Expansion Performance and Microstructure of High-performance Concrete using Differently Scaled MgO Agents and Mineral Powder

To investigate the assumptions proposed in this paper,the evolution law governing the strength and expansion performance of MgO and nano-MgO micro-expansive concrete in the environment of mineral powder was firstly observed in this study.Secondly,SEM,XRD,and TG-DSC microscopic tests were conducted to reveal the effects of the active mineral-powder admixture on the hydration degree and expansion performance of MgO and nano-MgO in HPC.Our experimental results successfully verified our hypothesis,which indicated that the expansion performance of macro-MgO and nano-MgO was indeed depressed by the addition of active mineral power admixtures,even though the mechanical property of concrete composites was effectively improved.Furthermore,the hydration test also demonstrated the negative interference on the mineral powders,which was induced by the expansion agents.It is found the amounts of hydrates tend to decrease because the mineral powder ratio reaches and exceeds 40%.Moreover,it is also concluded the effect of expansion agents is governed by the alkalinity cement paste,especially for the nano-MgO.In other words,the expansion performance of nano-MgO will vary more obviously with the hydration process,than MgO.The results of this study provide that effective experimental and theoretical data support the hydration-inhibition mechanism of magnesium expansive agents.

Probabilistic Lifetime Assessment of Marine Reinforced Concrete with Steel Corrosion and Cover Cracking

In order to study the durability behavior of marine reinforced concrete structure suffering from chloride attack, the structural service life is assumed to be divided into three critical stages, which can be characterized by steel corrosion and cover cracking. For each stage, a calculated model used to predict the lifetime is developed. Based on the definition of durability limit state, a probabilistic lifetime model and its time-dependent reliability analytical method are proposed considering the random natures of influencing factors. Then, the probabilistic lifetime prediction models are applied to a bridge pier located in the Hangzhou Bay with Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the time to corrosion initiation to follows a lognormal distribution, while that the time from corrosion initiation to cover cracking t~ and the time for crack to develop from hairline crack to a limit crack width t2 can be described by Weibull distributions. With the permitted failure probability of 5.0%, it is also observed that the structural durability lifetime mainly depends on the durability life to and that the percentage of participation of the life to to the total service life grows from 61.5% to 83.6% when the cover thickness increases from 40 mm to 80 mm. Therefore, for any part of the marine RC bridge, the lifetime predictions and maintenance efforts should also be directed toward controlling the stage of corrosion initiation induced by chloride ion.

Effect of Fly Ash on Frost-Resistance and Chloride Ions Diffusion Properties of Marine Concrete

It is necessary to pay more attention to the durability of concrete undergoing freeze-thaw cycles and seawater attack simultaneously.Investigated are the effects of water-binder ratio,fly ash（FA）contents and air-entraining agent on resistance to frost and chloride diffusion of marine concrete blended with FA in natural seawater.The results show that fly ash does not improve the frost resistance of concrete but can improve its resistance to chloride diffusion by addition of less than 30%.The resistance to frost and chloride diffusion of FA concrete can be improved with the decrease of water-binder ratio,and FA may improve both of them simultaneously only being mixed with air-entraining agent.A ratio（named as R）of the frost-resisting durability factor to chloride diffusion coefficient can be used to evaluate the durability of marine concrete.Scanning electron microscope（SEM）analyses are consistent with the evaluations by the value of R.

Properties and Microstructure of Marine Concrete with Composite Mineral Admixture

The influences of compositing mineral admixtures on the regularity of mechanical property, workability, durability and microstructure of C50 marine concrete were investigated. The results show that the incorporation of mineral admixtures can improve the mechanical properties and workability of C50 marine concrete, 3 min-doped mineral admixture had excellent resistance to chloride ion permeability. The microscopic structure mixing mineral admixtures system was well-distributed and compact, little macroporeare can be found.

