Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Study on thermal properties of recycled aggregate concrete and

recycled concrete blocks
Lihua Zhu a,b,, Jun Dai a, Guoliang Bai a, Fengjian Zhang c
a

School of Civil Engineering, Xian University of Architecture & Technology, Xian 710055, China
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo 14260, NY, USA
c
School of Civil Engineering, Henan University of Urban Construction, Pingdingshan 467036, China
b

h i g h l i g h t s
 The thermal conductivity of three types of recycled aggregate concrete was tested.
 The recycled coarse aggregate has the greatest inuence on thermal conductivity of recycled aggregate concrete.
 An inuence coefcient of recycled aggregate on thermal conductivity of recycled aggregate concrete was dened.
 A modied formula was proposed to calculate the thermal conductivity of recycled aggregate concrete.
 An experiment on the heat transfer coefcient of recycled concrete block wall in practical engineering was conducted.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 27 October 2014
Received in revised form 6 May 2015
Accepted 12 July 2015
Available online 18 July 2015
Keywords:
Thermal property
Recycled aggregate concrete
Thermal conductivity
Inuence coefcient of recycled aggregate
Recycled concrete block

a b s t r a c t
This paper investigated the thermal properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and recycled concrete block. Considering the effect of four factors, an orthogonal test was conducted to study the thermal
conductivity of RAC. The thermal conductivities of large particle recycled aggregate concrete (LRC) and
recycled brick concrete (RbC) were also tested at different replacement ratio of recycled aggregate. By
dening an inuence coefcient c, the effect of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) on thermal conductivity of RAC was better explained. A modied formula was also proposed to calculate the thermal conductivity of RAC based on that of normal concrete. The thermal resistance of recycled concrete block was
calculated, and an experiment on the heat transfer coefcient of recycled concrete block wall in practical
engineering was conducted. The study shows that the recycled coarse aggregate has the greatest
inuence on thermal conductivity of RAC. There is a signicant linear relationship between the inuence
coefcient c and the thermal conductivity of RAC. The results calculated from modied formula for
thermal conductivity of RAC agreed basically with the test results.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
China is a developing country, and its economic growth is
increasingly restricted by shortage of resources and environmental
degradation [1,2]. The building industry has become one of pillar
industries of national economy in China, but increasing construction activities result in plenty of construction waste in recent years.
The secondary utilization of construction waste is extremely
high in developed countries. The study on recycling of construction
waste has been done for many years in United States, Japan and
some European countries, especially for recycled concrete. The
Corresponding author at: School of Civil Engineering, Xian University of
Architecture & Technology, Xian 710055, China.
E-mail address: zhulihuaxa@163.com (L. Zhu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.07.058
0950-0618/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

recycling rate of construction and demolition waste roughly

reaches 75% in some developed European countries [3], and 140
million tons of waste concrete are recycled each year in the
United States. Using the waste concrete as aggregates to produce
recycled concrete is an important development direction of
construction materials of environmental protection. The recycling
of concrete not only achieves efcient secondary utilization of
construction materials, but also solves the problem of shortage of
natural aggregates [4].
Over the past decade, there have been a multitude of researches
focusing on RAC. The mechanical properties of RAC have always
been a hot topic. Early investigation focused on the material
analysis and modication of RCAs and mix design of RAC [5,6]. It is
generally believed that the higher replacement ratio of RCA, the
greater the strength reduction of RAC. The strength variability is also

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

a crucial factor that limits the widespread application of RAC [79].

