Flexural fatigue lifeassessment of self compacting concrete containing recycled concrete aggregates by using probabilistic approach

Present investigation has been conducted to analyze the fatigue life of self compacting concrete (SCC) containing different quantities of coarse fraction of Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) by using probabilistic method. Three SCC mixes were prepared constituting 0%, 50% and 100% RCA. In total 165 beam specimens of size 100 × 100 × 500 (all dimensions in mm) were tested under fatigue loading in order to obtain fatigue life data at different stress levels. Static flexure test was also conducted on 126 beams prior to fatigue test. Fatigue life data have been modelled by using Weibull distribution method and subsequently distribution parameters were evaluated. Further, fatigue lives in terms of design fatigue life and theoretical fatigue life have been estimated by using the distribution parameters by employing probabilistic approach. It has been found that the design and theoretical fatigue life shows a significant reduction with the addition of RCA content. A decrease of 80-85 percent has been observed in the design and theoretical fatigue life when SCC has been made with RCA only. Substandard properties of RCA cause defects in the concrete by forming weak interfacial transition zone which degrades the fatigue performance of SCC containing RCA.