

Fig. 1. Three materials used in preparing the concrete mixes.

195

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Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

compression strength tests. Meanwhile, visual inspection and mass

loss tests of each concrete mix after exposure to elevated temperature were also carried out for the compression strength tests.

Table 1
Mix proportions.
Mix

NC-R0
RC-R0
RC-R4
RC-R8
RC-R12
RC-R16

Mix proportions (unit weight: kg/m3)

W/C

OPC

NCA

RCA

AW

SF

WRA

0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.35

170
170
170
170
170
170

485
485
485
485
485
485

645
645
625
605
585
565

1052
e
e
e
e
e

e
954
954
954
954
954

e
37
37
37
37
37

78
78
78
78
78
78

e
e
7.9
15.7
23.6
31.5

4.85
4.85
4.85
4.85
4.85
4.85

Note: NC natural concrete, RC recycled concrete, R0, R4, R8, R12 and R16 for
volume substitution ratio of rubber is 0%, 4%, 8%, 12% and16%, W/C water/cement
ratio (mass), W water, OPC ordinary Portland cement, S sand, NCA natural
coarse aggregate, RCA recycled concrete aggregate, AW additional water,
SF steel bre, R crumb rubber, WRA naphthalene-based high-range waterreducing admixture.

the furnace, the specimens were heated at a constant rate of 8
C/

min, from the room temperature to the prescribed temperatures.
The theoretical heating procedure described by the temperaturee
time curves shown in Fig. 2 were used in heating the test specimens
in the present study (Peng et al., 2006). The target temperature was
maintained for 2 h before electric heating was turned off and then
the specimens were naturally cooled down to the room temperature (see Fig. 2). During the heating period, water vapour was
allowed to escape freely.
Compression strength tests were carried out on the cylindrical
specimens with reference to ASTM C 39 (ASTM, 2003) using a
MATEST compression machine with a 4000 kN capacity. An axial
load was applied at a constant displacement rate of 0.18 mm/min.
The axial shortening of the cylinders under compression was
measured using 2 linear variable displacement transducers (LVDTs)
set between two height levels with a vertical distance of 120 mm at
two opposite locations in the mid-height region of the cylinder, as
shown in Fig. 3(a). The hoop strains of the concrete cylinders were
measured using strain gauges. For each concrete cylinder, 2 strain
gauges with a gauge length of 80 mm were bonded at two opposite
points on the mid-height of the cylinder, as shown in Fig. 3(b).
Before testing, the upper and lower surfaces of each cylinder
specimen were levelled with gypsum with a compressive strength
of 800 MPa, so as to eliminate the eccentricity of loading.

3.1. Visual inspection of concrete specimens

3.1.1. Colour and appearance changes
An apparent change in the colour of the cylinder specimens can
be identied by visual inspections after exposure to elevated
temperatures. At room temperature, the concrete was light grey,
which was turned to dark red at 200
C, yellowish gray at 400
C
and gray white at 600
C. The colour change of the specimens is
associated with the chemical and physical changes experienced by
the concrete materials after exposure to high temperatures (Li et al.,
2011).
3.1.2. Crack and spalling behaviour
For concrete specimens without rubber content (NC-R0 and RCR0), an increasing number of micro-cracks were observed on the
surfaces of the specimens with the increasing of target temperature, regardless whether the recycled concrete aggregates were
used or not. Existing research already showed that for normal
concrete (without rubber) subjected to elevated temperatures,
stresses within the concrete materials (cement paste) caused by the
water vaporation, thermal expansion, drying shrinkage and interaction of them account for the cracking of concrete (Son et al.,
2011).

3. Results and discussions

The effects of elevated temperature and crumb rubber content
on the compressive properties, including residual strength, Youngs
modulus (stiffness), stressestrain curves and energy absorption
capacity (ductility) were measured and analysed during the

Fig. 2. Temperatureetime curves in heating the test specimens.

Fig. 3. Test setup and location of LVDTs and hoop strain gauges in a specimen.

