Least-cost Control Optimization to Produce Concrete Prepared with Recycled Concrete Aggregate and Fly Ash

Abstract

This research illustrates how to optimize non-traditional and traditional mixes from different perspectives, particularly ecological life cycle (such as energy consumption and global warming), economic (cost), and technical performances (such as durability and mechanical characteristics). The weights to be firstly considered for each performance dimension (perspectives) depend on the users' requirements and concrete applications. Concrete mixes with different quantities of fly ashes and reclaimed concrete aggregates (RCAs) are optimized for various construction industry applications, namely residential housing far or close from the sea, economical residential housing, sustainable residential housing, and high-rise buildings. Multi-criteria decision approaches, or methodology for concrete optimizations, were used to the concrete mixes for that purpose by considering the international need scenarios such as business, as usual, service life, green, strength, and cost are often required by the consumers. The findings indicate that for all scenarios and applications that consumers can demand in terms of concrete properties, ecological and cost impacts are the optimum concrete mixes generated with both incorporations of recycled concrete aggregates and fly ashes, instead of their incorporations. This research indicates that in its applications, multi-criteria decision method or methodology for concrete optimization is straightforward. It is concentrated on the ultimate output. The optimum concrete mix selections can be directly utilized by the users and do not require excessive resources and time. Therefore, multi-criteria decision method or methodology for concrete optimization avoids the lengthy modifications and inventory analyses.