Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Effect of incorporation of high volume of recycled concrete aggregates

and fly ash on the strength and global warming potential of concrete

D. Silvestre, Jorge de Brito*, Hawreen Ahmed
Rawaz Kurad, Jose
CERIS-ICIST, DECivil, Instituto Superior T

ecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study presents the effects of using supplementary cementing materials and recycled concrete ag-
Received 4 May 2017 gregates (RCA) in concrete, with emphasis on the ability of using high volumes of fly ash (FA) and RCA to
Received in revised form reduce the environmental impacts of the concrete's production process without jeopardizing most of its
24 July 2017
long-term durability characteristics. Three mix families (0% fine RCA, 50% fine RCA and 100% fine RCA)
Accepted 29 July 2017
were produced and, for each of these three families, two incorporation levels (0% and 100%) of coarse
Available online 2 August 2017
RCA were used with 0%, 30% and 60% of FA without SP. In addition, in order to see the effect of w/b ratio
and admixture, more than half of the mentioned concrete mixes were repeated using superplasticizer
Keywords:
Recycled concrete aggregates
(SP). In order to optimize the concrete mixes, the hardened properties, namely compressive strength, and
Fly ash environmental impacts of production, namely global warming potential (GWP), were obtained for each
Concrete concrete mix. The results of this investigation show that using FA in RCA concrete is advisable from the
Mechanical strength strength and environmental impact points of view. The optimum mixes in terms of strength and envi-
Global warming potential ronmental impacts are the ones made with incorporation of both RCA and FA rather than individual
Sustainability incorporation. It was also found that the strength to GWP ratio of concrete mixes depends on the FA-RCA
incorporation ratio rather than the content of the individual materials.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The world construction sector required about 26 billion tonnes
of aggregates in 2010 (Dhir and Paine, 2010). Further demand for
aggregates can be seen in recent years, i.e. Freedonia group
(Freedonia, 2016) estimated 40.2 billion tonnes world construction
aggregates industry in 2014. The same source projected that the
demand for construction aggregates will rise 5.2% annually to 51.79
billion metric tonnes in 2019 in worldwide. To improve sustain-
ability issues, part of this demand could be satisfied by the use of
recycled concrete aggregates (RCA), namely from construction and
demolition waste (CDW). However, current estimations of the use
of RCA represent only 3% of the overall aggregates consumption
(Dhir et al., 2011).
Acronyms list: CDW, construction and demolition waste; EI, environmental
impacts; FA, fly ash; GWP, global warming potential; ITZ, interfacial transition zone;
LCA, Life cycle assessment; NA, natural aggregate; OPC, Ordinary Portland cement;
RCA, recycled concrete aggregates; SCM, supplementary cementing materials; SP,
superplasticizer; w/b, water to binder (ratio); w/c, water to cement (ratio).
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rawaz.saleem@gmail.com (R. Kurad), jose.silvestre@ist.utl.pt
(J.D. Silvestre), jb@civil.ist.utl.pt (J. de Brito), hawreen.a@gmail.com (H. Ahmed).
The total world production of cement was around 4.045 billion
tonnes in 2014 (USGS, 2015), with an increase to 4.4 billion tonnes
in 2015 (Duve, 2015). With the global demand for cement growing
on average 5% per year, it is expected that the cement production
will be 5.20 billion tonnes and 6 billion tonnes in the years 2020
and 2025, respectively (Duve, 2015). Ordinary Portland cement
(OPC) “CEM I” is one of the most common types worldwide and is a
major contributor to the high environmental impacts (EI) of con-
crete production (Marinkovi
c et al., 2008).
Globally, the majority of coal (86%) is used in thermal power
generation plants, largely by pulverized coal combustion (IEA,
2011). Worldwide production of coal was 3656 Mt in 2016 (BP,
2017). Asia pacific (namely China) is the largest coal producing re-
gion, followed distantly by North America, Europe and Eurasia, Af-
rica, south and central America, and Middle East. The majority of the
coal is consumed in the country of origin, with about 16% of hard
coal production traded on the international coal market (Heidrich
et al., 2013) to those countries that do not produce coal but
consume it for power generation e.g. Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland,
etc. (Fig. 1). In terms of total air emissions, CO2 represents the
greatest quantity (98e99%) of the thermal generation process. Its
majority (96%) is released from the combusted coal of power plants

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.236
0959-6526/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
486 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
Fig. 1. Global coal production and consumption at the end of 2016 (BP, 2017).
and the rest is released from coal mining, transportation and con-
struction processes (Spath et al., 1999).
In the past ten years, the volume of CDW has significantly
increased due to the demolition of old concrete structures, building
rehabilitation, re-construction of buildings, etc. Simultaneously,
natural aggregates (NA) reserves decreased because of the con-
struction of new structures (Dhir and Paine, 2010). Besides NA and
RCA, cement production significantly increased (de Brito and Silva,
2016). Also, due to the high demand in energy use worldwide, there
are many waste materials produced by coal electricity power plant,
namely fly ash (FA) that is also considered a toxic material to soil
due to its high leachability (Rodrigues et al., 2017). One alternative
to decrease the carbon emissions related with concrete production
is replacing NA with RCA (Evangelista and de Brito, 2007; Korre and
Durucan, 2009; Braunschweig et al., 2011; de Schepper et al., 2014;
Estanqueiro et al., 2016) and cement with supplementary
cementing materials (SCM), such as FA (a by-product of the coal
combustion process) (O'Brien et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2010).
The compressive strength of concrete is one of the most effec-
tive parameters to determine the load level that can be applied to a
structural member. In addition, it provides a rough idea about most
of the characteristics of concrete. The compressive strength of RCA
concrete mixes may depend on the RCA incorporation level, age of
concrete, incorporated admixtures and additions, water to cement
(w/c) ratio, and quality of the source material, moisture content,
and size of RCA (Silva et al., 2015). Similarly to RCA concrete, the
same factors affect concrete containing FA (Rashad, 2015a).
The EI can be minimized by some non-traditional materials
(Ping and Yidong, 2011), but the technical performance of the
product should not be significantly affected. Generally, the previous
studies show that the incorporation of RCA in concrete mixes is
harmful in terms of strength (Pacheco et al., 2015; Silva et al., 2015;
Martins et al., 2016). However, a study (Evangelista and de Brito,
2007) reported that the strength of concrete with replacement of
up to 30% of NA with RCA is not jeopardized. On the other hand, the
majority of the researches on concrete containing low volume of FA
led to a similar conclusion. However, the incorporation of a high
volume of FA in concrete mixes is harmful in terms of compressive
strength especially at early ages (up to 90 days) and the difference
between strength of FA concrete and conventional concrete de-
creases for later ages (Faleschini et al., 2015; Fanghui et al., 2015;
Güneyisi et al., 2015; Jalal et al., 2015; Yoo et al., 2015; Leung
et al., 2016). Since the chemical composition of FA and RCA are
different from that of the cement and NA, respectively, after 28
days, the rate of the strength development of concrete mixes may
significantly changes (Kurad et al., 2017a).
Based on the results of previous studies (Kou and Poon, 2009b;
Sim and Park, 2011; Limbachiya et al., 2012; Somna et al., 2012; Kim
et al., 2013; Lima et al., 2013; Saravanakumar and Dhinakaran,
2013; Tangchirapat et al., 2013; Gurdi
an et al., 2014), the com-
bined effects of FA and RCA differ from their individual effects and
depend on the incorporation levels of FA and RCA. Generally, in
terms of strength, in order to gain from the combined effects of the
FA and the RCA, the best combination levels of FA and fine and/or
coarse RCA are between 15% and 45% of FA and between 25% and
40% of RCA. This is due to the pozzolanic reaction between FA and
Ca(OH)2 in RCA (Kou and Poon, 2013). These trends encourage re-
searchers to mix both materials to obtain a more environmental-
friendly concrete and with acceptable mechanical performance.
Until now, the properties of concrete mixes have been studied
with incorporation of both fine RCA and FA (Ahmed, 2011; Sim and
Park, 2011; Uygunog lu et al., 2012; Geng and Sun, 2013; Lima et al.,
2013), coarse RCA and FA (Costabile, 2001; Cong, 2006; Arredondo-
Rea et al., 2012; Limbachiya et al., 2012; Somna et al., 2012; Kim
et al., 2013; Kou and Poon, 2013; Gurdia
n et al., 2014; Huda, 2014;
Reddy et al., 2014; Brand et al., 2015; Pepe, 2015; Arora and Singh,
2016; Sadati et al., 2016; Singh and Singh, 2016) and FA and both
fine and coarse RCA (Corinaldesi and Moriconi, 2009; Kou and
Poon, 2009a; Saravanakumar and Dhinakaran, 2013; Tangchirapat
et al., 2013). In addition, a thorough search of the relevant litera-
ture yielded only two studies (Marinkovi
c et al., 2016, 2017) con-
cerning the mechanical properties and EI of concrete that
simultaneously incorporates high volume of FA and RCA. However,
the knowledge concerning the strength properties and EI of this
concrete type is still very scarce.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) was already used in the construction
sector to evaluate the construction materials (Pargana et al., 2014)
and assemblies (Silvestre et al., 2013) EI, along with those of entire
buildings (Asdrubali et al., 2013). The aim of developing a sus-
tainable RCA concrete is to reduce the EI from concrete production,
namely the gaseous emissions from the production of the raw
materials used in the mix. The average carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions when manufacturing one tonne of cement are 0.65e0.92
tonnes (OECD/IEA, 2007). A previous study (Braga et al., 2017) ob-
tained the global warming potential (GWP) for superplasticizer
(SP), and reported that, for each kg of SP, 0.78 kg CO2eq is emitted.
Teixeira et al. (2016) obtained the EI of FA produced from a major
Portuguese coal power plant (located in the centre of the country)
using SimaPro 7.3.3 and an economic allocation procedure. The
results show that the EI of coal FA are lower than those of cement
for the majority of impact categories. Table 1 presents the influence
of the incorporation of FA on the CO2 emissions of concrete, re-
ported by several authors. Based on the results of these studies, it
can be concluded that the average CO2 reduction from the incor-
poration of FA is about 0.7% per each percentage point of FA.
In Europe, CDW corresponds to one third of the waste produced,
but significant differences can be found in the level of recycling
among different countries (Estanqueiro et al., 2016). Aggregates
have low participation in the total CO2 emissions of concrete pro-
duction (about 15%), which mainly result from their extraction or
processing (Flower and Sanjayan, 2007). However, since aggregates
represent about 70% of the total concrete volume, recycled aggre-
gates use can reduce the EI of concrete (Estanqueiro et al., 2016).
Evangelista and de Brito (2008) obtained the EI of NA and fine
RCA concrete at the production and construction stages, use and
end of life, in a cradle-to-grave LCA by using EcoConcrete software.
Since this software is limited in some specific stages, the authors
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502 487