Influence of shrinkage-reducing admixture on drying shrinkage and mechanical properties of high-performance concrete

High-performance concrete （HPC） has specific performance advantages over conventional concrete in strength and durability. HPC mixtures are usually produced with water/binder mass ratios （mW/mB） in the range of 0.2-0.4, so volume changes of concrete as a result of drying, chemical reactions, and temperature change cannot be avoided. For these reasons, shrinkage and cracking are frequent phenomena. It is necessary to add some types of admixture for reduction of shrinkage and cracking of HPC. This study used a shrinkage-reducing admixture （SRA） for that purpose. Concrete was prepared with two different mW/mB （0.22 and 0.40） and four different mass fractions of SRA to binder （w（SRA） = 0%, 1%, 2%, and 4%）. The mineral admixtures used for concrete mixes were： 25% fly ash （FA） and 25% slag by mass of binder for the mixture with mW/mB = 0.40, and 15% silica fume （SF） and 25% FA for the mixture with mW/mB = 0.22. Tests were conducted on 24 prismatic specimens, and shrinkage strains were measured through 120 days of drying. Compressive strength, splitting strength, and static modulus of elasticity were also determined. The results show that the SRA effectively reduces some mechanical properties of HPC. The reductions in compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and elastic modulus of the concrete were 7%-24%, 9%-19%, and 5%-12%, respectively, after 90 days, compared to concrete mixtures without SRA. SRA can also help reduce drying shrinkage of concrete. The shrinkage strains of HPC with SRA were only as high as 41% of the average free shrinkage of concrete without SRA after 120 days of drying.

INFLUENCE OF MINERAL ADMIXTURES ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE

The improvements of the mechanical properties, including bulk density of fresh mixtures, elastic modulus, and compressive strengths of four high-performance concrete mixtures, made with the addition of fly ash, refined ground blast - furnace microslag (microslag) and silica fume are studied. The concrete mixtures were determined based on the dispersion testing results. The study indicates that the elastic modulus at 28 and 91 days, and compressive strengths of the concretes are improved a lot when fly ash and microslag by 25 percent by weight of cement are added into the mixtures individually. The improvement is especially evident when silica fume by 5 percent and fly ash by 25 percent by weight of cement are added together into the mixture, while the fresh concrete mixture keeps a good workability. Through the analysis of chemically combined water ratios of the four mixtures at various hydration ages, it is found that the addition of all these mineral mixtures are beneficial to the hydration process, especially, at later stages, which might be one of the reasons for the improvement of mechanical properties. (Author abstract) 4 Refs.

Spalling and Mechanical Properties of Fiber Reinforced High-performance Concrete Subjected to Fire

Spalling and mechanical properties of FRHPC subjected to fire were tested on notched beams. The results confirm that the internal vapor pressure is the leading reason for spalling of high-performance concrete （HPC）. At the same time, the temperature-increasing velocity and constrained conditions of concrete element also play significant roles in spalling. Steel fibers cannot reduce the risk of spalling, although they have obvious beneficial effects on the mechanical properties of concrete before and after exposure to fire. Polypropylene （PP） fibers are very useful in preventing HPC from spalling, however, they have negative effects on the strengths. By using hybrid fibers （steel fibers＋PP fibers）, both good anti-spalling performance and improved mechanical properties come true, which may provide necessary safe guarantee for the rescue work and structure repair after fire disaster.

Assessment of early-age cracking of high-performance concrete in restrained ring specimens

High-performance concrete （HPC） is stronger and more durable than conventional concrete. However, shrinkage and shrinkage cracking are common phenomena in HPC, especially early-age cracking. This study assessed early-age cracking of HPC for two mixtures using restrained ring tests. The two mixtures were produced with water/binder mass ratio （mw/mB） of 0.22 and 0.40, respectively. The results show that, with greater steel thickness, the higher degree of restraint resulted in a higher interface pressure and earlier cracking. With steel thickness of 6 mm, 19 mm, and 30 mm, the age of cracking were, respectively, 12 days, 8 days, and 5.4 days with the mw/mB = 0.22 mixture; and 22.5 days, 12.6 days, and 7.1 days with the mw/mB= 0.40 mixture. Cases of the same steel thickness show that the ring specimens with a thicker concrete wall crack later. With the mw/mB = 0.22 mixture, concrete walls with thicknesses of 37.5 mm, 75 mm, and 112.5 mm cracked at 3.4 days, 8.0 days, and 9.8 days, respectively; with the mw/mB = 0.40 mixture, the ages of cracking were 7.1 days, 12.6 days, and 16.0 days, respectively.