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

197

For crumb rubber reinforced concrete specimens (RC-R4, RC-R8,

RC-R12 and RC-R16), the situations were different: at the target
temperature of 400
C, only several micro-cracks were detected on
the surfaces of concrete cylinders with crumb rubber volume of 4%
and 8% (RC-R4 and RC-R8), and nearly no cracks appeared on the
surfaces of specimens with larger crumb rubber volume (RC-R12
and RC-R16); at the target temperature of 600
C, micro-cracks
appeared on the surfaces of all the specimens but the number of
micro-cracks decreased with the increasing volume of crumb
rubber. Obviously, crumb rubber helps to alleviate the initiation
and development of cracks in concrete under the elevated temperatures. It is mainly due to the fact that rubber is melted under
the temperature of around 170
C, providing space for the evaporated water in concrete to escape from the concrete, thus signicantly reducing the pore pressure caused by the water vapour, one
of the main reasons leading to the cracking of concrete under
higher temperature (Netinger et al., 2011).
In addition, there was no evidence of explosive spalling for all
the concrete specimens during the process of heating even though
explosive spalling under high temperature has been widely
observed in concrete especially for high strength concrete (Peng
et al., 2006; Li et al., 2011). The absence of spalling in present
study might be a result of steel bres which increases the concrete
resistance to the concrete spalling under elevated temperatures
(Lau and Anson, 2006). The rate of heating may also affect the
occurrence of the concrete structures spalling, but the assessment
of this dependence for the concrete samples that have composition
like the mixtures used in the present study, when subjected to
elevated temperatures, needs further research.
3.2. Weight loss
The weight loss ratios of different concrete mixes after exposure
to elevated temperatures are shown in Fig. 4. It should be noted that
the test result corresponding to each point in Fig. 4 was obtained
from the average of the test results of three cylinders in a group.
The same way was used in obtaining the test results in the
following context if not otherwise stated.
It is obvious from Fig. 4(a) that for all the concrete mixes, weight
loss increases with the increase of target temperature. Fig. 4(a) also
shows that the higher the target temperatures, the lower the
gradient of the concrete weight loss. In particular, the average
weight loss ratios are 6.5%, 8.6% and 9.9% at the temperatures of
200
C, 400
C and 600
C, respectively. Thus it can be said that
most of the weight lost occurs during the temperature range of 25e
200
C. This is mainly because evaporation of water, one of the main
causes leading to the weight loss of concrete specimens during the
heating process, occurs between 25 and 200
C. It should be noted
that concrete includes capillary water, physically absorbed water
(Gel water) and chemically bound water in calcium silicate hydrate
(CeSeH) and calcium hydroxide (Ca (OH)2) (Savva et al., 2005),
among which capillary water and physically absorbed water take
up a large proportion of cement paste weight and can be driven out
of concrete by evaporation when the ambient temperature is 200
C
or above (Zhang, 2011). On the other hand, chemically bound water
is the part of cement hydrate compounds and often called nonevaporable water for it can not be released from cement paste
until the chemical decomposition of the CeSeH occurs at a higher
temperature. It should be noted that the weight loss ratio of RC-R0
mix is considerably larger than that of NC-R0 mix; this is partially
due to the fact that concrete with RCA contains more water than the
normal concrete (Table 1) due to higher water absorption.
Furthermore, crumb rubber melts at the temperature of around
170
C, which contributes to the weight lost of the concrete with
rubber. The weight lost above 200
C is mainly due to the

Fig. 4. Concrete samples weight loss percentages vs. treatment temperature and their
content of the rubber.

decomposition of CeSeH at about 400
C and Ca (OH)2 at about

600
C (Savva et al., 2005; Janotka and Nrnbergerov, 2005).
Fig. 4(b) shows effect of rubber content on weight lost under
different elevated temperatures. From the gure it can be seen that
rubber content has less effect on the weight loss under higher
temperatures, especially for the temperature above 200
C. A
possible explanation is that at higher temperatures, the contribution of the melting of rubber to the total weight loss is signicantly
less than the contribution of water evaporation and decomposition
of concrete materials.
3.3. Failure modes
The failure modes of different concrete mixes after the
compression tests were shown in Fig. 5. It should be noted that each

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Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

Fig. 5. Failure modes of concrete mixes exposed to elevated temperatures.

of the pictures shown in Fig. 5 was obtained randomly from one of

the three cylinders in a batch after the compression test. Fig. 5(a)
clearly shows that a major macro crack crossed the height of concrete cylinders without any crumb rubber, while on the surfaces of
the specimens with crumb rubber, only multiple thinner cracks
were observed. Such a phenomenon is attributed to the low
Youngs modulus of crumb rubber which not only enhances the
capacity of deformation before cracking but also prevents further
propagation and coalescence of micro-cracks by decreasing the
stress concentration like a damper (Turatsinze et al., 2006). In
general, it can be concluded that the concrete containing crumb
rubber have signicantly higher ductility than the concrete without
rubber at room temperature (Khaloo et al., 2008; Turatsinze and

