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Economical Recycled Concrete Aggregates to Attenuate Successive Rockfall Impacts: Large-Scale Field Modeling

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Abstract

An enormous amount of construction and demolition waste is generated globally every year, and it increases disposal costs in landfills. The advantage of adopting crushed concrete aggregate as an alternative cushioning material provides a novel approach for reusing and recycling waste materials. However, a lack of understanding of the dynamic responses of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) inhibits their potential use. In this study, large-scale field tests are carried out to replicate dynamic impact loading on an instrumented concrete shed that is shielded by a 1 m-thick RCA cushioning layer. Six successive large-scale field boulder impact tests with energy levels reaching 70 kJ are conducted. Two different RCA particle sizes—RS (100–150 mm) and RL (200–250 mm)—are investigated. The results show that up to 82% maximum transmitted load can be reduced if the RL cushioning layer is replaced with RS cushioning layer. This phenomenon is attributed to the force chains composed of small particles that are more susceptible to collapse than large particles. To optimize the load-reduction performance of the RCA cushioning layer, practitioners should adopt a small particle size when considering a single boulder impact. In contrast, after six impacts, the maximum transmitted load for Rs is approximately 4.2 times larger than that for RL. This increased load is caused by the relative particle breakage index (Br) for RL being at least 1.3 times larger than that for Rs. This finding indicates that the amount of crushing RCA particles increases with increasing particle size. This phenomenon induces force chains to collapse more easily, and the transmitted load decreases. An RCA cushioning layer with a large particle size can effectively reduce the transmitted load under the consideration of successive impacts. This implies that the combined effects of particle size and number of successive impacts strongly influence the load distributions exerted on structures shielded by an RCA cushioning layer.

Highlights

  • Six successive large-scale field boulder impact tests with energy levels reaching 70 kJ are conducted.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank each and every reviewer who gave valuable suggestion that has helped to improve the quality of the manuscript. The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2240210). The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (B230201010), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grants no. BK20200528), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M690046).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanics and Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Yuchen Su, Heng Zhong & Yaru Lv

  2. College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Yuan Wang

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  1. Yuchen Su
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Correspondence to Yaru Lv.

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Su, Y., Zhong, H., Wang, Y. et al. Economical Recycled Concrete Aggregates to Attenuate Successive Rockfall Impacts: Large-Scale Field Modeling. Rock Mech Rock Eng 56, 7269–7280 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-023-03423-y

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