Oyster Cementation as Protective Covers for Exposed Marine Concrete

Cored concrete specimens from seawall exposed to marine environment for 22 years were evaluated by carbonation depth test,rapid chloride permeability test,absorption of water test and microstructure examination.The results show that concrete exposed to marine environment has smaller carbonation depth and carbonation depth of concrete exposed to tidal zone is less than that in splash zone.There are similar water absorption rate and chloride permeability for concrete exposed to splash zone compared with concrete exposed to splash zone removed 3mm surface layer.However,concrete exposed to tidal zone with bio-films has lower chloride permeability and water absorption rate than those of concrete exposed to tidal zone removed 3mm surface layer.In addition,Results of FE-SEM and EDAX indicate that concrete exposed to splash zone has loose structure,exposed finer aggregate and concrete exposed to tidal zone covers by dense structure of oyster cementation and shell.Microstructures analysis further verified that concrete covered with oysters and their cementation has beneficial effects to durability of concrete.

Effect of Silica Fume on Compressive Strength of Oil-Polluted Concrete in Different Marine Environments

In the present research, effect of silica fume as an additive and oil polluted sands as aggregates on compressive strength of concrete were investigated experimentally. The amount ofoil in the designed mixtures was assumed to be constant and equal to 2% of the sand weight. Silica fume accounting for 10%, 15% and 20% of the weight is added to the designed mixture. After preparation and curing, concrete specimens were placed into the three different conditions： fresh, brackish and saltwater environments （submerged in fresh water, alternation of exposed in air ＆ submerged in sea water and submerged in sea water）. The result of compressive strength tests shows that the compressive strength of the specimens consisting of silica fume increases significantly in comparison with the control specimens in all three environments. The compressive strength of the concrete with 15% silica fume content was about 30% to 50% higher than that of control specimens in all tested environments under the condition of using polluted aggregates in the designed mixture.

Creep experimental test and analysis of high-performance concrete in bridge

Factors that have effect on concrete creep include mixture composition,curing conditions,ambient exposure conditions,and element geometry.Considering concrete mixtures influence and in order to improve the prediction of prestress loss in important structures,an experimental test under laboratory conditions was carried out to investigate compression creep of two high performance concrete mixtures used for prestressed members in one bridge.Based on the experimental results,a power exponent function of creep degree for structural numerical analysis was used to model the creep degree of two HPCs,and two series of parameters of this function for two HPCs were calculated with evolution program optimum method.The experimental data was compared with CEB-FIP 90 and ACI 209(92) models,and the two code models both overestimated creep degrees of the two HPCs.So it is recommended that the power exponent function should be used in this bridge structure analysis.

Modeling Boundary and Edge Effect of Chloride Diffusion for Durability Design of Concrete Structures Exposed in Marine Environment

According to the Fick＇s second law of diffusion, six analytical solutions of chloride profile in concrete were studied and discussed with regard to different boundary and initial conditions. In those analytical solutions, the most prevailing error-function solution which is based on semi-infinite assumption is the simple one, but may under-estimate the chloride content in concrete and over-rate the life time prediction of concrete structures. The experimental results show that compared with other solutions, the chloride content in concrete predicted by error-function model is the minimum, and the calculation difference produced by different analytical models should not be ignored. The influence of models on chloride content prediction is more than other environment and material coefficients in some time. In order to get a more realistic prediction model, modification to error-function model is suggested based on analysis and calculation examples concerning the boundary and edge effect.

