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Pore structure of CO2-cured seawater sea-sand concrete with sufficient carbonation and its mechanical behaviors under uniaxial compression

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Abstract

Seawater sea-sand concrete (SSC) structures reinforced with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) bars were proposed to capture CO2 by means of carbonation curing in this study. FRP-SSC structures allowed sufficient carbonation to occur since the steel corrosion in traditional reinforced concrete structures would not exist. Herein, the pore structure of CO2-cured SSC with sufficient carbonation was examined, and the mechanical behaviors under uniaxial compression were also investigated. MIP testing was employed, and surface fractal dimension in various pore-size regions was calculated. The results indicate that CO2 curing leads to a more significant variation in smaller mesopores of SSC than CC. Regarding middle capillary pores, the surface fractal dimension in almost all CO2-cured specimens ranges from 2.6617 to 2.8124, which means that these pores show distinct fractal characteristics, but this phenomenon does not be observed in water-cured specimens. This indicates that CO2 curing can greatly reduce ink-bottle pores in concrete. Furthermore, the compressive strength gain of CO2-cured SSC with sufficient carbonation is above 30% at the 180-days age. The compressive strength gain can be attributed to the improvement in the surface fractal dimension. Moreover, CO2-cured specimens exhibit higher peak stress, smaller peak strain, and greater elastic module, resulting in lower plasticity. Consequently, CO2 curing renders SSC and CC more brittle.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial support from Nature Science Foundation of China (Project No.: 51908453) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (Project No.: CJGJZD20220517141806015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Bingbing Guo, Jia Chu, Ruichang Yu, Qiang Fu & Ditao Niu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Green Building, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Bingbing Guo, Yan Wang & Ditao Niu

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an, 710055, China

    Yan Wang

  4. School of Civil Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China

    Fengling Zhang

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  1. Bingbing Guo
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Bingbing Guo: Writing, Conceptualization, Investigation, Data Analysis, Funding acquisition; Jia Chu: Writing, Investigation, Data Analysis; Ruichang Yu: Investigation, Data Analysis; Yan Wang: Review, Conceptualization; Qiang Fu: Review, Data Analysis; Ditao Niu: Supervision, Project administration; Feng Zhang: Review, Data Analysis.

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Guo, B., Chu, J., Yu, R. et al. Pore structure of CO2-cured seawater sea-sand concrete with sufficient carbonation and its mechanical behaviors under uniaxial compression. Mater Struct 57, 111 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-024-02394-y

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