Brine-freeze-thaw Durability and Crack Density Model of Concrete in Salt Lake Region

The brine-freeze-thaw durability (defined as the durability under freeze-thaw cycles in Qinghai salt lake brine) of concrete (ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPC), high performance concrete (HPC-a), high performance concrete with steel fiber (HPC-b), and high performance concrete with high Young's modulus polyethylene fiber (HPC-c)) was systematically investigated by the relative dynamic elastic modulus, the relative mass, the appearance, the scanning electron microscopy, and the X-ray diffraction. In addition, the low-temperature physical and chemical corrosion mechanism and a crack density model after the modified relative dynamic elastic modulus being taken into consideration were proposed. The results show that the deterioration of OPC is the severest, followed by HPC-a, HPC-c and HPC-b. The admixture or the fiber is mixed into concrete, which can improve the brine-freeze-thaw durability of concrete. The critical mass growth of the failure of concrete is 3.7%. The cause of the deterioration of concrete under the brine-freeze-thaw cycles is physical and chemical corrosion, not freezing and thawing. The crack density model can effectively describe the deterioration evolution of concrete.

Evaluating Deterioration of Concrete by Sulfate Attack

Effects of factors such as water to cement ratio, fly ash and silica fume on the resistance of concrete to sulfate attack were investigated by dry-wet cycles and immersion method. The index of the resistance to sulfate attack was used to evaluate the deterioration degree of concrete damaged by sulfate. The relationship between the resistance of concrete to sulfate attack and its permeability/porosity were analyzed as well as its responding mechanism. Results show that the depth of sulfate crystal attack from surface to inner of concrete can be reduced by decreasing w/c and addition of combining fly ash with silica fume. The variation of relative elastic modulus ratio and relative flexural strength ratio of various specimens before and after being subjected to sulfate attack was compared.

Durability of Concrete with Different Improvement Measures and Its Ser-vice Life Prediction in Island and Reef Environment

To solve the durability of island and reef concrete engineering in the harsh environment of high temperature,high salt,high humidity and windy,the strength grade of concrete and the type of corrosion inhibitor were used as the influence factors,while the relative dynamic elastic modulus was used as the evaluation index.In addition,the law and time variability of the deterioration of concrete,the size effect,environmental similarity and the service life model were studied.The results showed that improving the strength grade of concrete could improve the durability of concrete,and corrosion inhibitor could slightly improve the durability of concrete.Time-varying law of the deterioration of concrete conformed to the univariate quadratic polynomial.Combined with the concrete damage equivalent theory,a size effect model based on the relative dynamic elastic modulus was proposed and verified,and the size effect coefficient was also given.An environmental similarity model between simulated and practical island and reef environment was proposed.Combined with the reliability theory and the first order second moment method,a new service life model of concrete structure was proposed.The authors were convinced that the research will be advantageous to researchers.

Freeze-thaw Resistance of Concrete in Seawater

The effect of freeze-thaw cycles in seawater on the performance of concrete was studied in this paper. Concrete samples with different water binder ratio and different component were prepared,and were then put into fresh water and synthesized seawater. After the experiments of freeze-thaw cycles,the mass loss,relative dynamic elastic modulus (RDEM) and compressive strength of each sample were tested. The results obtained reveal that with the increase of the water binder ratio,the resistance ability of freeze-thaw impact in seawater of concrete decrease dramatically. When the concrete contain 15% fly ash and 20% slag,its resistance ability to the freeze-thaw impact in seawater is the optimal. Compared to the seawater corrosion,the impact of freeze-thaw cycles to the properties of concrete is severer.