Table 1
Effect of the incorporation of FA on the CO2 emissions of concrete.

References FA incorporation ratio (%) CO2 reduction (%) FA incorporation ratio/CO2 reduction

(Glavind and Munch-Petersen, 2000) 24 18 0.8

70 57 0.8
(Li et al., 2004) 50 54 1.1
(Sear, 2002) 30 17 0.6
(Malin, 1999) 35 28 0.8
(Flower and Sanjayan, 2007) 25 13 0.5
32 15 0.5
(Turk et al., 2015) 33 25 0.8

Average percentage of CO2 reduction 0.7

used an interactive Excel-spreadsheet to obtain reliable results. The maximum size of aggregates (22.4 mm) (Fig. 2).
authors found that the GWP decreased 6.9% and 21%, when 30% and After casting, the hardened concrete was cured and covered to
100% of fine NA, respectively, was replaced with fine RCA. Another prevent water evaporation. After 28 days, the average compressive
study (Estanqueiro et al., 2016) concluded that the use of RA in the strength was found to be 24 MPa. At the same age, the concrete was
production of concrete is more favourable than that of NA only in crushed using a jaw crusher in conjunction with a vertical shaft
terms of land use and respiratory inorganics impact categories, impact crusher. The RCA was sieved and separated according to the
resulting mainly from the exploitation of the quarry, but the EI of sizes listed in EN 933-1 (2012). However, the RCA were used in the
the use of coarse RA can be at least 23% lower than that of natural concrete mixes only after 10 months of the production day. The
ones if all fine RA are also used in concrete production instead of main properties of NA and RCA are presented in Table 2.
being sent to a landfill. OPC type CEM I 42.5 R (BS EN 197-1) (Table 3) and low calcium
Tosi

c et al. (2015) complemented a previous study (Marinkovic' content FA were used. According to (CSA A23.1, 2004; ASTM C618-
et al., 2010) by applying a normative multi-criteria optimization 02, 2005), the FA was classified as type F (Table 4). The brand of the
method (VIKOR method) developed at the Faculty of Civil Engi- SP used was SikaPlast 898. Tap water was used in all the mixes.
neering in the University of Belgrade (Opricovic, 1998) in order to
find out the optimal solution in terms of aggregate type and
2.1.2. Concrete composition
transport scenario in concrete production. The authors showed that
As shown in Table 5, in the two mix families (0% coarse RCA and
the replacement of 50% of coarse NA with coarse RCA is the best
100% coarse RCA), the coarse NA were replaced by coarse RCA at 0%
solution in terms of EI and from an economic point of view. How-
and 100% respectively. For each of these two families, three incor-
ever, The authors also showed that the EI slightly increase as the
poration levels (0%, 30% and 60%) of FA were used with 0%, 50% and
incorporation of RCA grows, despite the RCA having clear advan-
100% of fine RCA.
tages in terms of mineral resources, environmental load, depletion
The target strength of the reference concrete (M1) was designed
and waste production (Tosi
c et al., 2015).
to be class C30/37 MPa (EN, 1992-1-1, 2004). The w/c ratio was
A brief review of the literature shows that, even though the
calibrated in order to maintain the slump approximately constant
demand for natural aggregates and cement is raising in the con-
(8 ± 1 cm) in all mixes. Moreover, the fresh properties of the mixes
struction sector worldwide, the simultaneous incorporation of
were described in detail in study (Kurad et al., 2017b). The NA were
these alternatives to traditional components is insufficiently stud-
replaced with RCA on the basis of absolute volume replacement
ied, in environmental and technical terms, namely studies con-
method. The replacement of FA (30% and 60%) and SP (1%) was
cerning concrete mixes with their simultaneous and high
made by the total binder's mass (350 kg/m3).
incorporation to produce sustainable RCA concrete are missing.
The Faury's method (Faury, 1958) was used to obtain the mix
Therefore, this study presents the effects of using supplementary
design of the concrete mixes. The mentioned method allows pro-
cementing materials and RCA in concrete, with emphasis on the
ducing concrete mixes as compact as possible. In addition, the
ability of using high volumes of fly ash and recycled concrete ag-
functional unit of the all concrete mixes considered of 1 m3 for
gregates to reduce the environmental impacts of the concrete's
structural concrete purposes. The summary of the mixes'
production process without jeopardizing most its long-term
durability characteristics.

2. Material and methods

2.1. Experimental program

2.1.1. Materials
In this study, fine and coarse natural silica river sand and three
crushed limestone gravels of different sizes were used, namely “rice
grain”, fine gravel and coarse gravel. Both fine and coarse RCA were
recycled from the same ready-mixed concrete mixes (Unibeta ~o S.A.
Company, Lisbon), in order to control the exact characteristics of
the materials used and avoid having this parameter as a potential
disturbing factor in the analysis. The main characteristics of source
concrete were provided by the supplier, including; cement content
(350 kg/m3), slump (17 cm), type of cement (63% CEM II/A-L Class
42.5 R and 37% type II additions, equivalent to CEM IV/B), and Fig. 2. Particles size distribution of aggregates.
488 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502

Table 2
Properties of RCA and NA.

