Work

Large Concrete Rubble as a New Structural Construction Material: Opportunities and Digital Processes for Load-Bearing Walls

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Concrete is amongst the most wasted materials on earth, mainly due to building demolitions. Currently, after a building’s end of life, concrete is crushed to be used as replacement gravel in new concrete mixes or for backfilling. Aiming to increase the circularity of the construction industry, this article presents design explorations and a design-to-construction process for building single-leaf masonry walls from large flat demolition concrete rubble, thus avoiding the need for further crushing after initial demolition. The proposed process augments the capabilities of conventional construction machinery with new digital control and sensing devices that are widely available on the market and at low cost. The design-to-construction process is implemented through methods of physical prototyping and load testing of a full-scale demonstrator to benchmark the construction precision and the structural, environmental, and productivity performances. The results highlight the viability and scalability of the approach, calling for a more systematic reuse of concrete rubble as it allows for the construction of low-carbon masonry structures while diverging part of concrete waste from downcycling and landfilling.

Source: Buildings

DOI: 10.3390/buildings15091437

Authors: Maxence Grangeot, Malena Bastien-Masse, Corentin Fivet, Stefana Parascho

Institution: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Language: English

Topic: Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Responsible consumption and production, Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137