The research on RAC elements, such as beams, columns, masonries
and joints, revealed that their basic mechanical properties are basically consistent with normal concrete [1]. The seismic performance
of RAC frame structure was also investigated recently [10].
Nonetheless, most recycled concrete are still applied to
non-load-bearing components, such as building envelope
components.
In addition to reaching certain mechanical strength, building
envelope components should have good thermal insulation property. Recycled aggregate have internal defects, and is wrapped with
original cement mortar, which makes it different from normal concrete in thermal performance. Investigations on the thermal properties of normal concrete and lightweight concrete (LWC) show
that the type of aggregate, quantity and distribution of pores, internal temperature and humidity are the main factors affecting the
thermal conductivity of concrete [1113], and the properties of
coarse aggregates determine the value of thermal conductivity of
concrete [13]. The thermal conductivity of concrete in saturated
state is 1.7 times as large as that in dry state [11]. LWC is an effective insulation material with low thermal conductivity due to
lower density and special aggregate properties [14].
However, there are few researches on the thermal conductivity
of recycled concrete. The studies of Xiao and Dez Ramrez indicate
that thermal conductivity of recycled concrete decreases with the
increase of replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate [15,16].
Moreover, as the common product of recycled concrete, the recycled concrete block is always used to build enclosing wall, so it is
necessary to investigate its thermal property. It is widely acknowledged that using material with small thermal conductivity can
increase thermal resistance of concrete block. In addition, reasonable arrangement of location and size of the holes in hollow block
can also improve the thermal insulation properties of blocks [17].
In this paper, considering the unit water consumption, water
cement ratio, replacement ratios of recycled coarse aggregate and
recycled ne aggregate, an orthogonal test was conducted to study
the thermal conductivity of RAC. Considering the replacement ratio

(a) 0-5mm

of recycled aggregate, the thermal conductivities of LRC and RbC

were tested, respectively. Dening an inuence coefcient c, a
modied formula was proposed to calculate the thermal conductivity of RAC. Finally, the thermal resistant of recycled concrete
block was calculated, and the coefcient of heat transfer of recycled concrete block masonry in a practical engineering was tested.
2. Experimental details
2.1. Materials
The waste concrete was sourced from removal concrete elements of a local
abandoned factory, and it was crushed, washed and screened in a waste recycling
plant. RCAs were classied by particle sizes of 05 mm, 510 mm and >10 mm,
which are shown in Fig. 1. The statistical analysis results of main ingredients of
RCAs are shown in Fig. 2. The way of measuring the amount of wrapped mortar
around the recycled aggregate is as follows, washing off the dust of sample with
water, so that the mortar and stone can be distinguished by observation, selecting
ingredients by visual inspection and hand sorting, and nally calculating the mass
proportion of each ingredient in sample. In Fig. 2, RA1 refers to the undisturbed
stones, and the percentage of wrapping mortar is less than 10%; RA2 refers to the
secondary aggregate, and the percentage of wrapping mortar is more than 10%
and less than 100%; RA3 refers to the mortar lump, which is pure mortar block
and small stones completely wrapped with mortar; RA4 refers to other ingredients,
including tile, glass, wood crumbs.
PC32.5 composite Portland cement was employed, which was manufactured by
China Shanxi Qinling cement plant. The natural aggregates were pebble and river
sand. According to Chinese standard (JGJ52-2006) [18], the physical properties of
main materials were tested and the results are presented in Table 1.
The RCAs with particle size of 010 mm were used in the experiment on thermal conductivity of RAC, and same RCAs were used to make recycled concrete
block, following with investigation on its thermal performance. In addition, the
recycled coarse aggregates with particle size over 10 mm were used in the experiment of thermal conductivity of LRC. Waste brick slag was crushed by hammer
crusher, and then screened to obtain mixed material with particle size less than
10 mm, which was used to test the thermal conductivity of RbC.
2.2. Mixture proportions
An orthogonal experiment with four factors and three levels was employed to
test the thermal conductivity of RAC, as shown in Table 2. Four factors considered
were unit water consumption (A), watercement ratio (B), replacement ratio of
recycled coarse aggregate (C) and replacement ratio of recycled ne aggregate
(D), respectively.

(b) 5-10mm

(c) >10mm

Fig. 1. Recycled concrete aggregate.

(a) RCA 0-5mm

(b) RCA 5-10mm

Fig. 2. Composition of RCA with different sizes.

(c) RCA >10mm

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

Table 1
Physical properties of recycled aggregate and natural aggregate.
Properties

RCAs

Particle size (mm)

Apparent density (g/cm3)
Bulk density (g/cm3)
Water absorption (%)
Crushing index (%)
Fineness modulus

05
2.49
1.14
10.91
21.70
2.78

Table 4
Mix proportions of RbC and LRC.