Garros, 2008). The failure modes of the specimens after exposure

to the elevated temperatures were apart shown in Fig. 5(b)e(d). It
can be seen that except for specimen RC-R16, the increase of rubber
content generally decreases the width of the critical crack and leads
to a more distributed crack pattern. This is mainly because the
evaporation of moisture/water in concrete after exposure to high
temperatures can cause a severe damage to the bond between
cement paste and aggregates due to the so-called vapour pressure
mechanism (Peng et al., 2006), as a result, micro-cracks initiate
along the cement pasteeaggregate interfaces which may further
coalesce into macro cracks during the compression test; nevertheless, for the rubberized concrete, rubber is melted and innerconnected pores are formed at the temperature of 170
C or

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

199

above, providing space for the vapour to escape, consequently, the

damage from inner vapour pressure can be signicantly decreased.
As a result, the damage to the concrete structure prior to the
compression test should be very small, so the micro-cracks in
rubberized concrete might be caused mainly by the compression
testing. It is noted that wide/deep macro cracks also appear in
specimen RC-R16 especially after exposure to higher temperature
(600
C). This is probably because in this specimen, the damage
effects of the large space/void left by the melted rubber on the
cylinder structure have become more pronounced than its benecial effect of reducing water vapour pressure, as a result, the
specimen becomes more susceptible to cracking under compression. Spalling phenomena were not observed in any of the specimens during the heating process probably due to the benecial
effect of steel bre as mentioned previously.
3.4. Stressestrain cures
Fig. 6 shows the complete stressestrain curves of the unheated
specimens and the specimens after exposure to elevated temperatures, which were obtained from the compression tests on cylinders. It should be noted that both axial strains and hoop strains
were measured during the tests; the hoop strain was measured
with strain gauges with a gauge length of 80 mm and the axial
strain of concrete in compression was obtained from the midheight region of the cylinders using LVDTs as mentioned above.
The strain values obtained via the LVDTs are generally smaller than
those obtained from the full height shortening of the cylinders
because of the end effects (Poon et al., 2004a,b).
It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the addition of crumb rubber
resulted in a signicant change in the shape of the stressestrain
curves. For both the unheated and the heated specimens, the peak
stresses (i.e. compressive strengths) and the initial slop of the
stressestrain the curves (i.e. initial stiffness) were generally
decreased with the increase of the exposure temperatures. They
also decreased with the increase of rubber content except after
exposure to the temperature of 600
C. Furthermore, more attened descending paths appeared in the stressestrain curves for
concrete mixes with larger rubber content. The rubber content
appears to have a very slight effect on the magnitude of strain at
peak stress, but the latter is apparently increased with the increase
of exposure temperature (see Table 3). The main reason is that, for
the concrete with RCA, the degradation of the stiffness (Youngs
moduli) is much quicker than that of compressive strength (peak
stress) with the increase of exposure temperature, as will be further
discussed next.
3.5. Compressive strength
The residual compressive strengths of each concrete mix,
including both unheated specimens and specimens after exposure
to elevated temperatures, were shown in Table 2. The effects of
temperature on compressive strength of concretes without or with
crumb rubber are shown in Fig. 7. It should be noted that Fig. 7(a)
and (b) shows the results of strength values and relative
strengths with reference to the compressive strengths of the corresponding unheated concrete mixes. It can be seen from Table 2
and Fig. 7 that, for the unheated concrete specimens (25
C), a
full replacement of NCA by RCA only results in a decrease of 9.04%
in the compressive strength, while increasing the rubber content
from 4% to 16% by volume of sand leads to the decrease of
compressive strength from 4.57% to 30.21% (with respect to the
compressive strength of RC-R0), with the largest strength loss
occurring between the rubber content of 4% and 8%. A further increase of rubber content beyond 8% leads to a very slight decrease

Fig. 6. Stresseaxial strain curves of mix exposed to elevated temperatures.

of the compressive strength for both the unheated and heated

specimens (Table 2). An average of 84.30% of the compressive
strength of the unheated concrete was retained after exposure to
200
C, which was further reduced to 49.66% and 24.77% after

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Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

Table 2
The results of compressive strength and Youngs modulus of concretes.
Mix

NC-R0
RC-R0
RC-R4
RC-R8
RC-R12
RC-R16

Volume of crumb
rubber

Slump constant
(mm)

