Constitutive formulations for concrete with recycled aggregates

In this Chapter, a thermodynamically consistent gradient model is proposed for natural aggregate concrete and then, modified to take into account the addition of different contents of recycled aggregates and its influence on concrete mechanical response. A particular and simple form of gradient-based plasticity is considered, where the state variables are the only ones of non-local character. After describing the material formulation for natural and recycled aggregate concretes, the model calibration is performed with experimental data taken from literature. A comprehensive numerical analysis is presented, where the effects of the recycled aggregate content on the performance of concrete in pre and post-peak behavior are evaluated and discussed, for different stress states. Finally, the ability of the model to capture the variation of mechanical response of concrete with different recycled aggregate contents is demonstrated for different mechanical tests.