Natural aggregates
510
2.52
1.10
3.5
24.74

>10
2.60
1.31
4.67
18.30

05
2.72
1.45
1.02

2.18

510
2.80
1.41
0.47
5.99

>10
2.66
1.44
0.69
10.60

Table 2
Orthogonal experiment scheme.
Factors

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

A (kg/m3)
B
C (%)
D (%)

130
0.40
40
40

140
0.45
70
70

150
0.50
100
100

In order to make the best use of recycled aggregates, the replacement ratio of
recycled aggregate was taken as 40%, 70% and 100%. For unit water consumption,
it is proposed that the total water used in mixing could be divided into effective
water and additional water. The former is dened based on the target strength of
RAC, and the latter is calculated from actual absorption of recycled aggregate to
ensure its mixing workability [1,19,20]. According to previous research [21], unit
water consumption proposed in this paper referred to effective water, which was
130 kg/m3, 140 kg/m3 and 150 kg/m3, respectively. Watercement ratio meant
the ratio of the mass of effective water to cement, taken as 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50.
The average density of all recycled concrete (including LRC and RbC) was taken
as 2100 kg/m3, and the sand ratio was 40%. The details of concrete mixtures and
their mix proportions are shown in Table 3.
For RbC, the replacement ratio of waste brick slag was 40%, 70% and 100%,
respectively. For LRC, the replacement ratio of large particle recycled aggregate
was 0%, 50% and 100%, respectively. The details of concrete mixtures and their
mix proportions are shown in Table 4.
2.3. Specimen and test apparatus
Two 200 mm  200 mm  30 mm specimens were produced for each group in
orthogonal experiment, totaling 18 specimens. According to the criteria of
Thermal insulationDetermination of steady-state thermal resistance and related propertiesHeat ow meter apparatus GB/T 10295-2008 [22], the specimens were then
cured in the standard condition of temperature 20 2 C and relative humidity
95% for 28 days before testing. Finally, the specimens were dried in the oven in
the temperature of 80 3 C, and then cooled to room temperature, recording the
dry mass. The production of specimens of RbC and LRC were same as that of RAC.
The test apparatus for thermal conductivity of RAC included the oven, regulator,
steady-state thermal analyzer constituting of heating plate, cold plate, measuring
instrument, heat meter and timer. The test of thermal conductivity of all the specimens was conducted referring to the above criteria [22], and the procedures were
shown in Fig. 3.

3. Experimental results and discussion

3.1. Thermal conductivity and density of RAC
The thermal conductivity of each specimen in every group was
tested. The average value of two specimens was taken as the nal
thermal conductivity of RAC. Meanwhile, the dry density was calculated from the dry weight of each specimen. The results of

Mixture proportions (kg/m3)

LRC1

LRC2

LRC3

RbC1

RbC2

RbC3

Water
Cement
Natural aggregate > 10 mm
Recycled concrete
aggregate > 10 mm
Natural aggregate 510 mm
Waste slag brick 510 mm
Natural aggregate 05 mm
Waste slag brick 05 mm

130
325
987

130
325
494
494

130
325

987

130
325

130
325

130
325

658

658

658

592
395
395
263

296
691
197
461

987

658

thermal conductivity and density of RAC are shown in Table 5.

