UNIVERSITY OF

GAZIANTEP
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
CIVIL DEPARTMENT

CE-547
Corrosion of Plain &Reinforced concrete

Report #6 About :
(Substance of 11 articles)

Submitted to:

Do.Dr. Mehmet GESOLU

Prepared by:

Chalak Ahmed Mohammed

chalak.mohammed@gmail.com

2014 45056

Date : 12.05. 2015

List of content
1. Permeability properties of self-compacting rubberized concretes
2. Permeation Properties of Self-Consolidating Concreteswith Mineral
Admixtures
3. Effect of initial curing on chloride ingress and corrosion resistance
characteristics of concretes made with plain and blended cements
4. study on reinforcement corrosion and related properties ofplain and
blended cement concretes under different curing conditions

5. Strength development and chloride penetrationin

rubberized concretes with and without silica fume
6. Improving strength, drying shrinkage, and pore structureof
concrete using metakaolin
7. A study on durability properties of highperformanceconcretes incorporating high replacement
levels of slag
8. Comparative study on strength, sorptivity, and
chlorideingress characteristics of air-cured and watercuredconcretes modified with metakaolin
9. Transport properties based multi-objective
mixproportioning optimization of high performance
concretes.
10.
Corrosion behavior of reinforcing steel embedded in
chloride contaminated concretes with and without
metakaolin

11.
Durability aspect of concretes composed of cold
bonded andsintered flyash lightweight aggregates.

Permeability properties of self-compacting rubberized

concretes
The brittleness and low tensile strength of cement-based materials are
detrimental to their durability. Researchers are tryingto eliminate
brittleness of concrete and they have been working onthe possibility to
make the concrete tough by introducing waste rubber phases among the
traditional components (cement, water,and aggregates). It has been
estimated that around one milliontires are withdrawn from use in the
world every year. Disposal of waste tires has been a major issue to the
cities all around theworld. Generally, the cheapest and easiest way to
decompose the used tires is by burning them. However, the pollution due
to enormousamount of smoke makes this method so unacceptable that
itis prohibited by law in many countries. The discarded tires arealso
buried with the other industrial waste in landfills or stockpiledin huge
dumps. The resulting stockpiles, however, may cause majorhealth risks
for the public and the environment. Therefore,recycling and utilization of
the waste tires seems to be necessary
In the literate, durability of rubberized concretes has not foundadequate
attention. worked on the rapid freezethaw resistance of the concrete
containing different amounts ofground rubber aggregates. They reported
that the rubberized concretehad lower performance against freezing and
thawing damage.

The use of rubbersignificantly aggravated the chloride ion penetration

through concretesuch that there was a systematic increase in depth of
chloridepenetration with the increase in rubber content for concretes
withand without silica fume, especially at high w/cm ratio.
As the rubbercontent increased from 0% to 25% by total aggregate
volume,the chloride permeability of the rubberized concrete with
andwithout silica fume was about 640% at 0.60 w/cm ratio and
about2759% at 0.40 w/cm ratio greater than that of the controlled
concrete.

Conclusions
Based on the result obtained from this study, the following conclusionsmay be
drawn:
_ A progressive increase was observed in the chloride ion penetrationof
the self-compacting rubberized concretes with theincrease in rubber
content without fly ash at both of 28 and90 days test results. Addition of
fly ash did not considerablyaffect the chloride ion permeability of the selfcompacting rubberizedconcretes at the 28 days. However, when the
curing
period was extended to the 90 days, the long-term reaction offly ash refines the
pore structure of concrete so that ingress ofchloride ions decreased drastically.
_ Since the presence of the crumb rubber in the concrete, porosityis poorly
affected. Therefore, water sorptivity and water absorptionvalues of the
self-compacting rubberized concretesincreased. Furthermore, increasing
the crumb rubber content
increased the water sorptivity and water absorption. However,with the addition
of fly ash, the negative effect of crumb rubberon these properties eliminated
slightly. The amount of reductionincreased with increasing the replacement
level of fly ash.
_ Statistical significance of the defined systems (PCCR, PCFA,and PCCR
FA) on the measured permeability properties werefound out by the GLM
ANOVA tests. The results indicated thatthere was a good agreement
between the qualitative and statisticalanalysis. The most effective system
on the chloride ion permeabilityof the SCRCs was the PCCR system with
acontribution of 96.3%.

