Splitting tensile strength of natural aggregates, recycled aggregates and brick chips concrete

This paper presents an experimental study and analysis of the splitting tensile strength (f_t) and relationship between splitting tensile strength and compressive strength (f′_c) of concrete made of three types of coarse aggregates; namely crushed brick chips (CBC), natural stone aggregates (SA) and recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). Four concrete mixtures with different target strengths were prepared and for each mixture, six cylindrical samples were subjected to split-cylinder tests and another six cylindrical samples were subjected to compression tests at 28 d. Raw test data were then analysed according to the American Concrete Institute (ACI) 214 and the average tensile strength obtained was compared with the relevant compressive strength based on statistical curve fitting. This study shows that while the ACI equation and equations suggested by other authors for the correlation between splitting tensile strength and compressive strength are applicable for SA concrete, they are not quite applicable for concrete made with CBC or RCA. Thus, new empirical equations are derived to predict the splitting tensile strength from concrete compressive strength for concrete made with CBC and RCA.