0%
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%

132
125
125
122
123
122

Compressive strength (MPa)

Youngs modulus (GPa)

25
C

200
C

400
C

600
C

25
C

200
C

400
C

600
C

56.52
51.41
49.06
39.41
37.61
35.88

45.66
43.55
40.44
34.54
32.15
31.18

24.71
28.64
26.21
19.70
17.61
17.17

16.28
10.98
12.79
10.21
8.30
8.28

34.91
26.58
25.20
21.25
20.88
19.15

18.38
13.82
13.66
12.82
11.60
11.21

6.19
5.42
4.51
3.98
3.60
3.32

1.35
1.03
1.29
1.11
0.93
0.91

exposure to 400
C and 600
C respectively. A comparison of the

curves in Fig. 7(a) or (b) shows that the inclusion of rubber
generally reduces the rate of concrete strength loss and the trend is
more obvious for the elevated temperatures between 400 and
600
C. This is mainly because the rubber, after melted at 170
C,
leaves space for water vapour to escape and helps to release the
pore pressure and thus reduces its damage on the concrete structure (Li et al., 2011). As a result, after exposure to the temperature of
600
C, the rubberized concrete retained a residual strength similar

to (e.g. RC-R8) or even higher (e.g. RC-R4) than that of the concrete
without rubber (RC- R0) (Table 2). It should be noted that the increase of rubber content from 4% to 8% or above just results in a
slight decrease in the rate of concrete strength loss after exposure
to elevated temperature, but leads to a signicant concrete strength
reduction for the unheated specimens as mentioned above,
implying that to achieve a balanced compressive strength for both
unheated specimens and heated specimens, an appropriate amount
of rubber content should be included. It should also be noted that
the concrete mixes suffered the highest loss in compressive
strength in the temperature range of 200e400
C. This might be
attributed to that calcium silicate hydrate (CeSeH), the main
source of concrete strength, usually decomposes at about 400
C
(Janotka and Nrnbergerov, 2005). NC-R0 mix suffered a quicker
loss in compressive strength after exposure to elevated temperatures, especially in the temperature range of 200e400
C. This can
be attributed to the relatively dense microstructures of concrete
with natural concrete aggregate, which results in a quicker accumulation of high internal pressure during heating, as compared
with concrete mixes with RCA (with and without crumb rubber)
(Behnood and Ziari, 2008).
The strength degradation mechanism of the rubberized concrete after exposure to elevated temperatures and how the inclusion of crumb rubber alleviates the strength degradation should be
further studied by examining the microstructure of concrete in the
future, as in Li et al. (2011).

3.6. Youngs modulus (stiffness)

Fig. 7. Effect of temperature on compressive strength.

Table 2 lists the Youngs moduli of the concrete mixes after

exposure to different temperatures (including 25
C), while Figs. 8
and 9 separately show the effects of temperature and rubber content on the Youngs modulus. It should be noted that each of the
Youngs moduli shown in Table 2 and in Figs. 8 and 9 was taken as
the secant modulus of the corresponding stressestrain curve at one
third of the peak stress following the method of Poon et al.
(2004a,b). In Figs. 8(b) and 9(b), the moduli were given as the
relative values with reference to the Youngs moduli of the corresponding unheated concrete mix and RC-R0 mix respectively. The
results presented in Fig. 8 and Table 2 show that the degradation of
Youngs moduli is much quicker than that of compressive strength.
Only 55.55% of the Youngs moduli of the unheated concretes
(25
C) were retained, on average, after exposure to 200
C, which
was further decreased to 18.22% and 4.55% after exposure to 400
C
and 600
C respectively. The quick degradation of concrete Youngs
moduli implies that elevated temperature has a signicant damage
on the stiffness of the concrete cylinder. This trend appears to be
independent of the rubber content of the concrete mixes. This can
be explained as follows. On the one hand, the void left by the
melted rubber or the low stiffness of rubber (before melting) may
cause additional damage to the concrete cylinders (Effect I) in
addition to the degradation of stiffness caused by the elevated
temperatures; one the other hand, the void left by the melted

