Petrochemical and petrophysical characterisation of construction and demolition inert materials for concrete.

Use of recycled aggregates is promoted by EU with guidelines for common strategies for a correct re-use of construction and demolition (C&D) [Poon et al., 2001]. In Italy, the legislation is encouraging the re-use of C&D inert materials but, due to the scarcity of suitable plants for processing, this resource is used as a lower quality materials for low grade application. In this study, different grain-size fractions, obtained by a grain-size sorting, from a C&D processing plant in Rovigo (NE Italy), were investigated through chemical and physical testing, to evaluate their composition, assisting in the development of improved recycling methodologies for concrete. Chemical-mineralogical and physical analysis have shown that the material is roughly homogenous. Several concrete mixes were prepared using different percentage of recycled aggregate and tested. The data have shown that the introduction of 30% of inert recycled coarse fraction, substituting natural coarse aggregate, does not affect the concrete.