Analysis of adequacy of recycling the São Paulo Metropolitan Ring Road concrete pavement as new pavement

Abstract

The west section of the Governor Mário Covas São Paulo Metropolitan Road Ring was opened to traffic in 2002. The original pavement was a jointed plain concrete pavement with dowelled joints and a design flexural strength (or modulus of rupture) of 4.5 MPa. Premature failure of the concrete slabs was observed not only by engineers and users, but also reported by the media. Concrete slabs soon started being demolished and replaced. Many of the removed slabs were taken to a nearby recycling plant for crushing. However, the resulting recycled concrete aggregate was not used in the manufacturing of the new slabs. There were concerns that the potential presence of detrimental chemical substances had caused the early deterioration of the slabs. If that were true, using recycled aggregates obtained from the original concrete could result in the same issues in the new mix. This paper describes a feasibility study on recycling the original concrete for use as aggregate in new concrete slabs. The first goal was to verify the presence of fluorite as detrimental substance in the existing concrete because there was a suspicion among concrete technologists engaged on mixture design during the construction. Chemical analysis using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry did not show the presence of chemical components detrimental to concrete durability. Therefore, the second goal was to accept the material for recycling and discuss mix proportions, strength, stiffness, fracture toughness, and fatigue. Although some of the concrete properties were affected by the inclusion of recycled aggregates in the mix, the results indicate that it is possible to use recycled aggregates produced from the original concrete to cast new concrete slabs, however requiring greater thicknesses. The fatigue performance of recycled mixtures points out the demand for thicker and eventually more expansive design solutions.