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

201

documented the compressive toughness of rubberized concrete

after exposure to elevated temperatures. To ll the gap in the
existing studies, in this study, the energy absorption capacity
(compressive toughness) of RSRAC mixes were measured and
analysed in terms of the so-called specic toughness (Poon et al.,
2004a,b), dened as the ratio of the area under the stressestrain
curve (i.e. toughness) of each concrete mix to its corresponding
compressive strength. Effects of exposure temperature and rubber
content on the specic toughness are apart shown in Fig. 10(a) and
(b), with the values of the specic toughness being listed in Table 3.
It should be noted that each value of the specic toughness listed in
Table 3 is the average value of three specimens in a group as
explained previously. It is well-recognised that the total area under
the stressestrain curve should be calculated to evaluate the
toughness; nevertheless, in the present study, the stressestrain
curves were recorded up to a strain value of around 1.0% and 1.5%
for unheated specimens and heated specimens respectively
because the stressestrain curves beyond the above values became
unstable and were not collected due to the limitation of the test setup. As a result, the toughness was evaluated based on a stress criterion as follows: the energy absorbed was calculated at the point

Fig. 8. Effect of temperatures on Youngs modulus.

rubber after exposure to elevated temperature can effectively

release the water vapour, help to reduce the damage/cracks existing
in concrete cylinder before compression test and thus prevent the
loss of the stiffness (Effect II). When Effect I is dominant, the stiffness of concrete decreases with the increases of rubber content,
which is the situation for unheated concrete (25
C) and the concretes after exposure to the temperatures of 200
C and 400
C
(Fig. 9). It should be noted that after exposure to 600
C, the elastic
modulus of concrete is rstly increased and then decreased with
the increase of rubber content, implying that under a specic
exposure temperature (e.g. 600
C) (Fig. 9), the above two effects
(Effect I and Effect II) of rubber may interact with each other and
the weight of their inuences on the stiffness depends on the
rubber content.
3.7. Energy absorption capacity (toughness)
While many existing studies have been carried out on the
compressive behaviours of concrete both unheated (Najim and Hall,
2012; Gneyisi et al., 2004) and after exposure high temperatures
(Peng et al., 2006; Behnood and Ziari, 2008), few studies have

Fig. 9. Effect of crumb rubber content on Youngs modulus.

202

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

Concrete mixes after exposure to temperatures of 200
C and

400
C retained, on average, 1.49 and 2.12 times of their specic
toughness separately, when compared with the specic toughness
of the unheated ones. It can be seen that increasing temperature
(400
C) results in an apparent reduction of concrete strength, but
greatly improved its energy absorption capacity (see Fig. 10(a) and
Table 3). It can be seen from Table 3 and Fig. 10(b) that a full
replacement of NCA by RCA leads to a signicant decline in the
specic toughness especially for the concrete subjected to a higher
temperature, showing that mixes with RCA are more brittle. It is
also noted that while the rubber content is increased from 4% to
16%, the specic toughness is rst increased and then decreased
with the increase of rubber content, with RC-R12 at 25
C and
200
C and RC-R8 at 400
C having the highest specic toughness,
indicating that an appropriate amount of rubber content increases
the energy absorption capacity of the concrete but too much rubber
content may has a negative effect on the energy absorption capacity
of the concrete. As a result, it can be concluded that to effectively
improve the energy absorption capacity of concrete mixes (both
unheated and heated specimens), an appropriate amount of rubber
should be used.
From the results of the compressive strength and energy absorption properties discussed above, it can be concluded that, if
concrete strength is a major concern (e.g. in building structures),
the optimal rubber content should be less than 4% (4%), which
induces a very limited strength decrease (Fig. 7 and Table 2) but a
signicant energy absorption capacity enhancement (Fig. 10 and
Table 3), in addition to other advantages obtained by using rubber
(e.g. enhanced resistance to explosive spalling, environment protection). However, if the energy absorption capacity of concrete is of
interest (e.g. in road pavement), the advisable rubber content
should be 8e12%, which leads to an apparent increase in the energy
absorption capacity despite some strength decrease after exposure
to the elevated temperatures explored in this study.

4. Conclusions
Fig. 10. Specic toughness of mix unheated and exposed to elevated temperatures.

where a stress reduction of 20% from the peak stress is achieved (i.e.
at 0.80fc0 of the descending branch). Obviously, the closer to using
100% reduction rate, the better; nevertheless, the above reduction
rate was chosen to be applicable for most of the specimens
compared, as shown in Fig. 6. For the group of the specimens
exposed to 600
C, the descending branch of the stressestrain
curves terminated before they decrease to 0.8fc0 , which is a damage
critical point of concrete structure, due to the larger deformation of
specimens subjected to a high temperature and the limited data
acquisition capacity of the test machine. As a result, the group of the
specimens after exposure to 600
C were not included in the
toughness evaluation.