The effect of density upon the thermal conductivity of RAC is
shown in Fig. 4. It was found that the thermal conductivity of
RAC increases with the increase of density, especially for RAC.
This phenomenon is consistent with that of LWC due to quantity
of pores in matrix [23].
3.2. Orthogonal analysis of thermal conductivity of RAC
3.2.1. Range and variance analysis
The effect of various factors on the test target and the optimal
combination of all factors can be obtained through range analysis.
The ranges of four factors on thermal conductivity and density of
RAC are shown in Fig. 5. It can be found that the order of effect
of four factors on the thermal conductivity of RAC was
C > D > A > B. In other words, the replacement level of recycled
coarse aggregate is the most signicant factor affecting the thermal
conductivity of RAC, and the effects of factors A and B were
negligible.
The smaller thermal conductivity meant the stronger capacity
of thermal insulation of material with certain thickness [24]. For
orthogonal range analysis, the optimal combination is the combination of the level corresponding to the minimum thermal conductivity in each factor, so the optimal combination of mixture
proportion based on the thermal insulation behavior was A3B3
C3D3.
Evidently, the order of effect of four factors on the density of
RAC was D > C > A > B. It is different from the case of thermal conductivity of RAC. Factor C is slightly less important than factor D.
The replacement ratio of ne aggregate is the most important factor on the density of RAC, which is because that recycled ne
aggregate with higher water absorption requires more additional
water to maintain mixture workability, and then pores increase
sharply after hardening and conditioning [7,8].
The signicant impact factors can also be identied through
variance analysis. The results of variance analysis for thermal conductivity of RAC are presented in Table 6. If signicant level
a = 0.05, then F0.05(2,2) = 19. It was found that both of FC and FD
were greater than 19, which indicates that the replacement ratio
of recycled aggregate had signicant inuence on the thermal conductivity of RAC. While the watercement ratio and unit water

Table 3
Mix proportions of RAC for orthogonal experiment.
Mixture proportions (kg/m3)

RAC-1

RAC-2

RAC-3

RAC-4

RAC-5

RAC-6

RAC-7

RAC-8

RAC-9

Water
Cement
Recycled coarse aggregate 510 mm
Natural coarse aggregate 510 mm
Recycled ne aggregate 05 mm
Natural ne aggregate 05 mm

130
325
395
592
263
395

130
289
706
303
471
202

130
260
1026

684

140
350
676
290
644

140
311
989

264
396

140
280
403
605
470
202

150
375
945

441
189

150
333
388
582
647

150
300
693
297
264
396

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

Making and curing

Drying specimens

specimens

Measuring the mass

and thickness

Smoothing
the surface
and installing

Setting parameters and

Collecting data and

calculating thermal

When output

conductivity

voltage is in

specimens.

testing specimens

the stable state

Fig. 3. Test procedures of measuring the thermal conductivity.

Table 5
Experimental results of thermal conductivity and density of RAC.
Groups

Thermal conductivity (W/mK)

Density (kg/m3)

RAC-1
RAC-2
RAC-3
RAC-4
RAC-5
RAC-6
RAC-7
RAC-8
RAC-9
RbC-1
RbC-2
RbC-3
LRC-1
LRC-2
LRC-3

1.0568
0.8336
0.7392
0.8262
0.8464
0.9358
0.7350
0.9300
0.9348
1.0114
0.7678
0.8148
1.3990
1.0848
1.0114

1955
1794
1619
1768
1868
1903
1788
1832
1871
1981
1760
1617
2195
2094
1981

Fig. 5a. Range analysis of thermal conductivity of RAC.

Fig. 5b. Range analysis of density of RAC.

Fig. 4. Effect of dry density on the thermal conductivity of RAC.

consumption has no signicant inuence on the thermal conductivity. The result of variance analysis for density was same with
that of thermal conductivity, and recycled ne aggregate and
coarse aggregate has extremely signicant inuence on the density
of RAC.
3.2.2. Graphic analysis
In order to analyze experimental results simply and intuitively,
the effects of four factors on thermal conductivity and density of
RAC are shown with line graph, as shown in Fig. 6.
It is shown in Fig. 6c and d that with the increase of replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate and recycled ne aggregate, the thermal conductivity and density of RAC both decrease.
Compared to the replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate
and recycled ne aggregate, the factors of unit water consumption

Table 6
Variance analysis of thermal conductivity of RAC.
Factors

Sum of squares

Degree of freedom

F-value

A
B
C
D
Error
Sum

0.00015
0.00001
0.06056
0.02541
0.00001
0.08613

2
2
2
2
2
8

15
1
6056
2541

and watercement ratio have little impact on thermal conductivity

and density of RAC, which agrees with the results of range analysis.
It is also found in Fig. 6d that when the replacement ratio of recycled ne aggregate increases from 70% to 100%, the decrease of
thermal conductivity is not signicant, which is probably because
that the suitable aggregate gradation results in little change of
thermal conductivity.