FAILURE MODE AND CONSTITUTIVE MODEL OF PLAIN HIGH-STRENGTH HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE UNDER BIAXIAL COMPRESSION AFTER EXPOSURE TO HIGH TEMPERATURES

An orthotropic constitutive relationship with temperature parameters for plain highstrength high-performance concrete （HSHPC） under biaxial compression is developed. It is based on the experiments performed for characterizing the strength and deformation behavior at two strength levels of HSHPC at 7 different stress ratios including a=σs ： σ3=0.00：-1,-0.20：-1,-0.30 ： -1,-0.40：-1,-0.50：-1,-0.75：-1,-1.00：-1, after the exposure to normal and high temperatures of 20, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600℃, and using a large static-dynamic true triaxial machine. The biaxial tests were performed on 100 mm×100 mm×100 mm cubic specimens, and friction-reducing pads were used consisting of three layers of plastic membrane with glycerine in-between for the compressive loading plane. Based on the experimental results, failure modes of HSHPC specimens were described. The principal static compressive strengths, strains at the peak stress and stress-strain curves were measured; and the influence of the temperature and stress ratios on them was also analyzed. The experimental results showed that the uniaxial compressive strength of plain HSHPC after exposure to high temperatures does not decrease dramatically with the increase of temperature. The ratio of the biaxial to its uniaxial compressive strength depends on the stress ratios and brittleness-stiffness of HSHPC after exposure to different temperature levels. Comparison of the stress-strain results obtained from the theoretical model and the experimental data indicates good agreement.

Strength Regularity and Failure Criterion of High-Strength High-Performance Concrete under Multiaxial Compression

Multiaxial compression tests were performed on 100 mm×100 mm×100 mm high-strength high-performance concrete （HSI-IPC） cubes and normal strength concrete （NSC） cubes. The failure modes of specimens were presented, the static compressive strengths in principal directions were measured, the influence of the stress ratios was analyzed. The experimental results show that the ultimate strengths for HSHPC and NSC under multiaxial compression are greater than the uniaxial compressive strengths at all stress ratios, and the multiaxial strength is dependent on the brittleness and stiffness of concrete, the stress state and the stress ratios. In addition, the Kupfer-Gersfle and Ottosen＇s failure criteria for plain HSHPC and NSC under multiaxial compressive loading were modified.

Reliability-based service life prediction of existing concrete structures under marine environment

Chloride-induced corrosion of the reinforcement is considered as one of the major mechanisms resulting in the reduction of structural resistance of reinforced concrete structural elements located in marine and other aggressive environments. A study of reinforced concrete structures located at the Fangcheng dock in the Beibu Gulf port, China, was present. The result from field survey indicates that the concrete cover depth and chloride diffusion coefficient fit best normal distribution and lognormal distribution, respectively. The service life of structure is about 55 a, while initiation time is 45 a. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the most influential factor of the structure service life prediction is concrete cover, followed by diffusion coefficient, diffusion decay index, critical chloride concentration, surface chloride concentration, current density and localized pitting corrosion. Finally, the effects of diffusion decay index and critical chloride concentration on structure service life prediction are discussed.

Experimental Research on Early-Age Property of High-Performance Concrete Column by Embedded Sensors

This paper aims at monitoring the autogenous shrinkage （AS） of a high-performance concrete （HPC） column specimen using an embedded strain gauge just after concrete pouring. A real size specimen （40 cm×40 cm×100cm） was made to simulate the structural members in construction site. The results show that the amount of HPC AS is comparable to that of drying shrinkage and even larger than it, so AS can not be omitted for HPC. By comparing the plain HPC and reinforced HPC specimens, the influences of reinforced bars on autogenous shrinkage and temperature distribution were obtained.