In this paper, the effects of elevated temperatures on the

compressive properties of RSRAC concrete mixes, a new material
rstly proposed by the authors, have been explored in detail based
on the results of axial compression tests on standard cylinders with
reference to ASTM standards. The following conclusions can be
drawn from the test results, analyses and discussions presented in
this paper:
 Elevated temperature has a signicant effect on the compressive
behaviour of RSRAC: after exposure to 200
C, the concrete
mixes retained 84.30% of their compressive strengths, on
average, which was further reduced to 49.66% and 24.77% after
exposure to 400
C and 600
C separately. While the loss of the
stiffness of concrete mixes was much quicker than the loss of
compressive strength after exposure to the elevated

Table 3
Effects of temperatures on deformability and ductility of concrete mixes subjected to elevated temperatures.
Mix

NC-R0
RC-R0
RC-R4
RC-R8
RC-R12
RC-R16

Volume of crumb
rubber

0%
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%

Strain at peak stress (%)

Area under stressestrain curve

(MPa * 102)

Specic toughness (%)

25
C

200
C

400
C

600
C

25
C

200
C

400
C

25
C

200
C

400
C

0.30
0.34
0.33
0.28
0.27
0.25

0.39
0.45
0.43
0.36
0.44
0.38

1.01
0.78
0.97
1.02
0.89
0.70

1.65
1.77
1.74
1.56
1.32
1.21

23.98
21.32
18.77
17.02
21.55
12.42

27.10
23.20
24.96
23.13
24.49
17.98

22.66
19.18
19.43
22.21
19.61
15.68

0.42
0.41
0.40
0.43
0.57
0.35

0.59
0.53
0.62
0.67
0.76
0.58

0.79
0.67
0.74
1.13
1.11
0.91

Y.-c. Guo / Journal of Cleaner Production 72 (2014) 193e203

temperatures, and the loss of specic toughness was apparently

slower than the loss of compressive strength. The strains at the
peak stresses of the concretes after exposure to 200
C, 400
C
and 600
C were, respectively, on average, about 1.4, 3.1 and 5.3
times that of the unheated concretes, mainly resulting from the
severe degradation of the stiffness.
NC-R0 mix suffered a quicker loss in compressive strength after
exposure to elevated temperatures, especially after exposure to
the temperature of 400
C, probably for their relatively dense
microstructures.
For the unheated concrete mixes, a full replacement of NA by
RCA only resulted in a decrease of 9.04% in the compressive
strength; when the rubber content was increased from 4% to
16%, the strength reduction was increased from 4.57% to 30.21%
and the decrease of stiffness from 5.19% to 27.95%, both with
reference to RC-R0 mix, while specic toughness was rstly
increased and then decreased.
A certain amount of crumb rubber is effective in reducing the
degradation rate of compressive strength after exposure to
elevated temperatures, but too much rubber results in a slight
decrease in the rate of concrete strength loss and a signicant
concrete strength loss for the unheated specimens. After exposure to the same elevated temperature, the specic toughness of
concrete mixes was rst increase and then decreased with the
increase of rubber content, with RC-R12 at 25
C and 200
C and
RC-R8 at 400
C having the highest specic toughness values
compared with the other mixes. Hence, to improve the energy
absorption properties of concrete after exposure to high temperature, an optimal amount of rubber content should be
included.
Base on the limited test result presented in this study, if strength
is a major concern, the optimal rubber content should be less
than 4% (4%), which leads to very slight strength decrease but
brings other advantages, e.g. enhanced toughness, enhanced
resistance to explosive spalling and environmental protection; if
energy absorption capacity is of interest, the advisable rubber
content should be 8e12%, which contributes to an apparent
increase in the energy absorption capacity despite some
strength decrease of concrete after exposure to the elevated
temperatures explored in this study.
Effects of elevated temperatures on the damage mechanism of
the RSRAC mixes and how the inclusion of the crumb rubber
contributes to alleviate the damage should be further studied by
examining the change in the microstructures of concrete in the
future. Effects of steel bre on the compressive behaviours of
RSRAC also need further study, which is the aim of an ongoing
project of the authors research group.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation (Project Nos.
51278132, 11372076), and Science and Technology Planning Project
of Guangdong Province (2011B010400024), Technology Planning
Project of Huangpu District (201356) and Foundation of Guangdong
Provincial Department of Transport (Project Nos. 2013-02-017,
2013-04-006).
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