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

with that of RAC. It can also be observed that the thermal conductivity of LRC decreases slowly when the replacement ratio of
recycled aggregate increases from 50% to 100%.
In comparison with RAC, the thermal conductivity of LRC is a
little larger. It is because that large particle recycled aggregate
has slighter damage and less pores. From the composition of large
particle recycled aggregate, the percentages of undisturbed stones,
secondary aggregate and mortar are 35%, 50% and 12%, respectively. That is, the recycled aggregate with larger particle size can
keep the characteristic of high thermal conductivity of natural
aggregate, and certainly the thermal conductivity of LRC decreases
less.
Fig. 6a. Effect of factor A on the thermal conductivity and density of RAC.

3.4. Recycled brick concrete

Fig. 6b. Effect of factor B on the thermal conductivity and density of RAC.

The effect of replacement ratio of waste brick slag on the

thermal conductivity of RbC is shown in Fig. 8. With the increase
of replacement ratio of waste brick slag, the thermal conductivity
of RbC rst decreases and then increases. The value of thermal conductivity of RbC was smallest at the replacement ratio of 70%,
which indicates that suitable replacement ratio of waste brick slag
can improve the thermal property of RbC. One possible explanation
for this phenomenon is that the crushed waste brick slag with high
water absorption causes large water evaporation in the matrix,
resulting in decrease of dense degree of RbC. It is well know that
the thermal conductivity of material usually decreases with the
decrease of dense degree [17]. The situation would be different if
the replacement ratio exceeds a certain value, which is because
that large amount of waste brick slag with low quality changes
the internal structure and thermal property of RbC. The value of
thermal conductivity of RbC is smaller than that of RAC at replacement levels of 40% and 70%, which is probably because that the
thermal conductivity of waste brick slag is less than that of waste
concrete. However, the reason for the observation at 100%

Fig. 6c. Effect of factor C on the thermal conductivity and density of RAC.

Fig. 7. Effect of the replacement ratio of large recycled aggregate on the thermal
conductivity and density of LRC.

Fig. 6d. Effect of factor D on the thermal conductivity and density of RAC.

3.3. Large particle recycled concrete

The effect of the replacement ratio of large particle recycled
aggregate on the thermal conductivity and density of recycled concrete are shown in Fig. 7. It can be found that the thermal conductivity and density of LRC both decrease with the increase of
replacement ratio of recycled aggregate, and the tendency is same

Fig. 8. Effect of the replacement ratio of waste brick slag on the thermal
conductivity of RbC.

L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

replacement ratio is not clear, which may also due to the use of
large amount of waste brick slag with low quality.
4. Theoretical analysis and calculation of the thermal
conductivity of RAC
4.1. Effect of RCA on the thermal conductivity of RAC
Effects of the four factors upon thermal conductivity of RAC can
be obtained by analyzing the orthogonal experimental results. As
the factors considered in the orthogonal experiment are based on
the mixture proportion level, it is difcult to analyze the change
of thermal conductivity of RAC with these four factors. In order
to predict the thermal conductivity of RAC, it is necessary to dene
multiple parameters which can reect the effect of these four
factors on the thermal conductivity of RAC.
The main difference between RAC and normal concrete is that
the former partially or entirely adopts recycled aggregate to
replace the natural aggregate, but they have the same manufacturing technique. The performance degradation of recycled aggregate
is mainly in the level of physical property. Therefore, RAC can be
thought as a kind of degraded normal concrete, so that the achievements on thermal conductivity of normal concrete can be applied
to that of RAC. At normal temperature, the internal humidity of
concrete, the number and distribution of pores in matrix and type
of aggregate are the main factors affecting the thermal conductivity of normal concrete [12,13]. The effect of internal humidity can
be ignored after the state adjustment of specimens in this experiment. The number of pores in matrix can be characterized by the
dry density. The type of aggregate can be characterized by the
weighted crushing index of aggregate.
According to the above analysis, an inuence coefcient c of
recycled aggregate on thermal conductivity of RAC based on the
formula below is proposed:
0
1 q1

c g1 q1 1  g

qg2 q2

where g1 is the replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate, g2 is

