Field Performance of Drainage Systems in Highways Next to Recycled Concrete

Field Performance of

Drainage Systems in Highways Next to Recycled Concrete

Many roads, building foundations, and retaining structures are constructed with aggregates, which is a mixture of broken rock pieces and smaller sized soil particles.

There are several advantages to creating aggregates using recycled materials as opposed to using natural resources.

Creating aggregates from natural rocks not only results in extensive carbon emission and is costly, but the process also destroys the nature that could otherwise be a habitat to many living creatures. One way to minimize the impact on nature is to consider creating aggregates from materials that can be recycled.

Civil Engineering Associate

Professor Burak Tanyu

and his post-doctoral fellow Aiyoub Abbaspour have been investigating aggregates from concrete that is obtained from aged buildings, curbs, gutters, and roads for a number of years.

Tanyu’s research is funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) as the agency is interested in potential practical applications and benefits of using recycled concrete aggregate in road construction. The research conducted by Tanyu and Abbaspour will confirm the suitability of the recycled concrete aggregate for the intended engineering application without unexpected/unintended consequences that may occur in the future.

The first phase of their investigation was conducted in the Sustainable Geo Infrastructure (SGI) Laboratory, which examined the physical and chemical properties of the recycled concrete and experimentation of the formation of tufa from concrete aggregates. The laboratory findings from the first phase are publicly available through VDOT’s website (virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_ reports/pdf/21-R12.pdf). In the summer of 2020, Tanyu initiated the second phase of the research to construct a field

test site with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). This will allow validation of the findings from the laboratory phase of the study before wider application of RCA in Virginia highways.

If the field study confirms the findings from the laboratory study, Tanyu is optimistic that VDOT and other state agencies will implement this approach more broadly across the United States to preserve our natural resources. g

practical cooperation