Behavior of FRP-Confined Recycled Brick Aggregate Concrete under Monotonic Compression

Abstract

Brick waste is the second-largest source of China's construction and demolition waste. Reprocessing brick waste into recycled brick aggregate (RBA) to fabricate new concrete [i.e., recycled brick aggregate concrete (RBAC)] has proved to be an effective solution. RBAC is generally used as nonstructural concrete owing to its inferior mechanical and durability properties compared with natural aggregate concrete (NAC). To achieve substantially enhanced properties that would qualify RBAC for potential structural use, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) jacketing will be adopted in this study to provide confinement and corrosion resistance to the concrete core. A total of 60 standard cylinder specimens will be tested under monotonic axial compression with the replacement ratio of RBA (0%, 15%, 30%, 60%, and 100%) and the FRP jacket stiffness (0, 1, 2, and 3 plies) as variables. The test results will be analyzed and compared with existing strength and stress–strain models, and based on this it is concluded that although the compressive behavior of FRP-confined RBAC is similar to that of FRP-confined NAC, in general, a high RBA content tends to reduce the effectiveness of FRP confinement.