Sensitivity Study on Durability Variables of Marine Concrete Structures

为了在海洋的水泥的耐久性上学习参数的影响，组织，参数敏感分析在这份报纸被学习。与 Ficks，散开和确定的敏感分析方法(DSA ) 的第二法律，明显的表面氯化物内容的敏感因素，明显的氯化物散开系数和它的时间依赖者变细因素被分析。分析的结果证明具体耐久性上的设计变量的影响是不同的。氯化物散开系数的敏感因素和它的时间依赖者变细因素的价值比其它高。在氯化物散开系数和它的时间依赖者变细系数的相对更少错误在具体耐久性设计和生活预言导致一个更大的错误。根据概率敏感分析(PSA ) ，吝啬的价值的影响和耐久性失败概率上的具体耐久性设计变量的变化被学习。学习的结果提供具体耐久性设计和生活预言变量的重要性的量的措施。氯化物散开系数和它的时间依赖者变细因素在海洋的具体结构的耐久性的可靠性上有更多的影响，这被结束。在耐久性设计和海洋的具体结构的生活预言，减少这项措施和耐久性设计变量的统计错误是很重要的。

INITIAL BINDING CAPACTIES OF CHLORIDE ION OF COMPONENTS IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE

An investigation is reported on the influence of different components of high performance concrete (HPC) on the initial binding capacities (IBC) of chloride ion. The testing results demonstrate that cement has the largest IBC, and the relative binding ratio is as high as 30% of total ion amount. Among the mineral admixtures, fly ash has the largest IBC of chloride ion. The IBC of silica fume is about 14.4%, which is smaller than that of fly ash. The IBC of refined ground blast-furnace slag (microslag) is abnormal due to the influence of sulfate ion contained. The addition of superplasticizer and corrosion inhibitor containing calcium nitrite weakens the IBC of mixtures. The fluidity and pore-filling effect of mineral admixtures are studied with paste samples with WIC ratio of 0.3. The influence mechanism of various components in high-performance concrete in IBC is studied further through SEM and Mercury Instrusion Porosimetry tests with paste samples at the age of 3 days.

Influence of Binder Composition and Concrete Pore Structure on Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Concrete

The influence of binder composition and pore structure of concrete on chloride diffusion coefficient in concrete were investigated by the natural immersion test, MIP test, SEM and EDS test, respectively. The experimental results showed that the effect of binder composition on chloride diffusion coefficient was the comprehensive result of concrete pore structure and binder hydration products, and the porosity and pore size distribution were the main factors that influence the changes of diffusion coefficient. The chloride diffusion coefficient decreased with increasing the curing temperature and the relative humidity. The hydration degree were promoted by improving curing temperatures, and then the porosity of concrete decreased and the proportion of gel pore and transitional pore increased, respectively. But the water evaporation decreased with increasing the relative humidity and then decreased porosity and increased the proportion of gel pore and transitional pore. Additionally, The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete got the lower value when the appropriate replacement of fly ash in the ranges of 10%-20%, when the double-adding fly ash and slag content was 50%. The porosity increased and the ratio of C/S in C-S-H decreased with further increasing the fly ash content, which led to increase the chloride diffusion coefficient in concrete.

High-Performance and Multifunctional Cement-Based Composite Material

Concrete is a continuously evolving material, and even the definition of high-performance concrete has changed over time. In this paper, high-performance characteristics of concrete material are considered to be those that support the desirable durability, resilience, and sustainability of civil infrastructure that directly impact our quality of life. It is proposed that high-performance material characteristics include tensile ductility, autogenous crack-width control, and material “greenness.” Furthermore, smart functionalities should be aimed at enhancing infrastructure durability, resilience, and sustainability by responding to changes in the surrounding environment of the structure in order to perform desirable functions, thus causing the material to behave in a manner more akin to certain biological materials. Based on recent advances in engineered cementitious composites (ECCs), this paper suggests that concrete embodying such high-performance characteristics and smart multifunctionalities can be designed, and holds the potential to fulfill the expected civil infrastructure needs of the 21st century. Highlights of relevant properties of ECCs are provided, and directions for necessary future research are indicated.