An experimental investigation on applying the recycled aggregates obtained from oil contaminated concrete exposed to seawater as sub-ballast layer in railway

By the population growth and the increasing need in new transportation infrastructure, especially railway, and with the attention to the reduction of natural materials, using the recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste (CDW) is spreading around the world. One of the most important resources of RA is oil contaminated concrete of oil platforms and wharves which are exposed to sea water. In this paper, first of all, the cubic samples of oil contaminated concrete with different percentages of oil contamination including 1%, 2%, 4% and 6% were built. The curing of the samples was done in the sea water (Oman sea-Chabahar coast/Iran).Then the samples were broken and crushed under experimental conditions. In the rest, the recycled oil contaminated aggregates were sieved and the possibility of the use of them as the granular aggregates of sub-ballast layer according to AASHTO and ASTM was investigated. Gradation, Atterberg limits, maximum dry weight and optimum moisture content, sand equivalent, California Bearing Ratio, Los Angles abrasion value and water absorption tests were done on RA. To assess and compare the "Railway Track Superstructure General Technical Specifications" Code (Code No. : 301) were considered. The experimental results show that RA with different contamination percentages have all of requirements that represented by code recommendations. So, it is possible to use of contaminated RAs as sub-ballast layer.