A scientometric analysis approach to analyze the present research on recycled aggregate concrete

Abstract

The growing state of research on recycled aggregate (R-A) concrete presents academics with an information overload that may obstruct effective research and academic collaboration. Scientometric analysis has the potential to quantitatively analyze the various aspects of the extensive literature using a suitable software tool. This study adopted a scientometric analysis approach along with the traditional review of the present state of research on R-A concrete. The bibliographic data was retrieved from the Scopus database comprising 2180 documents and analyzed. The publication sources, keywords, authors, articles, and countries were evaluated from the bibliographic data. Also, the most crucial areas of R-A concrete have been highlighted and examined. The practical use of R-A concrete is examined, as are improving strategies. The scientometric analysis revealed that the leading authors in the relevant field are De Brito J. and Poon C.S., based on the number of publications and citations, respectively. It was concluded from the literature review that R-A concrete exhibits inferior mechanical and durability performance due to the weak mechanical characteristics of R–As. By employing improvement techniques like mixing process modification, pre-coating the R–As, and addition of admixtures can help improve R-A concrete performance. The large-scale applications of R-A concrete are limited due to its inferior mechanical and durability properties, increased cost of improvement techniques, and lack of standards for the processing of R–As, as well as the production and mix design of R-A concrete. Finally, new research has been suggested in light of the gaps in the current study. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd