Mechanical and Fracture Properties of Hybrid Fiber-Reinforced Concrete with Variable Recycled Aggregate Content

Document Type : Regular Paper

Authors

1 MSc Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

10.22075/jrce.2025.2414

Abstract

Rapid urban development has significantly increased construction waste, contributing to the depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. As a result, the use of recycled aggregates has gained global attention as a sustainable alternative in construction materials. In the current study, experimental tests were performed on 72 samples where the coarse normal aggregate was replaced by 0%, 25% and 50% by volume with coarse recycled aggregate. Furthermore, the test samples comprised four types of specimens with Polypropylene fibers (PP) and steel fibers, including with no fibers, with 0.4% PP and 0% steel fibers, with 0.4% PP and 0.5% steel fibers, and with 0.4% PP and 1.0% steel fibers, wherein all ratios are volumetric. This study investigated the energy absorption and ductility of notched recycled concrete beams reinforced with hybrid combinations of polypropylene and steel fibers under three-point bending tests. The results were validated using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings demonstrated that polypropylene fibers contributed to homogenizing stress distribution by delaying micro-crack initiation, while steel fibers enhanced pull-out resistance and bridged macro-cracks, synergistically improving the energy absorption capacity. However, increasing the recycled aggregate content generally led to a reduction in fracture energy, attributed to the weaker residual cement paste and damage induced during aggregate processing.

Graphical Abstract

Mechanical and Fracture Properties of Hybrid Fiber-Reinforced Concrete with Variable Recycled Aggregate Content

Highlights

  • Efficiency of using polypropylene and steel fibers in concrete containing recycled aggregate were experimentally studied.
  • Experimental tests were performed on 108 samples wherein the coarse normal aggregate was replaced by 0%, 25% and 50% by volume with coarse recycled aggregate.
  • Tests were carried out to investigate the mechanical behavior and energy absorption of concrete containing recycled aggregate with different fiber reinforcing ratios.
  • Increasing recycled aggregate was determined to generally reduce the mechanical strength and energy absorption of the specimens.
  • The results of flexural strength tests indicated that PP and steel fibers lead to increasing peak flexural strength and post-crack area, respectively.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 08 August 2025
  • Revise Date: 03 September 2025
  • Accept Date: 21 November 2025

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