Exposure to severe temperatures is one of the critical effects on concrete damage. Additionally, the aggregate porosity (pores in the range of 0.1–0.5 μm) is the characteristic that influences freeze–thaw resistance due to the pore saturation resulting in the concrete deterioration.
Freeze and thaw is a durability property which is the volumetric contraction and expansion of hardened concrete caused by abrupt temperature change in cold climes resulting in micro or macro cracks.
The mechanism results in internal stresses, such as hydraulic pressure; osmotic pressure and pressure induced by the growth of crystals in pores and their interaction with pore walls. Additionally, this process causes internal relative humidity gradients within the cement paste matrix which leads to the reduction in concrete volume, i.e. drying shrinkage.
The main aim of this study is to review the literature on procedures to evaluate freeze and thaw resistance of cycled aggregate in concrete, and some discussion on the treatments to enhance its durability has been included.
The most relevant and cited paper in the Scopus and Web of Science databases were analysed to identify the effective treatments and mitigation processes to improve the resistance of recycled aggregate concrete under freeze and thaw cycles.