Abstract

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is a viable source of recycled aggregates for the production of concrete. However, recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) usually has inferior properties compared to natural aggregates (NA) mainly due to the mortar bonded to its surface, which directly affects the mechanical and physical properties of concrete. Therefore, in this work it is proposed to strengthen the bonded mortar of low-quality coarse recycled aggregate (CRA) through a combined treatment of coating with a slurry of recycled binder paste (RBP) and accelerated carbonation. Mechanical and physical tests were carried out for concretes with replacements of 50% and 100% CRA and the results obtained were compared with a control series. The results showed an effective improvement in the mechanical and physical properties of the concretes with treated recycled aggregate, achieving in some cases values close to those of the control, even considering the high replacement percentages.