Influence of Recycled Aggregate on the Rheological Behavior of Cement Mortar

In this work it was studied the influence of recycled fine aggregate obtained from construction and demolition waste (CDW) on the rheological properties of Portland cement mortars. The CDW was initially separate in their main constituents (mortar, ceramic and concrete debris) at the laboratory and then grinded separately to the sand size in order to generate more homogeneous fine aggregates. The characterization of the natural and recycled sands was carried out through physical tests, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and image analysis (shape and texture description parameters). A conventional mortar and three mortars containing recycled sands were produced with a sand/cement ratio of 4 and consistency index of 255±5 mm. The consistency was kept constant by ranging the water-cement ratio from 0.58 to 1.14. The rheological study was performed using a rotating viscometer to obtain torque-rotation ratio and to calculate the yield stress and plastic viscosity. The results indicate that the presence of recycled aggregate causes a lowering of both yield stress and plastic viscosity with respect to the mortar containing natural aggregate.