Property Standard Coarse gravel Fine gravel "Rice grain" Coarse RCA Coarse sand Fine sand Fine RCA

Particle oven-dried density (kg/m3) EN 1097-6 (2013) 2625 2742 2681 2389 2600 2594 2218
Water absorption (%) EN 1097-6 (2013) 1.4 1.2 1 5 0.5 0.4 8
Bulk density (kg/m3) EN 1097-6 (2013) 1385 1391 1449 1280 1684 1626 1385
Los Angeles coefficient (%) EN 1097-2 (2010) 28a 43 e e e
Shape index (%) EN 933-4 (2008) 15.6 18 17.1 25.6 e e e
a
Average value of the coarse and fine gravel.

Table 3
Physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of cement.

Characteristic Results Characteristic Results Characteristic Results

CaO (%) 63.48 Loss on ignition (%) 2.42 Flexural strength - 7d (MPa) 8.46
SiO2 (%) 19.49 Insoluble residue (%) 1.18 Flexural strength - 28d (MPa) 10.12
Al2O3 (%) 5.02 Density (g/cm3) 3.05 Compressive strength - 2d (MPa) 29.5
Fe2O3 (%) 3.32 C3S (%) 57.67 Compressive strength - 7d (MPa) 45.22
MgO (%) 1.26 C2S (%) 16.49 Compressive strength - 28d (MPa) 57.69
SO3 (%) 3.26 C3A (%) 4.32 Blaine specific surface (cm2/g) 3711.78
CaO (L)(%) 1.28 C4AF (%) 11.19 Residue on the 45 mm sieve (%) 6.19
Cl- (%) 0.04 Initial setting (min) 161.11 H2O paste 28.56
K2O (%) 0.56 Final setting (min) 231.67 Expansion (mm) 0
Na2O (%) 0.15 Flexural strength - 2d (MPa) 5.71

Table 4
Physical and chemical properties of the FA provided by the supplier.

Chemical composition (%) Physical properties

LoI SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 Na2O K2O Sieve analysis (Retained %) Density (kg/m3)

200 mm 90 mm 63 mm 45 mm 32 mm

3.8 57.8 20.9 7.4 3.6 1.0 0.6 1.0 1.7 0.21 2.92 7.82 14.42 22.48 2300.0

Table 5
Incorporation ratios of FA and RCA in each concrete mix with and without SP.

Materials Mix proportions by volume

RAC (%) Coarse RCA 0 100

Fine RCA 0 50 100 0 50 100

FA (%) 0 M1, M1sp M2 M3, M3sp M10, M10sp M11 M12, M12sp
30 M4 M5, M5sp M6 M13 M14, M14sp M15
60 M7, M7sp M8 M9, M9sp M16, M16sp M17 M18, M18sp

Notes: Mnsp and Mn present mixes with and without SP, respectively; the cement content for mixes with 0%, 30% and 60% FA is 350, 245 and 140 kg/m3, respectively. All the
mixes had the same binder content (350 kg/m3).

composition is presented in Table 6. The rationale behind the mix
compositions design was as follows: the binder content was kept
constant in all the mixes (350 kg/m3); the slump was kept constant
at 80 ± 10 mm (which affected the water content needed); the
aggregates content was kept constant in volume; the size distri-
bution of all aggregates was kept constant; the replacement was
made by mass for binder and by volume for aggregates; the SP was
1% by binder's mass (this resulted from optimization in previous
researches).
Furthermore, the aggregates were mixed with 2/3 of the total
water content for 6 min, then the binder was added with the
remaining water, and mixed for 4 min more. The water compen-
sation method was used to take into account the water absorption
of the RCA. Therefore, the RCA's water absorption evolution was
found by using the methods suggested in previous studies (Leite,
2001; Rodrigues et al., 2013). The results show that at the end of
the mixing time (10 min) the absorption of the coarse and fine RCA
was 86% and 90% of the absorption at 24 h, respectively.
2.1.3. Tests, specimens and curing procedures
After production, each mix was tested in the fresh-state condi-
tion, namely for slump, density and air content according to EN
12350-2 (2009), EN 12350-6 (2009) and EN 12350-7 (2009),
respectively, in order to control the quality of the concrete mixes.
The samples were kept in the laboratory for 24 h in order to gain
strength to be demoulded. After that, they were placed in a wet
chamber until the testing day (7, 28, 90 and 180 days) at constant
temperature of 20 ± 2
C and relative humidity of 100%. For each
age three cubes were tested, except at 28 days when 5 cubes were
tested. The test used to determine the compressive strength fol-
lowed standard EN 12390-3 (2009), using cubic 151515 cm
specimens.
2.2. Life cycle assessment
2.2.1. Methodology
The LCA methodology was used for environmental assessment
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502 489

Table 6
Composition of the concrete mixes with and without SP.

Concrete mixes and required materials for 1 m3 (kg)

Mixes M1 M1sp M2 M3 M3sp M4 M5 M5sp M6 M7 M7sp M8 M9 M9sp

Fine RCA 0 0 320 634 684 0 312 338 613 0 0 317 598 649
Coarse RCA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fine Sand 305 350 148 0 0 268 129 151 0 230 246 150 0 0
Coarse Sand 458 474 227 0 0 479 237 245 0 498 531 222 0 0
"Rice grain" 226 241 223 220 236 225 222 236 218 224 239 220 224 232
Fine gravel 228 241 226 224 236 230 229 240 225 234 250 222 225 241
Coarse gravel 606 639 596 590 626 611 603 637 595 616 658 588 597 635
Cement 350 350 350 350 350 245 245 245 245 140 140 140 140 140
FA 0 0 0 0 0 105 105 105 105 210 210 210 210 210
Water (litre)a 186 140 205 223 176 179 197 151 216 172 126 191 209 165
Effective w/b 0.53 0.40 0.56 0.58 0.45 0.51 0.54 0.41 0.57 0.49 0.36 0.52 0.55 0.42
Apparent w/b 0.53 0.40 0.59 0.64 0.5 0.51 0.56 0.43 0.62 0.49 0.36 0.55 0.6 0.47

Mixes M10 M10sp M11 M12 M12sp M13 M14 M14sp M15 M16 M16sp M17 M18 M18sp

Fine RCA 0 0 318 629 680 0 311 336 611 0 0 303 595 644
Coarse RCA 919 972 906 898 952 926 913 967 898 933 986 920 906 962
Fine Sand 303 346 146 0 0 266 127 149 0 293 324 108 0 0
Coarse Sand 456 474 227 0 0 475 237 245 0 429 458 247 0 0
"Rice grain" 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fine gravel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Coarse gravel 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cement 350 350 350 350 350 245 245 245 245 140 140 140 140 140
FA 0 0 0 0 0 105 105 105 105 210 210 210 210 210
Water (litre)a 196 155 218 233 187 189 212 168 226 182 137 206 229 185
Effective w/b 0.54 0.41 0.57 0.59 0.46 0.52 0.55 0.42 0.58 0.5 0.37 0.53 0.56 0.43
Apparent w/b 0.56 0.44 0.62 0.67 0.54 0.54 0.61 0.48 0.65 0.52 0.39 0.59 0.66 0.53
a
Effective and extra water.

of concrete mixes, according to EN 15804 (2012) and EN ISO 14040
(2006). Several environmental categories can be considered in a
LCA to indicate the EI of a product. Global warming potential can be
considered one of the most important EI categories (Silvestre et al.,
2015).
In this study, the system boundaries considered were from
cradle to gate (Table 7). Moreover, to determine the GWP (in kg CO2
eq), the CML (from the Centre of Environmental Science - Leiden
University) baseline method (Guine
e et al., 2001) was used and 1
m3 of each concrete mix for structural concrete purposes was
defined as functional unit.
2.2.2. Life cycle inventory (LCI) data
Table 8 presents the source and location of the data used in this
study. The impact of cement production was obtained from the
report of the European Cement Research Academy (ECRA, 2015),
who had already developed an Environmental Product Declaration
(EPD) for OPC (CEM I) produced in Europe. The life cycle inventory
data for fine and coarse RCA, and coarse NA, was obtained from a
previous study (Braga et al., 2017) which collected it from site
specific sources (companies in Portugal). Moreover, for FA, the EPD
of the Danish Technological Institute was used, which is in accor-
dance with EN ISO 14025 (2011) and EN 15804 (2012), and based on
economic allocation. Data on fine NA was collected from a previous
study (Marinkovic' et al., 2010). In addition, SP data was collected
by European Federation of Concrete admixtures associations (EFCA,
2015) by the year 2015, and made available in an EPD. Regarding
the modelling, it was necessary to use SimaPro software to obtain
the impact of water well and transportation from the Ecoinvent 3
and ELCD 3.1 databases, respectively. Moreover, the process of
production of one cubic meter of concrete was also considered to
evaluate the concrete mixes according to the database of a previous
study (Braga, 2015). It is also worth mentioning that the NativeLCA
(Silvestre et al., 2015) method was used to select the most adequate

Table 7
Life cycle stages classification of building materials based on European Standards (Silvestre et al., 2014)

LCA boundaries Life cycle stages/LCA information modules Life cycle stage designation and description

Cradle to cradle Cradle to grave Cradle to gate Product stage (A1-A3) Raw material extraction and processing, processing of
secondary material input (A1); Transport to the
manufacturer(A2); Manufacturing (A3)
Gate to grave Construction process stage (A4-A5) Transport to the building site (A4); Installation into
the building (A5);
Use stage - information modules related to the Use or application of the installed product (B1);
building fabric (B1-B5) Maintenance (B2); Repair (B3); Replacement (B4);
Refurbishment (B5);
Use stage - information modules related to the Operational energy use (B6); Operational water use
operation of the building (B6-B7) (B7)
End-of-life stage (C1-C4) De-construction, demolition (C1); Transport to waste
processing (C2); Waste processing for reuse, recovery
and/or recycling (3R) (C3); Disposal (C4)
Benefits and loads beyond the system Reuse, recovery and/or recycling (3R) potentials (D)
boundary (D)
490 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
Table 8
Source and location of the databases used
Raw materials Details
Cement CEM I
SP High performance
FA Type (f)
Water Water well
Coarse NA Crushed limestone
Fine NA River sand
RCA Coarse and fine
Fig. 3. Transportation distance adapted for Portuguese case scenario, namely Lisbon
region (adapted from a previous study (Braga, 2015)).
environmental datasets to be used as generic data.
2.2.3. Transport scenarios
The transport scenarios for each product are presented in Fig. 3.
The distances considered was based on a Portuguese study (Braga,
2015). The author reported that two types of lorry were used to
transport materials. The first lorry was medium sized (lorry
transport, maximum capacity 17.3 tonnes) and used to transport
RCA from the construction and demolition site to the recycling
plant. A similar type of lorry was used to transport the RCA from the
recycling plant to the concrete plant. The second lorry was bigger,
with maximum capacity of 27 tonnes - “Articulated lorry trans-
port”. It was used to transport all the other products mentioned in
Table 8, and their transportation was considered from the supplier
(market) to the concrete plant only. Moreover, the distance of
transportation was increased by 70% in order to consider the
impact of the return of the vehicles to the supplier.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Compressive strength results
The compressive strength of concrete mixes at 7, 28, 90 and 180
days is presented in Table 9. Generally, the results of this study
show that the incorporation of RCA in concrete mixes is detri-
mental in terms of compressive strength. The incorporation of fine
RCA is more harmful than that of coarse RCA. The relative strength
development after 90 days increases with the incorporation of RCA
when only OPC is used as a binder. The relative strength
Location Sources
EU International EPD system (ECRA, 2015)
EU International EPD system (EFCA, 2015)
EU/Danish International EPD system (DTI, 2015)
EU/Portugal Ecoinvent 3
EU/Portugal Site-specific data (adapted from (Braga et al., 2017))
Serbia Site-specific data (adapted from (Marinkovic' et al., 2010))
EU/Portugal Site-specific data (adapted from (Braga et al., 2017))
development after 28 days of fine RCA concrete is higher than that
of coarse RCA concrete. Similarly to RCA, the incorporation of FA in
concrete mixes is detrimental in terms of compressive strength,
especially at young ages. After 28 days, the rate of strength devel-
opment of OPC concrete is significantly lower than that of the mixes
with FA. The development rate of strength after 28 days of concrete
mixes containing FA and RCA is higher than that of the mixes with
FA or RCA only. In addition, mixes with SP appeared to be more
sensitive to RCA incorporation, followed by conventional concrete
and FA concrete. In other words, it is advisable to use SP with FA
concrete.
3.1.1. Influence of fine RCA on the compressive strength of concrete
with the same target workability
Fig. 4 shows the development of compressive strength at 7, 28,
90 and 180 days for concrete mixes with various levels of fine RCA
(M1, M2 and M3). The results show that incorporating fine RCA in
concrete mixes decreased the compressive strength. Concrete
mixes with 50% and 100% of fine RCA had lower strengths by about
19% and 26% at 7 days, 17% and 19% at 28 days, 15% and 19% at 90
days, 15% and 16% at 180 days, respectively. Since the ratio of the
aggregates to cement paste slightly changed, this may be explained
by two main factors, namely the RCA being more porous and
weaker than the NA (Kou et al., 2012; Kou and Poon, 2013) and/or
due to the increase of the effective w/c ratio in RCA concrete mixes
in order to maintain the workability of an equivalent conventional
concrete. This can be attributed to the high water absorption of fine
RCA and the presence of lower-density residual cement mortar
attached to the recycled aggregate particles (Cartuxo et al., 2015),
which presents irregular texture and angular shape. As a result, fine
RCAs' absorption of surrounding water may negatively affect the
mechanical bonding at the interfacial transition zone (ITZ), which
ultimately decreases the material's compressive strength
(Evangelista and de Brito, 2007).
The results show that the difference between conventional
concrete and fine RCA concrete decreased over time. In other
words, by using Equations 1 and 2 from EN 1992-1-1 (2004), based
on the compressive strength at 28 days, the ratio “fcm7/fcm28”
(coefficient bcc ðtÞ”) decreases with the incorporation of fine RCA
and the opposite occurs for ratios “fcm180/fcm28”. Therefore, it can
be concluded that, generally after 90 days of curing, the rate of
strength development of the reference concrete is lower than that
of the mixes with fine RCA. Similar results were reported before
(Kou and Poon, 2009a; Zega and Di Maio, 2011; Se
rifou et al., 2013).
This is due to the high non-hydrated old cement content in fine RCA
(Khatib, 2005) which reacts and leads to an increase of the long-
term ultimate concrete strength. In addition, the source concrete
used to obtain fine RCA was produced with normal hydration speed
cement (CEM type II), which contains FA with longer setting time,
while the mixes produced throughout the experimental campaign
were made with high hydration speed cement (CEM I 42.5R), which
justified the rapid stabilization of their compressive strength. This
explanation was confirmed by other studies (Evangelista and de
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502 491

Table 9
Compressive strength of concrete mixes

Mixes Fine RCA (%) FA (%) Coarse RCA (%) SP (%) 7 days 28 days 90 days 180 days

fcm, cube (MPa) fcm,cube at fcm, cube fcm, cube fcm,cube at fcm, cube fcm,cube
7d/fcm,cube (MPa) (MPa) 90d/fcm,cube (MPa) at 180d/fcm,cube
at 28d (%)a at 28d (%)a at 28d (%)a

