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Development of a universal accelerated test for alkali-silica and alkali-carbonate reactivity of concrete aggregates

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Abstract

A universal accelerated test for both alkali-silica and alkali-carbonate reactivity was proposed based on extensive comparative studies on existed Accelerated Mortar Bar Test (AMBT), (e.g., ASTM C1260, CSA A23. 2–25A, RILEM TC191-ARP-AAR02) and Chinese accelerated procedures. A single size fraction of 2.5–5.0 mm aggregate particles is used in the test instead of five-graded requirements in the AMBT, and 0.15–0.80 mm fine particles for ASR, 5–10 mm particles for ACR in existed Chinese accelerated tests. Three short-fat bars, 40 × 40 × 160 mm, made at fixed cement-aggregate ratio of 1:1, and water-cement ratio of 0.33 are used and the length change of the bars is monitored till 28 days in 1 M NaOH solution at 80°C after being soaked in 80°C water for 24 h. Over 40 kinds of aggregates from various origins, which include both ASR and ACR aggregates and show a broad range of reactivity levels in the concrete prism test (CPT), were used to evaluate the reliability of the new test in this study. Experimental results indicate that, for ASR aggregates, the new test gives a better indication than the AMBT does of both the reactive/nonreactive characteristic and reactive levels of almost all tested aggregates based on an acceptance criteria of 0.093% at 14 days, although some very highly reactive aggregates show low expansions relative to the CPT. The “abnormal” low expansion of some highly reactive aggregate in the test is mainly due to the rapid formation and loss of fair amount of low viscosity ASR product into the soaking alkali solution. The results on some typical ACR aggregates usually undetected by the AMBT show that the new test gives the same outcome as using 5–10 mm particles in the Chinese Accelerated Concrete Microbar Test for ACR aggregates and is in agreement with the CPT, which suggests that it has good potentials to be used for ACR aggregate when an expansion criteria of 0.1% after 28 days is used.

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Acknowledgments

The project was partially supported by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education under 05KJB430046 and SRF for ROCS, SEM.

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Author notes

  1. Duyou Lu

    Present address: Department of Civil Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Engineering, The Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, No. 5 Xin Mofan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210009, China

    Duyou Lu, Zhongzi Xu & Mingshu Tang

  2. ICON/CANMET-MTL, Natural Resources Canada, 3484 Limebank Road, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0E4

    Benoit Fournier

  3. Institute for Research in Construction, National Research Council of Canada, Building M-20, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0R6

    P. E. Grattan-Bellew

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  1. Duyou Lu
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  2. Benoit Fournier
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  3. P. E. Grattan-Bellew
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  4. Zhongzi Xu
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  5. Mingshu Tang
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Correspondence to Duyou Lu.

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Lu, D., Fournier, B., Grattan-Bellew, P.E. et al. Development of a universal accelerated test for alkali-silica and alkali-carbonate reactivity of concrete aggregates. Mater Struct 41, 235–246 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-007-9232-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-007-9232-2

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