Effects of Curing Methods on the Permeability and Mechanism of Cover Concrete

Curing methods are one of the most important factors in determining the quality and compactness of cover concrete.The effect of curing methods on the water absorption and sorptivity coefficient of cover concrete with the substitution ratio of fly ash(FA)and ground granulated blast slag(GGBS)for cement between 30 wt%and 40 wt%was studied by capillary water absorption test.The vacuum saturation test and mercury intrusion test were employed to characterize these differences in the pore structure of cover concrete under different curing methods.With further analysis of the compactness of microstructure by SEM,the mechanism of the impact of curing methods on the permeability of cover concrete was revealed.The results obtained indicate that the effect of curing methods on the water absorption,sorptivity coefficient and porosity of cover concrete shows the trend of natural curing>cover curing>water curing>standard curing.It is also shown that reasonable curing is advantageous to reduce the porosity and permeability of cover concrete.In natural curing conditions,the appearance of porosity increasing and pore structure coarsening is more critical for covering concrete with mineral admixtures than for pure cement concrete.Therefore,the permeability of cover concrete with mineral admixtures is more sensitive to the early-age curing methods.

Prediction of the Residual Strength for Durability Failure of Concrete Structure in Acidic Environments

According to the results of accelerated tests of acidification corrosion depth and compressive strength of concretes subjected to sulfuric acid environments,the acidification depth laws of concretes were predicted based on the grey system theory.Thus,the remaining compressive strength was calculated when the acidification depth reached the protection layer thickness of concrete structures,which indicates that the limit state of durability failure can be defined based on strength degradation,and the calculation process was illustrated by an example.The calculated results show that the remaining compressive strength values in the durability failure limit state for the concrete structures exposed to p H=2 and 3 sulfuric acid water environments and wet-dry cyclic sulfuric acid environment with p H=2 are 74%,72%,and 80% of initialstrength,respectively.The method provides references for the durability evaluation of concrete structure design under the acidic environments.

A Calculation Model for Corrosion Cracking in RC Structures

A novel calculation model is proposed aiming at the problem of concrete cover cracking induced by reinforcement corrosion. In this article, the relationship between the corrosion depth of the bar and the thickness of the rust layer is established. By deducing the radial displacement expression of concrete, the formula for corrosion depth and corrosion pressure before cracking is proposed. The crack depth of cover in accordance with the maximum corrosion pressure is deduced; furthermore, the corrosion depth and corrosion pressure at the cracking time are obtained. Finally, the theoretical model is validated by several experiments, and the calculated values agree well with the experiment results.