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- Beton (1)
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- high performance fine-grained concrete, rice husk ash, workability, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, chloride penetration resistance (1)
- salt frost attack (1)
Rice husk ash (RHA) is classified as a highly reactive pozzolan. It has a very high silica content similar to that of silica fume (SF). Using less-expensive and locally available RHA as a mineral admixture in concrete brings ample benefits to the costs, the technical properties of concrete as well as to the environment. An experimental study of the effect of RHA blending on workability, strength and durability of high performance fine-grained concrete (HPFGC) is presented. The results show that the addition of RHA to HPFGC improved significantly compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and chloride penetration resistance. Interestingly, the ratio of compressive strength to splitting tensile strength of HPFGC was lower than that of ordinary concrete, especially for the concrete made with 20 % RHA. Compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of HPFGC containing RHA was similar and slightly higher, respectively, than for HPFGC containing SF. Chloride penetration resistance of HPFGC containing 10–15 % RHA was comparable with that of HPFGC containing 10 % SF.
Scaling of concrete due to salt frost attack is an important durability issue in moderate and cold climates. The actual damage mechanism is still not completely understood. Two recent damage theories—the glue spall theory and the cryogenic suction theory—offer plausible, but conflicting explanations for the salt frost scaling mechanism. The present study deals with the cryogenic suction theory, which assumes that freezing concrete can take up unfrozen brine from a partly frozen deicing solution during salt frost attack. According to the model hypothesis, the resulting saturation of the concrete surface layer intensifies the ice formation in this layer and causes salt frost scaling. In this study an experimental technique was developed that makes it possible to quantify to which extent brine uptake can increase ice formation in hardened cement paste (used as a model material for concrete). The experiments were carried out with low temperature differential scanning calorimetry, where specimens were subjected to freeze–thaw cycles while being in contact with NaCl brine. Results showed that the ice content in the specimens increased with subsequent freeze–thaw cycles due to the brine uptake at temperatures below 0 °C. The ability of the hardened cement paste to bind chlorides from the absorbed brine at the same time affected the freezing/melting behavior of the pore solution and the magnitude of the ice content.