A novel high-damping metaconcrete through designing resonant aggregates made from recycled rubber powder-coated coarse aggregate

A recently developed type of metaconcrete consists of engineered resonant steel cells exhibiting superior wave attenuation and energy dissipation capacity. Nonetheless, it has always been a challenging task to prepare affordable and environmentally friendly metaconcrete. In this study, we employed recycled rubber powder (RP) to coat coarse aggregate (crushed stone) as a resonant aggregate (RA). The RA was then incorporated into the metaconcrete using conventional mechanical mixing techniques. The results demonstrated a significant 175% increase in the damping ratio of the metaconcrete, primarily attributable to the superior energy dissipation of the RA. Furthermore, the RP coating eliminated the interface transition zone (ITZ) in the concrete, thereby enhancing its impermeability and freeze-thaw resistance. This research presents an innovative approach to developing environmentally friendly cementitious materials with high damping properties.