M1 0 0 0 0 50.7 0.91 55.8 59.0 1.06 59.1 1.06

M2 50 41.0 0.89 46.2 50.0 1.08 50.4 1.09
M3 100 37.4 0.83 45.0 47.5 1.06 50.0 1.11
M4 0 30 31.0 0.77 40.2 55.7 1.39 56.6 1.41
M5 50 27.5 0.75 36.4 49.0 1.35 51.7 1.42
M6 100 25.1 0.74 34.0 46.4 1.36 48.6 1.43
M7 0 60 17.7 0.74 24.0 35.3 1.47 37.6 1.57
M8 50 17.3 0.73 23.6 33.4 1.41 38.3 1.62
M9 100 15.4 0.71 21.5 30.9 1.44 35.3 1.64
M10 0 0 100 0 45.5 0.88 51.9 56.5 1.09 57.1 1.10
M11 50 36.0 0.84 42.8 46.1 1.08 49.2 1.15
M12 100 34.2 0.81 42.0 44.1 1.05 48.7 1.16
M13 0 30 29.3 0.75 39.0 51.3 1.32 55.4 1.42
M14 50 24.5 0.74 33.0 46.1 1.40 48.5 1.47
M15 100 24.0 0.73 32.8 46.0 1.40 48.9 1.49
M16 0 60 16.6 0.72 23.0 30.6 1.33 36.8 1.60
M17 50 14.3 0.68 21.1 30.1 1.43 34.8 1.65
M18 100 13.9 0.66 21.0 29.9 1.42 35.5 1.69
M1sp 0 0 0 1 71.0 0.97 73.5 76.7 1.04 82.3 1.12
M3sp 100 52.0 0.96 54.1 58.0 1.07 61.7 1.14
M5sp 50 30 45.1 0.75 60.4 62.7 1.04 75.5 1.25
M7sp 0 60 25.7 0.61 42.4 49.7 1.17 55.6 1.31
M9sp 100 21.5 0.58 37.1 44.0 1.19 51.6 1.39
M10sp 0 0 100 1 59.9 0.95 63.0 66.0 1.05 71.2 1.13
M12sp 100 47.1 0.96 49.0 57.9 1.18 58.3 1.19
M14sp 50 30 39.5 0.73 53.8 57.5 1.07 69.4 1.29
M16sp 0 60 22.5 0.59 38.0 45.2 1.19 56.6 1.49
M18sp 100 18.5 0.57 32.3 44.3 1.37 51.3 1.59
a
The ratio fcm (t)/fcm (28 days) defined as bcc ðtÞ in EN 1992-1-1 (2004), Equations 1 and 2.

Brito, 2007; Evangelista and de Brito, 2013; Cartuxo et al., 2016). type of cement: 0.20 for cement of strength Classes CEM 42.5 R,
CEM 52.5 N and CEM 52.5 R.
fcm ðtÞ ¼ bcc ðtÞ$ fcm (1)
3.1.2. Influence of coarse RCA on the compressive strength of
( " 0:5 #) concrete with the same target workability
28
bcc ðtÞ ¼ exp s 1 (2) The effect of full replacement of coarse RCA on the compressive
t strength of concrete mixes (M1 and M10) at different ages (7e180
days) is presented in Fig. 5.
where: fcm(t) is the mean concrete compressive strength at t days; The results show that the compressive strength decreased 10%,
fcm,cube is the mean compressive strength at 28 days according to 7%, 4% and 3% with the incorporation of coarse RCA at 7, 28, 90 and
Table 9; bcc ðtÞ is a coefficient which depends on the age of concrete; 180 days, respectively. The reduction of strength between coarse
t is the age of concrete in days; s is a coefficient that depends on the RCA concrete and conventional concrete slightly decreased over

Fig. 4. Effect of the incorporation of fine RCA on the compressive strength of concrete Fig. 5. Effect of the incorporation of coarse RCA on the concrete compressive strength
over time (M1, M2 and M3). over time (M1 and M10).
492 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
time. This can be explained by the factors mentioned in x3.1.1 for
fine RCA, namely the presence of a relatively high old cement
content in coarse RCA. In addition, the incorporation of coarse RCA
is less harmful than that of fine RCA. This can be attributed to the
fact that the coarse RCA absorbs less water (water absorption of 5%)
than the fine RCA (water absorption of 8%). Therefore, coarse RCA
concrete required less water than fine RCA concrete to maintain the
workability of an equivalent NA concrete, with consequences on the
strength of the cement paste. Furthermore, since coarse RCA
contain a smaller amount of adhered mortar, which is weaker than
the cement paste, the material's strength also does not decrease as
much as in fine RCA concrete. Similarly to fine RCA (x3.1.1), after 90
days, the strength development over time increased with the
incorporation of coarse RCA. However, the rate of strength devel-
opment after 28 days of the fine RCA concrete was slightly higher
than that of the mixes with coarse RCA. This is due to the high non-
hydrated old cement content in fine RCA (Khatib, 2005).
3.1.3. Combined influence of fine and coarse RCA on the
compressive strength of concrete with the same target workability
Based on the results from x3.1.1 and x3.1.2, the estimated
strength reduction due to the combined effect of fine and coarse
RCA can be obtained by summing the strength reduction of both
coarse and fine RCA concrete mixes. The results show that the
estimated decrements were very similar to the actual values from
the concrete mixes that contained both fine and coarse RCA.
Moreover, the development rate of strength after 28 days of con-
crete mixes (M1, M10, M11 and M12) with both fine and coarse RCA
(Fig. 6) was slightly higher than that of the mixes with fine (Fig. 4)
or coarse RCA (Fig. 5). This due to the presence of non-hydrated
cement particles in fine and coarse RCA (Khatib, 2005). In other
words, the rate of strength development of concrete after 28 days
increases with increasing incorporation of RCA. Generally, it seems
that the compressive strength decreases as the RCA incorporation
ratio increases. However, this reduction may not be related only
with the effect of the incorporation ratios of RCA; in fact, it is also
due to the slight increment of effective w/c ratio of concrete mixes
to obtain the target workability.
3.1.4. Influence of FA on the compressive strength of concrete with
the same target workability
Fig. 7 shows the development of the compressive strength at 7,
Fig. 6. Effect of the incorporation of fine RCA on concrete compressive strength over
time for full replacement of coarse NA with coarse RCA (M1, M10, M11 and M12).
Fig. 7. Effect of the incorporation FA on concrete compressive strength over time (M1,
M4 and M7).
28, 90 and 180 days for concrete containing different levels of FA.
The results show that the incorporation of FA in concrete mixes
is detrimental in terms of compressive strength especially at young
ages. The compressive strength of concrete mixes decreased by
about 39% and 65% at 7 days, 28% and 57% at 28 days, 6% and 40% at
90 days, 4% and 36% at 180 days when respectively 30% and 60% of
OPC was replaced with FA. Furthermore, since the effective w/b
ratio slightly decreased to obtain the target workability, the
mentioned reduction was expected to be higher when the incor-
poration ratio of FA increased and w/b ratio was kept constant. In
addition, the difference between the strength of conventional
concrete and concrete with FA decreased over time, because of the
relatively slower pozzolanic reactions between the FA and the ce-
ment's hydration products (Silva and de Brito, 2013).
The results show that, after 90 days, the strength of concrete
slightly decreased when incorporating 30% of FA, and this is one of
the reasons why the European standard recommends a maximum
replacement of cement mass with FA of 35% (EN 197-1, 2000).
Incorporating 60% of FA significantly decreased the strength of
concrete. A similar behaviour can be seen in different studies for FA
concrete (Saravanakumar and Dhinakaran, 2013; Yoon et al., 2014;
Silva and de Brito, 2015; Silva and de Brito, 2016). This can be
explained by the fact that most of the FA behaves as a filler, rather
than a binder, when a high volume is incorporated (Pedro et al.,
2015). Since cement clinker consists of C3S, C2S, C3A, C4AF, and
CSH3, the following hydration products will be obtained: CSH
(responsible for early strength and major contributor to the
strength of the cement paste) (Rashad, 2015b); CH (free lime
Ca(OH)2, which does not contribute much to strength at early ages);
CAS3H (Aft “ettringite”); and CASH (AFM “monosulphate”) (Seleem
et al., 2011). As shown in Table 3, the major element in cement, CaO,
is limited and it reacts with SiO2 of FA (Table 4) until the replace-
ment level defined in EN 197-1 (2000) (the optimum replacement
level of FA is the point at which all the CaO is consumed by the
reactive portion of the FA). When a higher volume of cement is
replaced with FA, the SiO2 element will be significant, and the CaO
of cement is not enough to react with the SiO2 of the FA to produce
CSH (Popovics, 1998; Wilson and Kosmatka, 2011) that is the major
contributor to the strength of the cement paste. Therefore, with a
higher volume of FA and lower Ca(OH)2 content, less pozzolanic
activity will be observed. In addition, relative to cement particles,
the bigger particles of FA (about 50% of the FA is coarser than 32
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
Fig. 8. Effect of the incorporation fine RCA on the compressive strength of concrete with (a) 0% and 30% (b) 100% and 30%, (c) 0% and 60%, and (d) 100% and 60% of coarse RCA and
FA, respectively (M1, M4-M9 and M13-M18).
mm) help to decrease the binder's surface area and its pozzolanic
activity.
3.1.5. Combined influence of RCA and FA on the compressive
strength of concrete with the same target workability
Fig. 8a shows that, for concrete mixes without coarse RCA,
incorporating 30% of FA and 0%, 50% and 100% of fine RCA resulted
in lower compressive strength by 39%, 46% and 50% at 7 days, 28%,
35% and 39% at 28 days, 6%, 17% and 21% at 90 days, 4%, 12%, and 18%
at 180 days, respectively. For concrete mixes with full incorporation
of coarse RCA, using 30% of FA and 0%, 50% and 100% of fine RCA led
to compressive strength decrements of 42%, 52% and 53% at 7 days,
30%, 41% and 41% at 28 days, 13%, 22% and 22% at 90 days, and 6%,
18% and 17% at 180 days, respectively (Fig. 8b). This reduction
increased with increasing FA (Fig. 8c and d). It should be kept in
mind that the effective w/b ratio was not exactly the same in the
concrete mixes. Therefore, the combined effect of the FA and RCA
on the concrete mixes may not be due only to their incorporation
ratios.
Based on the results, incorporating a high volume of RCA in
high-strength concrete, namely the concrete mixes with SP, is not
advisable in terms of mechanical strength. Similarly to RCA, a high
volume of FA is also harmful to mechanical strength even after 28
days. This is due to a decrease of the pozzolanic reaction between
FA and cement particles. The idea of incorporating both RCA and FA
is to increase the pozzolanic reaction (Poon et al., 2000; Kou et al.,
2007; Limbachiya et al., 2012) and create a denser cement matrix
493
and ITZ (Gonzalez-Corominas et al., 2016) after 28 days. Despite of
the fact that several studies reported this idea, but to date, the
authors are not aware of a detailed microstructural analysis to
prove that the FA is taking part in pozzolanic reaction with un-
hydrated cement of the RCA particles. In other words, the rate of
strength development grows with increasing incorporation levels
of both FA and RCA (Fig. 9). This is explained in detail in the
following paragraphs.
The actual decrement of the combined effect of both FA and RCA
was found to be lower than summing the individual effect of both
FA and RCA, especially after 28 days. This behaviour was repeated in
all mixes for all ages. This is associated with various factors, one of
which is the pozzolanic reaction between SiO2 of FA and Ca(OH)2 in
RCA (Kou and Poon, 2013). Since the attached extra cement parti-
cles increase with increasing incorporation ratios of RCA (Katz,
2003), the amount of Ca(OH)2 increases as a result. This helps the
SiO2 of FA to obtain more CaO from the attached extra cement
particles and produce CSH (the main contributor to strength
development). A similar observation can be seen in the study of
(Evangelista et al., 2015) Therefore, a high incorporation ratio of FA
(for percentages of FA exceeding the standard limit) is advisable in
RCA concrete because most of the particles of FA may work as a
pozzolanic binder rather than a filler (fine aggregates). Similar re-
sults can be seen in other studies (Kou and Poon, 2009b; Ahmed,
2011). As explained before, due to a delay of the binding action,
the strength development rate of FA concrete is slow at early ages.
This rate slightly accelerates when RCA is incorporated in the mix.
494 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502

Fig. 9. Effect of the incorporation of FA and fine RCA on concrete compressive strength at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.

Due to a high percentage of SiO2 in FA, the Ca(OH)2 in RCA reacts
with it at early ages. Furthermore, after 28 days, the strength
development rate over time in FA concrete mixes with fine RCA was
higher than that of the FA mixes with coarse RCA. This is explained
by the fact that, for the same source concrete, the old cement
content in fine RCA is higher than in coarse RCA (Geng and Sun,
2013) (and also because it is easier for FA to react with the
smaller fine RCA particles and create new products of hydration).
3.1.6. Influence of the w/b ratio on the compressive strength of
concrete mixes with the same target workability
Fig. 10 shows the compressive strength ratio of mixes with SP
versus the same mixes without SP (Msp vs. M), showing the effect of
the water/binder ratio. The mixes with SP were more sensitive to
the incorporation of fine RCA. The same occurs for other mixes with
various incorporation levels of fine and coarse RCA. This is because
by incorporating RCA the fine's specific surface increased, because
of the electrostatic repulsions on the aggregates' surface, which
reduces the effectiveness of SP. The same conclusion can be seen in
other studies (Pereira et al., 2012; Cartuxo et al., 2015). Because of
the increased surface area, the mixes with SP were more sensitive
to the incorporation of fine RCA compared to those with coarse RCA.
These phenomena are explained more detail in the studies of
(Pereira et al., 2012; Cartuxo et al., 2015). However, further research
is still required to ascertain whether this is a generalized trend or an
isolated case. Unlike what happens when RCA are incorporated, the
mixes with SP improve when FA is incorporated because the SP
allows the spherical shape of the ash particles to pack efficiently
and effectively fill the space between the irregularly shaped
aggregate particles in the hardened concrete (Berry et al., 1994).
Based on the results, incorporating SP in the mixes that contain FA
and RCA (mainly because of their fine particles) is advisable
because it helps the particles of both FA and cement (unhydrated
cement that comes from RCA and new cement) to disperse uni-
formly and the pozzolanic reaction between particles to occur in
the early ages.