Permeation Properties of Self-Consolidating

Concreteswith Mineral Admixtures
Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) emerged in Japan in thelate 1980s as a
material that can flow under its own weightso that it can be placed in
formwork with dense reinforcementand complicated shapes without the
need for additionalmechanical compaction.
The critical aspects of this technologyinvolve attaining a highly fluid
mixture while preventingsegregation among constituents, especially
segregationbetween the aggregate and the cement paste.
Theadvantages of SCC include high performance in its fresh
andhardened states; economic efficiency (shortened constructiontime,
reduced labor, and lower equipment costs); animproved working and
living environment (high consumptionof industrial by-products, reduced
noise, and reduced healthhazards); and enhancement toward the
automation of theconstruction process.
In the production of SCC, it is common practice to limitcoarse aggregate
content associated with its maximum size andto use a lower waterbinder ratio (w/b), along with anappropriate high-range water-reducing
admixture (HRWRA).5To achieve an SCC of high fluidity and to prevent
segregationand bleeding during transportation and placing, the
6

formulatorshave employed a high binder content and used an HRWRA

andviscosity-modifying admixtures.
The cost of such concretesassociated with the use of a high volume of
portland cement(PC) and chemical admixtures, however, was
remarkablyhigher. In some cases, the savings in labor cost might
offsetthe increased cost. The use of mineral admixtures, such as flyash
(FA), blast-furnace slag, and/or limestone filler,however, reduced the
material cost of the SCCs and alsoimproved the fresh and hardened
properties of theconcretes.. It has been reported thateconomically
competitive SCC can be produced by replacingup to 50% of PC with
mineral admixtures.
Using mineral admixtures, especially in SCC, necessitatesfurther
attention. With the incorporation of such materials,certain properties of
the concrete may be enhanced, whereasothers may worsen relative to
the plain PC concrete. SF, forexample, substantially increases early
concrete strength butimparts a sharp fall in workability to fresh concrete,
whereas FA decreases early strength but improvesworkability. These
negative effects may be remedied bythe combined use of the mineral
admixtures.
To date, onlylimited work has been carried out on the binary, ternary,
andquaternary blends of mineral admixtures. Some examplesinvolve the
combined use of SF-FAPC blends23 and MKFA-PC blends18 in
conventional concrete

The SCC mixtures investigated in this study were preparedwith CEM-I

42.5 R PC, a Class F FA, a GGBFS, and MK.The chemical and physical
properties of the cement andmineral admixtures used are summarized in
Table 1. Thecoarse aggregate used was river gravel with a
nominalparticle size of 0.629 in. (16 mm). As fine aggregate, themixture
of natural river sand and crushed limestone was usedwith a nominal
8

particle size of 0.196 in. (5 mm). They hadfineness moduli of 2.87 and
2.57, respectively

CONCLUSIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusionsmay be
drawn:
1. Concretes containing FA had a generally lowercompressive strength,
whereas GGBFS and MK concreteshad comparable and higher strength
values than those of thecontrol concrete, respectively. Even though the
FAdecreased the compressive strength, the ternary use of FAand MK
mostly improved the compressive strength of theconcretes. Similarly, the
combined use of GGBFS and MKgives the concretes a higher compressive
strength than thosecontaining binary blends of GGBFS, especially at 90
days.
2. All the concretes produced in this study had UPV valuesgreater than
14,760 ft/s (4500 m/s), indicating excellentratings. Moreover, the
concrete with quaternary blends of7.5% FA, 7.5% GGBFS, and 5% MK
exhibited the highestUPV values, irrespective of the testing age, whereas
the lowestUPV values were measured for 22.5FA + 22.5GGBFS +
15MKand 60FA mixtures at 28 and 90 days, respectively.
3. It was observed in the chloride ion permeability test thatconcretes
with mineral admixtures showed very low ratings,whereas the control
concrete had a low rating. The concretesseemed to be much more
resistant to chloride ion permeabilitywhen FA, GGBFS, and MK were used
in the ternary orquaternary blends. The use of MK appeared to be the
mosteffective in reducing the chloride ion permeability.
4. A similar pattern seen in the RCPT was also observedin the water
permeability test of the concretes, in that MKmade the concretes highly
resistant to the ingress of water.Incorporating MK in the binary blends of
5, 10, and 15%caused a reduction of 65%, 78%, and 82% in the
waterpermeability, respectively. Regarding the water permeabilityof the
concretes with quaternary blends, it was very interestingto note that the
concretes with MK had water permeabilityless than or equal to 0.1968 in.
(5 mm), irrespective of MK,FA, and GGBFS content.
5. Similar to the water permeability test, incorporating themineral
admixtures continuously decreased the sorptivity ofthe SCCs. Apart from
the use of MK only, the combinationof FA and/or GGBFS with MK provided
a marked decreasein the sorptivity.

Effect of initial curing on chloride ingress and corrosion

resistance
characteristics of concretes made with plain and blended
cements
Durability of reinforced concrete is largely controlled bythe capability of
the concrete cover to protect the steelreinforcement from corrosion .
Chemical protection isprovided by concretes high alkalinity, and physical
protection is afforded by the concrete acting as a barrierto the access of
aggressive species. However, despitethese inherent protective qualities,
the corrosion of steelreinforcement has become the most common cause
offailure in concrete structures.
In such structures asbridges and parking garages, failure of the
concretestructures may be attributed largely to the use of de-icingsalts.
In other structures, salt penetration from seawaterspray may be
responsible for the corrosion. In both cases, it is the chloride ion which
destroys the protective(passive) environment for the steel reinforcement
andresults in the corrosion of the steel reinforcement and
eventual concrete distress. Moreover, carbonation inconcrete normally
involves a chemical reaction betweencarbon dioxide and the products of
cement hydration. Thisreaction results in a significant reduction in the pH
of thepore solution due to the removal of the hydroxyl ions,which may
lead to steel depassivation and subsequentreinforcement corrosion. As a
result, carbonation can beconsidered as a second cause of damaging the
passivationlayer over the reinforcement.
Blended (or pozzolanic) cements are being used worldwideto produce
dense and impermeable concrete.
10

Theycontain a blend of portland cement clinker and a variety ofnatural

pozzolans and/or supplementary cementing materialssuch as blast
furnace slag, fly ash, and silica fume. Theuse of these materials is also
environment friendly becauseit helps to reduce the CO2 emission to the
atmosphere.The beneficial effects of incorporating these materials
inconcrete are widely discussed in the literature .
However, the addition of a wide range of blendingmaterials of differing
chemical composition also introducessignificant diversity into the
cementing system. The widevariation in the performance of the blending
materials maybe attributed to the variation in their physical,
chemical,and mineralogical composition resulting from the
industrialprocesses related to their production and the propertiesof the
raw materials used. Therefore, it should berecognized that different
cements have different propertiesand performance .

