Internal Curing Effect and Compressive Strength Calculation of Recycled Clay Brick Aggregate Concrete

In order to investigate the internal curing effect of recycled brick aggregate (RBA) in recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and calculate its contribution to the final compressive strength, two RAC groups with different recycled aggregates and 6 replacement ratios (r) under 4 curing ages were tested. Results show that the compressive strengths of RACI and RACII decrease steadily with the increase of r when below 40%, and that there is a significant drop once the r is higher than 60%. The internal curing effect for RAC with a low RBA ratio is mainly reflected during the curing age of 14–21 days, while for RAC with a high RBA ratio, this internal curing effect appears earlier, during 7–14 days, and becomes very obvious after 14 days. In addition, the actual tested compressive strength of RAC replaced by 100% RBA exceeds around 40% of the expected compressive strength at the age of 28 days. When the age of RAC entirely with RBA is 28 days, the compressive strength caused by the internal curing effect accounts for around 28% of the actual tested compressive strength. The most appropriate r of RBA for RAC production is between 40% to 60%. Finally, the equations for calculating the compressive strength of RAC are presented considering the curing ages, the replacement ratios and the internal curing effect of RBA. Further, a unified equation is suggested for convenience in calculation.