Evaluation of concrete made from recycled coarse aggregates by pulsed power discharge

In Japan, the most of waste concrete scraps have been reused as roadbed materials and the recycling ratio of waste concrete scraps has been kept over 95 % from 2000. However, it is expected that the demands of waste concrete scraps as roadbed materials would decrease even though the waste concrete scraps increase with the pulling down buildings in next decade. These facts mean that the recycling of waste concrete scraps would be in the negative situation. Therefore, the development of new recycling technology of waste concrete scraps is paramount importance in Japan. In this work, the pulsed power discharges inside of waste concrete scraps immersed in water were used to reproduce the coarse aggregate. In the experiments, the Marx generator, which storages the energy of 6.4 kJ/Pulse, was used as pulsed power source and the point to hemisphere mesh electrode was immersed in water. The pulsed voltages with 400 kV of peak voltage were applied to the concrete scraps placed on hemisphere mesh and the reproduced coarse aggregates were evaluated after the repetitive discharge treatment. From the experimental results, it is found that the coarse aggregates reproduced by 40∼60 pulsed discharge treatments have the enough qualities of the bone-dry density and the water absorption rate to satisfy JIS (Japan Industrial Standard) regulation (A 5005). In addition, the concretes consisted of the reproduced coarse aggregate also have the enough compressed strength and Young’s module to utilize as the construction material.