Role of Recycled and Geosynthetic Materials in Enhancing Civil Engineering Environment

Three types of geosynthetic are used in this study to stabilize recycled ballast in the laboratory model. The compressive strength of recycled aggregate concrete is relatively lower up to 15% than natural aggregate concrete. The durability parameters confirms suitability of RCA & RAC in making durable concrete structures of selected types. The weakest specimens tested obtained maximum compressive strengths ranging from 120 kN/m to 140 kN/m, almost 10 times as great as those typically achieved by conventional stud-frame housing in terms of load per metre of wall length. The lowest load deformation response was observed for specimen group, at 0.7kN/mm. The strongest and stiffest results were observed with load deformation responses ranging from 8 kN/mm to 15 kN/mm, and compressive strength two orders of magnitude higher than conventional stud-frame housing, ranging from 1100 kN/m to 1300 kN/m. A typical concrete commercial building can deliver savings equivalent to the embodied CO2 of a lifetime of goods and saving of more than 1,000 tonnes of embodied CO2.It is found that the operational energy saving can offset the higher embodied CO2 associated with concrete and masonry homes in just a decade of use.