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Chloride maximum phenomenon near the surface of cement paste induced by moisture evaporation and carbonation

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Abstract

Abundant studies of cyclic wetting–drying of concrete have suggested a “maximum phenomenon” by which chloride concentrations first increase with depth to a local maximum and then decrease at greater depths. This phenomenon may arise primarily because of carbonation, but may also be exacerbated by cyclic capillary suction and moisture evaporation during wetting–drying cycles. This paper investigates the mechanism responsible for the maximum phenomenon under conditions that exclude cyclic capillary suction. The results show that different chloride maxima form near the surface of all specimens under conditions of either accelerated carbonation or carbonation in normal air environment. A large amount of bound chloride is released when carbonation causes decomposition of Friedel’s salt and C–S–H gel, and the decrease in water content significantly increases the chloride concentration in the pore solution near the specimen surface. The resulting chloride concentration gradient drives free chloride diffusion from the surface to the interior, thereby reducing the actual chloride content near the exposed surface. More severe carbonation conditions increase the severity of the maximum phenomenon.

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Acknowledgements

Authors appreciate the financial supports from the Fundamental Research Funds of Shandong University, the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under the contract Nos. 2015CB655105, 2015CB655100, and 2015CB655102, the Natural Science Foundation under the contract Nos. 51678318, 51420105015, 51708108, and 41172267, and the Key Consulting Project of Chinese Academy of Engineering under the contract No. 2016-XZ-13, and the Open Fund of Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Construction Materials under the contract No. CM2016-07. And also greatly appreciate Dr. Carmen Andrade of Polytechnic University of Catalonia for giving suggestions and enlightenments in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Qilu Transportation, Shandong University, Jinan, 250002, China

    Honglei Chang & Jian Liu

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Construction Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Pan Feng & Kai Lv

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, 266033, China

    Zuquan Jin

  4. School of Civil Engineering, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan, 250101, China

    Qiaoling Liu

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  1. Honglei Chang
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  2. Pan Feng
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  3. Jian Liu
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Correspondence to Pan Feng.

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Chang, H., Feng, P., Liu, J. et al. Chloride maximum phenomenon near the surface of cement paste induced by moisture evaporation and carbonation. Mater Struct 51, 132 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-018-1260-6

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