International Journal of Advanced Engineering Application

Structural Performance, Fatigue Life Assessment, and Failure Mode Analysis of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Beams Under Cyclic Loading

Author(s):Karthikeyan Rajan

Affiliation: Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

Page No: 1-6

Volume issue & Publishing Year: Volume 3, Issue 6, 2026/06/01

Journal: International Journal of Advanced Engineering Application (IJAEA)

ISSN NO: 3048-6807

DOI:

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Abstract:
The escalating volume of construction and demolition (C&D) waste — estimated at 530 million tonnes annually in India — presents both a landfill disposal crisis and an opportunity for circular economy material recovery through the incorporation of Recycled Coarse Aggregate (RCA) in structural concrete. While the compressive and flexural static performance of RCA concrete is well documented, its behaviour under cyclic loading — critical for bridges, industrial floors, crane girders, and seismic applications — remains insufficiently characterised to underpin codal adoption in IS 383:2016 or structural design guidance. The higher porosity, residual mortar adherence, and interfacial transition zone (ITZ) heterogeneity of RCA relative to Natural Coarse Aggregate (NCA) create distinct fatigue crack initiation sites whose propagation kinetics under repeated loading differ fundamentally from conventional concrete mechanisms. This study presents experimental fatigue life data for simply supported reinforced concrete beams (150×250×2000 mm) fabricated with four RCA replacement levels (0%, 25%, 50%, 100% by weight of coarse aggregate) under three-point cyclic loading at stress ratios of 0.55, 0.65, and 0.75 of static flexural capacity, supplemented by non-linear finite element modelling in ABAQUS using the Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) constitutive model calibrated to experimentally determined material parameters. Results from 72 beam specimens demonstrate that 25% RCA replacement sustains fatigue life within 12% of the NCA control across all stress ratios, while 100% RCA replacement reduces fatigue life by 47% at σ/σu = 0.75 and 31% at σ/σu = 0.55, confirming stress-ratio-dependent fatigue sensitivity. CDP finite element predictions of crack pattern, mid-span deflection evolution, and failure mode agree with experimental observations to within 8.4% mean absolute error. A modified Wöhler (S-N) curve incorporating RCA replacement ratio as a correction factor is proposed for structural design applications.

Keywords: recycled aggregate concrete, fatigue life, cyclic loading, reinforced concrete beams, S-N curve, Concrete Damaged Plasticity, ABAQUS, finite element analysis, construction and demolition waste, interfacial transition zone

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