Aguilera Clouet, Pablo2025-10-062025-10-062025-10-06http://hdl.handle.net/10393/50905https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-31435In pursuit of reducing the carbon footprint and improve the efficiency of the concrete industry, the use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) has been proposed and researched as possible solution. However, their reputation has been hampered by the low workability and performance of new RCA concrete mixes. The development of the Equivalent Mortar Volume (EMV) Method in the past decade allowed a better understanding of RCA characteristics and provided way to produce reliable and consistent concrete with properties like those of conventional concrete. This project continues the development path of the EMV Method by studying its influence on the bond behaviour of small-scale structural specimens subjected to cyclic loads to assess the possible use of structural concrete containing RCA in seismic applications. The first stage was dedicated to the development of an EMV mix with a characteristic compressive strength of 35 MPa and a water-to-cement ratio of 0.40. These parameters resulted in a cement mass reduction of 28% and an RCA replacement ratio of 74% when compared to a reference mix without RCA. The second stage of the project focused on 18 beam-end tests with three bar size - embedment length configurations, namely 15M - 170 mm, 15M - 320 mm, and 25M - 320 mm. Half of the specimens were subjected to monotonic loading and the other half to tension cyclic loading. The chosen combinations allowed the study of different failure mechanisms, such as splitting/pullout failure, bar rupture, and splitting failure, respectively. The results of the bond tests indicate the EMV mixes were able to follow the performance of the conventional concrete during the cyclic tests across all combinations, closely matching the failure mechanisms, peak loads, and ultimate displacements; thus, following the same trends observed during previous monotonic studies. It is also proved that the current Canadian provisions for conventional concrete could be potentially applied for RCA concrete made with the EMV Method.enAttribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/Recycled ConcreteEMV MethodStructural ApplicationsCyclic Bond BehaviourThesis