Fig. 10. Effect of the w/b ratio on the compressive strength of concrete mixes.
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
The worst case scenario in terms of compressive strength in the
current study was 18.5, 32.3, 44.3 and 51.3 MPa, for concrete mixes
with 100% of fine and coarse RCA, and 60% of FA at 7, 28, 90 and 180
days, respectively. However, this strength class can still be used in
some concrete structures.
The results show that the strength of high-strength concrete,
namely those with SP (low w/b ratio), significantly decreases when
fine RCA are incorporated. Due to the higher strength of the cement
paste, failure occurs in the relatively weaker old adhered mortar.
Contrarily to high-strength concrete, in lower strength specimens,
the incorporation of fine RCA does not affect the strength as much,
because the new cement paste is weaker - due to its higher water
content in the cement paste - leading to higher porosity and poorer
ITZ bond strength. Therefore, it can be said that the ultimate
strength of fine RCA concrete depends more on the strength of the
cement paste than on the strength of the fine RCA (Silva et al.,
2015).
3.2. GWP results
The LCA methodology and SimaPro software were used to study
the EI of the used materials. Table 10 shows the GWP of the pro-
duction of each raw material used, of the transportation impacts of
each vehicle used to transport the raw materials from the supplier
to the concrete plant, and of the production process of concrete. It
was possible to estimate the GWP and model the life cycle of each
concrete mix by using the results shown in Table 10. Moreover, a
distance between the demolition site and the recycling plant, and
the latter and the concrete plant, of 25 km was considered in the
calculation (Fig. 3).
Table 11 presents the GWP of each concrete mix, made with
various incorporation levels of NA, RCA, cement, FA, and water, with
or without SP. For each concrete mix, the EI due to the trans-
portation of raw materials and the process of concrete production
were considered to calculate the total GWP.
Fig. 11 presents the GWP of concrete mixes without SP and
shows that it strongly decreased when cement was replaced with
FA. On the other hand, it is less affected by incorporating RCA. These
trends were also found for mixes with SP. The GWP increased up to
1% when 1% of SP was incorporated to the mix. As for incorporating
RCA, the use of SP does not affect the GWP of concrete mixes as
much. Similar results can be seen in other studies for RCA concrete
(Marinkovic' et al., 2010; de Schepper et al., 2014; Braga et al., 2017)
and EPD reports of FA concrete (NRMCA, 2014; GCC, 2015).
Fig. 12 presents the GWP and compressive strength of concrete
mixes produced with various incorporation ratios of RCA and FA,
with and without SP, at 28 and 180 days. The results of strength and
GWP are listed in Tables 9 and 11, respectively. They show that there
is no clear relationship between GWP and strength of concrete
mixes. In other words, the GWP depends on the type of materials
used rather than the strength of concrete mixes, e.g. for the same
strength, the GWP decreased as the incorporation levels of FA in-
creases. Since the GWP linearly changes with the incorporation
ratios of FA, RCA and SP, it can be concluded that the average GWP
for all concrete mixes decreased about 0.91%, 0.02% and 0.11% per
unit percent of FA, coarse RCA and fine RCA incorporated, respec-
tively, and increased about 0.20% with the use of 1% SP.
Table 10
Impact assessment results (GWP in kg CO2 eq) for raw materials, transportation and production of concrete
Raw materials (kg)
CEM I SP FA Water Fine NA Coarse NA
0.9 0.00188 0.00392 0.000133 0.0014 0.0282
495
4. Optimization of concrete mixes
As shown in Fig. 12, the concrete strength-GWP ratio depends
more on the type of materials used than on their strength. There-
fore, the compressive strength-GWP ratio was considered in order
to select the best-case scenario to produce concrete and identify the
main differences in terms of EI and strength of concrete for each
concrete mix when the conventional materials are replaced with
non-conventional materials. Table 12 presents the compressive
strength-GWP (fcm/GWP) ratio at 28 and 180 days. In the table, the
highest value identifies the best performance and the lowest value
the worst-case scenario in terms of both compressive strength and
GWP points of view.
Fig. 13 shows the Influence of incorporating fine and coarse RCA
on the fcm/GWP ratio of the concrete mixes. Generally, at 28 days,
this ratio decreased when NA were replaced with RCA in mixes
without SP or FA, except for one case when 100% coarse RCA were
incorporated in the mix without fine RCA (M10). Moreover, the
ratio significantly increased with the use of SP in mixes without FA
because it clearly increased concrete strength without considerably
affecting the GWP (which increased only up to 1%). However, what
is striking about Figs. 13 to 16 and Table 12 is that the mixes with SP
had better performance not just because of dispersion cementitious
paste materials, but also because of lower w/b ratio that directly
affects the GWP and compressive strength of concrete. As explained
before (x3.1.6), SP is sensitive to the incorporation of RCA in the
concrete mixes. Therefore, the ratio of concrete mixes with SP and
no FA dropped with increasing incorporation ratios of RCA. In
addition, the ratio slightly increased at later ages, especially for RCA
concrete mixes. This is due to the same factors mentioned in
x3.1.1:x3.1.3, namely, after 28 days, the strength development rate
slightly accelerated by incorporating RCA. In addition, relative to
other concrete mixes the fcm/GWP ratio of the fine RCA concrete
was very small. Therefore, the incorporation of fine RCA without
coarse RCA is not advisable with or without SP when only OPC is
used.
Fig. 14 shows the fcm/GWP ratio of RCA concrete mixes incor-
porating 30% FA. At early ages, the ratio for RCA concrete mixes
without SP slightly increased when FA were incorporated. In
addition, the mixes with low w/b ratio, namely those with SP,
performed significantly better when both FA and RCA were incor-
porated. Apart from the fact that the use of SP decreases the water
content (w/b ratio), it also helps the FA and RCA particles to
disperse in the mix and improve hydration, increasing strength as a
result (Berry et al.). At later ages, the ratio of RCA concrete mixes
with and without SP significantly increased when FA were incor-
porated because of the long-term combined effect of FA and RCA
(x3.1.5).
Fig. 15 shows the fcm/GWP ratio of RCA concrete mixes incor-
porating 60% of FA. Similarly to the incorporation of a low volume of
FA in RCA concrete without SP, the benefits from the combined
effect of a high volume of FA in RCA concrete was not significant.
However, the opposite occurs for the RCA mixes with SP, i.e. their
ratios were significantly higher than that of the conventional mix
with SP. At later ages, the benefits of the combined effect of a high
volume of FA and RCA are more significant.
Fig. 16 is drawn based on the results of Table 12 and shows the
Transportation (x103 km) Process (m3)
Coarse RCA Fine RCA Articulated lorry transport Lorry transport Concrete production
0.00465 0.00465 0.0498 0.0657 4.65
496 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502

Table 11
GWP of each concrete mix per cubic meter of concrete

Mixes GWP kg CO2 eq

CEM I (kg) SP (kg) FA (kg) Water (kg) Fine NA (kg) Coarse NA (kg) Coarse RCA (kg) Fine RCA (kg) Concrete production (m3) Total

M1 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.02 7.53 33.30 0.00 0.00 4.65 360.50
M2 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 3.70 32.80 0.00 2.38 4.65 358.56
M3 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.00 32.50 0.00 4.72 4.65 356.90
M4 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.02 7.37 33.50 0.00 0.00 4.65 266.07
M5 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.03 3.61 33.10 0.00 2.32 4.65 264.23
M6 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.03 0.00 32.60 0.00 4.56 4.65 262.36
M7 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.02 7.18 33.70 0.00 0.00 4.65 172.60
M8 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.03 3.66 32.30 0.00 2.36 4.65 170.05
M9 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.03 0.00 32.80 0.00 4.45 4.65 168.98
M10 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 7.50 0.00 6.83 0.00 4.65 334.01
M11 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 3.68 0.00 6.74 2.37 4.65 332.47
M12 315.00 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.00 6.68 4.68 4.65 331.04
M13 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.03 7.31 0.00 6.89 0.00 4.65 239.40
M14 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.03 3.59 0.00 6.79 2.31 4.65 237.89
M15 220.00 0.00 0.52 0.03 0.00 0.00 6.68 4.55 4.65 236.43
M16 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.02 7.13 0.00 6.94 0.00 4.65 145.79
M17 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.03 3.50 0.00 6.84 2.25 4.65 144.32
M18 126.00 0.00 1.05 0.03 0.00 0.00 6.74 4.42 4.65 142.89
M1sp 315.00 0.01 0.00 0.02 8.13 35.20 0.00 0.00 4.65 363.01
M3sp 315.00 0.01 0.00 0.02 0.00 34.50 0.00 5.09 4.65 359.27
M5sp 220.00 0.01 0.52 0.02 3.91 35.00 0.00 2.52 4.65 266.63
M7sp 126.00 0.01 1.05 0.02 7.67 36.00 0.00 0.00 4.65 175.40
M9sp 126.00 0.01 1.05 0.02 0.00 34.80 0.00 4.83 4.65 171.36
M10sp 315.00 0.01 0.00 0.02 8.09 0.00 7.23 0.00 4.65 335.00
M12sp 315.00 0.01 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 7.08 5.06 4.65 331.82
M14sp 220.00 0.01 0.52 0.02 3.88 0.00 7.20 2.50 4.65 238.79
M16sp 126.00 0.01 1.05 0.02 7.72 0.00 7.34 0.00 4.65 146.79
M18sp 126.00 0.01 1.05 0.02 0.00 0.00 7.16 4.79 4.65 143.68

Fig. 11. Relative GWP of concrete mixes with increasing incorporation levels of fine RCA and FA (a) without and (b) with 100% of coarse RCA. Both figures are relative to the reference
concrete “M1”.