the replacement ratio of recycled ne aggregate, q1 and q2 are the
percentages of crushing index of recycled coarse and ne aggregates, respectively, q01 is the percentage of crushing index of natural
coarse aggregate, and q is the reduction coefcient, which reects
the effect of recycled ne aggregate on thermal conductivity. The
value of q can be calculated according to the ranges of orthogonal
test, that is q 0:114=0:201 0:56.
The effect of inuence coefcient c on the thermal conductivity
of RAC is illustrated in Fig. 9. The correlation coefcient between
thermal conductivity and inuence coefcient c reaches 0.956,
while correlation coefcient between thermal conductivity and
dry density is 0.813 in Fig. 3. It indicates that the liner relationship
between thermal conductivity and inuence coefcient c is more
signicant.

Fig. 9. Effect of inuence coefcient c on the thermal conductivity of RAC.

625

Furthermore, the additional water absorbed by recycled aggregate remains as free water after concrete hardening, which results
in the increase of pores in the matrix and decrease of density.
Therefore, the inuence coefcient c can reect not only the type
of aggregate, but also the situation of pores in matrix. Compared
with the dry density of RAC, the inuence coefcient c can comprehensively reect the change of thermal conductivity of RAC.
The above analysis indicates that the internal mechanism of
thermal conductivity of RAC is consistent with that of normal concrete. The quantity of pores and type of aggregate are still the main
factors affecting the thermal conductivity of RAC in the conditions
of certain temperature and humidity.

4.2. Modied model of thermal conductivity

Presently, there are two main types of calculation models for
the thermal conductivity of concrete [25]. One assumes concrete
to be a typical porous material, acquiring the distribution of
aggregate in matrix through experimentation, with which the thermal conductivity can be calculated. Due to the complex operation,
this model is not widely applied in practice. The second model is
proposed based on the transfer path of heat ow in concrete.
One path is through continuous mortar layer, and the other is
through discontinuous aggregate and mortar.
It is very difcult to obtain the distribution of aggregate in the
matrix due to the complex composition of RAC. Therefore, according to the experiment data, a typical model resembling the second
type, Campbell-Allen and Thorne model [12] is employed in this
paper, which is expressed as follows:



k km 2M  M 2

km ka 1  M 2
ka M km 1  M

where M 1  1  p1=3 , km and ka are the thermal conductivities

of mortar and aggregate respectively, and p is the volume ratio of
mortar in concrete. Since there are both recycled aggregate and
natural aggregate in RAC, it is necessary to redene km and ka . It
is proposed in this paper that km is dened as the average value
of thermal conductivity calculated by parallel conduction model
and vertical model, considering the water, cement, natural ne
aggregate and recycled ne aggregate. ka is dened as the average
value of thermal conductivity calculated by parallel conduction
model and vertical model, considering the natural coarse aggregate
and recycled coarse aggregate.
The recycled aggregate is processed from parent concrete after
crushing, so the thermal conductivity of recycled aggregate can be
taken as the thermal conductivity of normal concrete [26], and the
value is 1.400 W/mK in this test. At the temperature of 20 C, the
thermal conductivity of water is 0.576 W/mK, that of cement is
1.233 W/mK, that of granite as natural coarse aggregate is
2.913 W/mK, and that of quartz sand as natural ne aggregate is
3.086 W/mK. According to the above values, the calculation results
of thermal conductivity of RAC are presented in Table 7.
Compared with the experimental results in Table 5, the calculation results based on Campbell-Allen and Thorne model are
greater. This is due to high replacement ratio of recycled aggregate
in this test. It is well known that high replacement ratio of recycled
aggregate will result in more additional water remained in the
matrix. As a result, there will be much more pores in the matrix
after conditioning in dry state. In addition, the thermal conductivity of water is 0.576 W/mK, and air 0.03 W/mK, so if the water is
substituted by air, the thermal conductivity of RAC will decrease
[17].
The relationship between inuence coefcient c and the experimental results and calculation results of thermal conductivity of

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

Table 7
Calculated results of thermal conductivity of RAC.
Group

Thermal conductivity (W/mK)