order of concrete mixes from the best to the worst-case scenario.
The results show that the best concrete mixes are M16sp at 28 and
180 days, and the worst-case scenario is obtained with the mix M11
and M3 at 28 and 180 days, respectively.
At early ages (Fig. 16a) and without FA, in terms of EI and
strength, the worst-case scenario occurs when fine NA were half or
fully replaced with fine RCA, with or without incorporation of
coarse RCA (M11, M3, M12 and M2). The incorporation of only
coarse RCA (M10) shows better performance than the equivalent
mixes with fine RCA (M2 and M3). Therefore, this study suggests
that coarse RCA should be used rather than fine RCA.
Without RCA, the incorporation of low volumes of FA in concrete
mixes (M3) shows better performance than the incorporation of
high volumes of FA (M7). However, this cannot be concluded when
RCA are incorporated in the mix. In most cases, the incorporation of
low volumes of FA and fine RCA resulted in the second worst-case
scenario, with or without coarse RCA (M5, M6, M14 and M15). This
was followed by mixes where high volumes of FA were
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
Fig. 12. GWP versus compressive strength of the concrete mixes.
Table 12
Compressive strength-GWP ratio at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.
incorporated (M8, M17 and M18). This explain the fact that, for the
combined effect of FA and RCA, the fcm/GWP ratio depends on
optimizing the proportion of FA versus RCA rather than on their
individual contents. Mixes with high and low volume of FA and
100% coarse RCA were considered the best-case scenario of all
mixes when SP was not used (M13 and M16). Therefore, this study
suggests that, for FA concrete, a high incorporation ratio of coarse
RCA is advisable. Moreover, coarse RCA concrete (M10) presents
better performance than the conventional concrete (M1), and both
mixes performed better than the FA concrete (M3 and M7) at early
ages.
Generally and still at early ages, the best-case scenario is ob-
tained by using SP. As for the mixes without SP, the worst-case
497
scenario were the mixes where only fine RCA are incorporated
with or without coarse RCA (M12sp, M3sp). Contrary to the mixes
without SP, the conventional concrete (M1sp) presents better per-
formance than the mixes with coarse RCA. Furthermore, the results
show that for low w/b ratio mixes, namely those with SP, the best-
case scenario in terms of EI and strength can be achieved with the
incorporation of FA (M7sp) rather than with OPC mixes (M1sp).
Moreover, the best-case scenario was obtained when the coarse NA
were fully replaced with coarse RCA and 60% of FA incorporated to
concrete mixes with the use of SP (M16sp). Contrary to the mixes
without SP, the incorporation of high volume of FA without RCA and
with SP is advisable (M7sp).
At later ages (Fig. 16b), due to the strength development rate of
FA, and the combined effects of FA and RCA (x3.1.1), the ranking of
concrete mixes completely changed, e.g. the reference concrete
(M1) was listed as the 12th best concrete from a total of 28 mixes, at
28 days, but, interestingly, at 180 days, it dropped to the 24th mix. In
other words, the reference concrete was considered as the 5th
worst-case scenario of all concrete mixes at 180 days. Furthermore,
the mixes with fine RCA dropped significantly to be a worst-case
scenario, even with SP. The opposite occurs with the incorpora-
tion of FA, i.e. the use of FA becomes much more interesting as age
grows. Moreover, for the mixes without SP, the best-case scenario
were the mixes with high volumes of RCA and FA, either with or
without fine RCA (M16, M17 and M18).
5. Conclusions
In this study the w/b ratio of the concrete mixes was changed in
order to maintain the workability of an equivalent conventional
concrete. Thus, for concrete mixes with the same workability, the
following conclusions can be drawn:
 Compressive strength:
- Both fly ash (FA) and recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in
concrete mixes are detrimental but at moderate rates;
- High incorporation ratios of fine RCA or FA are not advisable;
498 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502

Fig. 13. Effect of incorporating RCA on the fcm/GWP ratio of concrete mixes with low (“SP 1%”) and high (“SP 0%”) w/b ratio without FA at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.

Fig. 14. Effect of incorporating RCA and 30% FA on the fcm/GWP ratio of concrete mixes with low (“SP 1%”) and high (“SP 0%”) w/b ratio at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.

- The incorporation of both RCA and FA is advisable in concrete
mixes. The actual decrement of the combined effect of both FA
and RCA was found to be lower than the sum of the individual
effects of FA and RCA;
- It is acceptable to use an incorporation ratio of FA exceeding
the normally accepted limit (35% by cement weight) in RCA
concrete;
- Using FA in RCA concrete production is advisable, especially
for percentages of FA exceeding the standard limit, since some
of the particles of FA work as a pozzolanic binder instead of a
filler. However, the effective w/b ratio was not exactly the
same in all concrete mixes. Therefore, the combined effect of
the FA and RCA on the mixes may not be due only to their
incorporation ratios;
- After a given age, the strength development rate of FA con-
crete accelerates when RCA is incorporated.
 Global warming potential
- The GWP depends more on the type of materials used than on
the strength of concrete mixes. Since the GWP linearly
changes with the incorporation ratios of FA, RCA and SP, it can
be concluded that the average GWP for all concrete mixes
decreased about 0.91%, 0.02% and 0.11% per unit percent of FA,
coarse RCA and fine RCA incorporated, respectively, and
increased about 0.20% with the use of 1% SP;
- There is no clear relationship between the GWP and
compressive strength of concrete mixes.
 Both global warming potential and compressive strength
(optimization):
- The worst-case scenario is obtained when fine NA were half or
fully replaced with fine RCA, either with or without incorpo-
ration of coarse RCA;
- The best-case scenario was obtained when the coarse NA were
fully replaced with coarse RCA and 60% of FA incorporated in
concrete mixes with SP;
 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502 499

Fig. 15. Effect of incorporating RCA and 60% FA on the fcm/GWP ratio of concrete mixes with low (“SP 1%”) and high (“SP 0%”) w/b ratio at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.

Fig. 16. Ranking of the concrete mixes according to the fcm/GWP ratio from the best to the worst case scenario at (a) 28 and (b) 180 days.

- The incorporation of coarse RCA only shows better perfor- - Incorporating FA in RCA concrete is advisable. However, for
mance than that of fine RCA; the combined effect of FA and RCA, the compressive strength-

Table 13
Effect of incorporating FA, fine RCA, coarse RCA individually and jointly on the GWP and compressive strength at 180 days of low (SP 1%) and high (SP 0%) w/b ratio concrete
mixes.

Materials f cm,cube - concrete mixes/ f cm,cube - Ref. concrete GWP - concrete mixes/ GWP - Ref. concrete
W/b
Coarse RCA 0 100 0 100
RAC (%) raƟo
Fine RCA 0 50 100 0 50 100 0 50 100 0 50 100
0 1 0.85 0.85 0.97 0.83 0.82 1 0.99 0.99 0.93 0.92 0.92
High "SP
0%"

30 0.96 0.87 0.82 0.94 0.82 0.83 0.74 0.73 0.73 0.67 0.66 0.66
60 0.64 0.65 0.6 0.62 0.59 0.6 0.48 0.47 0.47 0.41 0.4 0.4
FA (%)
0 1 0.75 0.87 0.71 1 0.99 0.92 0.91
Low "SP
1%"

30 0.92 0.84 0.74 0.66

60 0.68 0.63 0.69 0.62 0.48 0.47 0.4 0.4

Note: green presents beƩer performance in term of strength and EI and the red the opposite; the comparison
between low and high w/b raƟo was made based on their reference concrete M1sp and M1, respecƟvely.
500 R. Kurad et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 166 (2017) 485e502
GWP ratio depends on optimizing the proportion of FA versus
RCA rather than on their individual contents;
- Mixes with high and low volumes of FA and 100% coarse RCA
are considered the best-case scenario of all mixes without SP;
- Coarse RCA concrete without SP shows better performance
than conventional concrete, and both these mixes perform
better than FA concrete at early ages;
- The best-case scenarios were always obtained by using SP;
- In mixes with SP, conventional concrete shows better perfor-
mance than mixes with coarse RCA at every age;
- A better case scenario can be achieved using SP and FA rather
than ordinary Portland cement (OPC) only. The incorporation
of high volumes of FA with SP is advisable;
- At later ages, conventional concrete is listed as the 5th worst-
case scenario of all 28 concrete mixes. It is only better than the
mixes with high content of fine RCA. This is due to the late
pozzolanic effect of FA, optimized by the chemical combina-
tion with RCA components.
Finally, the conclusions are not to be generalized because the
results may be different for other approaches or assumed scenarios
in life cycle inventory modelling. Table 13 briefly presents and
quantifies the effect of each and every input factor, i.e. fine RCA,
coarse RCA, w/b ratio and SP content.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of CERIS-ICIST
from IST, University of Lisbon, and FCT, Foundation for Science
and Technology.
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