RAC-1
RAC-2
RAC-3
RAC-4
RAC-5
RAC-6
RAC-7
RAC-8
RAC-9

1.2048
1.0434
0.9014
0.9654
1.0064
1.1277
0.9397
1.0379
1.0846

5. Thermal property of recycled concrete block

RAC is shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that there are signicant linear relationships between c and these two results.
The thermal conductivity of RAC is associated with the type of
aggregate and distribution of pores. Inuence coefcient c can
reect the properties of aggregate and pores in RAC according to
the above analysis, so it is employed to modify the calculation
results to agree with the experimental results. Based on the linear
relationship between c and the thermal conductivity, a modied
formula is proposed as follows:

k00 k0 k  k0 k0 f c

where k00 is the modied thermal conductivity, k0 is the calculation

value of thermal conductivity from Eq. (2), and k is the experimental
value of thermal conductivity. f c can be expressed by the difference of the two linear tting formula in Fig. 9. Then substitute Eq.
(2) into Eq. (3) to obtain the following formula:



k00 km 2M  M 2

small. These parameters in Eq. (4) are easy to get from the mix proportion of RAC. Therefore, the modied formula is very convenient
for engineering application.

km ka 1  M2
 0:00101c  0:13579
ka M km 1  M
4

Thermal conductivity of RAC is calculated from Eq. (4), and the

calculation results and comparison with experimental results are
presented in Table 8. It can be seen that the relative error between
the modied calculated value and the experimental value is very

Fig. 10. Relationship between inuence coefcient c and experimental and

calculation results of thermal conductivity of RAC.

Occasionally RAC is used to manufacture recycled concrete

block which is usually used to build walls. The thermal and insulating performance of walls is very important for engineering application. This section focuses on the thermal property of recycled
concrete block.
Assuming that the heat transfer in recycled concrete blocks is a
one-dimensional steady heat transfer, the thermal resistance of
hollow block can be calculated from the formula for the case of
combination wall [24]. The average of thermal resistance of combination wall should be calculated as follows:

3
F
0
R4F
 Ri Re 5u
1
2
n
RF0;2
      RF0;n
R0;1

where R is the average thermal resistance, F 0 is the total heat transfer area perpendicular to the direction of heat ow, F 1 ; . . . ; F n are the
divided areas parallel to the direction of heat ow, R0;1 ; . . . ; R0;n are
thermal resistance of heat transfer surface, Ri is the thermal resistance of inner surface, whose value is 0.11 m2K/W, Re is the thermal
resistance of outer surface, whose value is 0.04 m2K/W, and u is
correction factor.
The mixture proportion of RAC-1 was employed to manufacture
recycled concrete block. By reasonable arrangement of the number
and distribution of holes, the thermal resistance of recycled concrete
block can be improved effectively when the material is certain [27].
Two types of RAC block were designed and manufactured, one with
single row of holes (390  190  190 mm), the other with three
rows of holes (390  240  190 mm), which are shown in Fig. 11.
Their porosities are 48% and 36%, respectively.
The values of thermal resistance of these two recycled concrete
blocks calculated from Eq. (5) are 0.59 m2K/W and 0.63 m2K/W.
Although the recycled concrete block with three rows of holes
has less porosity, it has greater thermal resistance. The presence
of staggered-array holes in the block with three rows of holes
means expanding the heat conduction path, which is equivalent
to increase the thickness of blocks. It is well known that the value
of thermal resistance is proportional to the thickness of blocks.
Thus the recycled concrete block with three rows of holes has better thermal and insulating performance than the block with single
row of holes while the value of thermal resistance of recycled concrete solid block was only 0.23 m2K/W, which is much less than
the hollow block.
These visible holes can decrease its thermal conductivity.
Thermal resistance is inversely proportional to the thermal conductivity of block, so the thermal and insulating performance of
block with holes is better than the solid block. In addition, the
blocks with three rows of holes can reduce the dead load and consumption of material [28]. It is important to point out that the
strength test of recycled concrete block with three rows of holes
showed that its strength reaches 7.53 MPa, making it suitable for
bearing wall.

Table 8
Comparison of thermal conductivity of recycled concrete between modied value and experimental value.
Group

RAC-1

RAC-2

RAC-3

RAC-4

RAC-5

RAC-6

RAC-7

RAC-8

RAC-9

Experimental value (W/mK)

Modied value (W/mK)
Relative error (%)

1.0568
1.0505
0.06

0.8336
0.8796
5.52

0.7392
0.7284
1.46

0.8262
0.7980
3.41

0.8464
0.8407
0.07

0.9358
0.9697
3.62

0.7350
0.7703
4.80

0.9300
0.8767
5.73

0.9348
0.9248
1.07

L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

627

Fig. 11a. Recycled concrete block with single row of holes.

Fig. 13. Placement of measuring points of heat transfer coefcient of recycled
concrete block wall.

technology, which contains hot box, control box, touched screen

PC and temperature sensors.
The test shows that the heat transfer coefcient of recycled concrete block wall with exterior insulation material is 0.93 W/m2K,
which meets the requirement of design standard for energy
efciency of public buildings GB50189-2005 [29], which is less than
1.0 W/m2K. Therefore, recycled concrete block wall can provide
good thermal insulation for building.
Fig. 11b. Recycled concrete block with three rows of holes.

7. Conclusions
6. Heat transfer coefcient of recycled concrete block wall
A frame structure made of recycled concrete was built in
Sichuan Province China. This building is a two story ofce building.
The columns, beams and plates are all made of RAC, and the
external walls are made of the above recycled concrete block with
three rows of holes. To investigate its thermal property in practical
structure, its heat transfer coefcient was tested.
The details of recycled concrete block wall are illustrated in
Fig. 12. The extruded polystyrene foam insulation board with the
thickness of 30 mm was placed on the outer layer of masonry to
improve its thermal property.
Two measuring points were placed, which is shown in Fig. 13.
The distances from these two measuring points to the window
are 1550 mm and 1850 mm, respectively, and also the distances
are greater than 1000 mm from the points to corners, beams,
columns, so the impact of thermal bridge can be ignored.
The test instrument is CRY-II heat transfer coefcient tester for
masonry wall manufactured by Shenyang institute of computing

From outside to inside

Exterior wall coating
Polymer mortar (4mm)
Extruded polystyrene foam
insulation board (30mm)
Polymer mortar (3mm)
Cement mortar (20mm)
Recycled concrete block wall
(240mm)

This study set out to investigate the thermal properties of RAC

and recycled concrete block. The following conclusions can be
drawn from the present study:
 The replacement ratio of recycled aggregate has a signicant
effect on thermal conductivity and density of RAC, while the
effects of water consumption and watercement ratio on thermal conductivity of RAC are negligible. The thermal conductivity of RAC decreases with the increase of replacement ratio of
recycled aggregate, in particular of recycled coarse aggregate.
 There is a close relationship between the density and thermal
conductivity of recycled concrete. The greater the density of
recycled concrete is, the greater the thermal conductivity is, in
particular of RAC.
 The thermal conductivity of LRC also decreases with the
increase of replacement ratio of recycled aggregate, and it is
larger than thermal conductivity of RAC due to better preservation of properties of natural aggregate.
 The thermal conductivity of RbC is less than that of RAC at
certain replacement ratio of recycled aggregate.
 The inuence coefcient of recycled aggregate c is dened and
the effect of recycled aggregate on thermal conductivity of
RAC is better explained. A modied formula based on c was
proposed to calculate the thermal conductivity of RAC.
 Two types of RAC blocks were manufactured and the values of
thermal resistance were calculated. The RAC block with three
rows of holes has better thermal property.
 The heat transfer coefcient of recycled concrete block masonry
in a practical engineering was tested, and it was 0.93 W/m2K,
which meets the requirements of related codes.

Interior wall plaster

Acknowledgements

Fig. 12. Detail of recycled concrete block wall.

The presented work was supported by the project of Shaanxi

Province Excellent Young Scholars (2013KJXX-53), China
Scholarship for Study Abroad, Program for Changjiang Scholars
and Innovative Research Team in University, and Innovation
Team of Xian University of Architecture and Technology.

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L. Zhu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 94 (2015) 620628

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