12

Conclusions
For the concrete mixtures investigated and the initialcuring conditions
employed, the following conclusions maybe drawn:
1. Initial curing conditions had a substantial influence onthe rate of
chloride penetration for the plain andespecially blended cement
concretes. Results indicated
that the lack of proper initial curing considerablyaggravated the chloride ion
penetration through theconcretes but the degree in the rate of increment of
thechloride penetration depended mainly on the w/c ratioof the concrete
mixture, type of cement used in theproduction of concrete, and the immersion
period in thesalt solution.
2. It was observed that the application of controlled initialcuring yielded
chloride penetration coefficients within10% of those obtained at wet
initial curing condition forthe plain concretes. However, it was scattered
for theblended cement concretes and subsequently deviated upto 35%.
Moreover, uncontrolled initial curing conditionresulted in great
differences in comparison to wet initialcuring in terms of chloride ingress
and gave remarkablyhigher chloride penetration coefficients forboth
plainand especially blended cement concretes.
Therefore, itmay be concluded that 1 week of WC is not enough for
blended cement concretes, although it seems enough fornormal portland
cement
3. Similar to the results of chloride ingress characteristicsof the concrete
mixtures investigated, the half-cellpotential values of the reinforcing
steel embedded in
plain and blended cement concretes seem to be muchsensitive to the
initial curing conditions before exposureto chloride environment. Under
the proper initial curin conditions, the potential values at reinforcing
steel,particularly for the blended cement concretes with loww/c ratio
exhibited lower rate of drop, which implies
lower probability of corrosion due to chloride attack.
4. The data developed in this study indicated that theblended cement
concrete mixtures showed considerablybetter resistance to chloride ion
penetration and lower

chances of reinforcement corrosion than the plainportland cement

concrete mixtures, especially when thesuitable initial curing conditions
have been applied.

study on reinforcement corrosion and related properties of

plain and blended cement concretes under different
curing conditions
Performance of concrete is generally judged bystrength and durability
properties. Probably the mostimportant durability issue with reinforced
concrete isdeterioration due to reinforcement corrosion.
A detaileddescription of the corrosion process can be foundin the study
of Rosenberg et al. In the alkalinecementitious environment, a stable
oxide film is formedon the steel surface which protects the interior steel
fromcorroding. However, corrosion starts due to the carbonationof
concrete leading to a reduction in the alkalinity,or the presence of
chloride ions causing pitting damageof the protective film on the steel
bar. The corrosionproduct absorbs water and increases in volume.
Oncethe expansion becomes excessive, concrete cracking willoccur.
Following the approach proposed by Tuutti .
the corrosion process can be divided into two parts:
aninitiation (depassivation) stage and a propagation (corrosion)stage.
During the initiation stage, corrosionagents such as chloride ions and
carbon dioxide penetrateinto the concrete cover, but their
concentrationaround the steel reinforcement is not high enough tocause
corrosion yet. The end of the initiation stage orthe beginning of the
propagation stage is the momentwhen corrosion starts at threshold
concentration of
aggressive species. Within the propagation stage, steelcorrosion is
accompanied by the growth of radial cracksfrom the steel bar, which will
14

eventually lead to spallingof the concrete cover The range of

compositions as specified
by the U.S. and European standards are summarized in
Table 1.

Corrosion resistance
The accelerated corrosion behavior of steel barsembedded in plain and
blended cement concrete specimenssubjected to three different curing
conditions werestudied by impressing a constant anodic potential.
Thecurrent required to maintain the fixed potential was plottedagainst
time and the typical curves of corrosion currentversus time for the
concrete specimens made withportland cement (B1) and portland
composite cement(B3) are illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively.
Typicalcorrosion specimens after the termination of the test areshown in
Fig. 8. As seen from Figs. 6 and 7, currenttimecurve initially descended
till a time value after which a
steady low rate of increase in current was observed,and after a specific
time value a rapid increase in currentwas detected until failure. Almost a
similar variation ofthe corrosion current with time has also been
observedby other researchers [3034].
The sudden rise of the currentintensity coincided with the cracking of
the specimen.
Thus, this curve was utilized to determine thecorrosion time of the
specimen when the specimencracked due to corrosion and the current
started to increasesharply. The first visual evidence of corrosionwas the

appearance of brown stains on the surface ofthe specimens. Cracking

was observed shortly thereafterand it was associated with a sudden rise
in the current.Figs. 911 present the average corrosion times requiredto
crack the specimens made with plain and blended cement and
subjected to uncontrolled, controlled, andwet curing regimes,
respectively. Time to cracking inplain portland cement concrete
specimens was in therange of 67170h (37 days) whereas that in
blendedcement concrete specimens was in the range of50440h (218
days), depending on the cement type,w/c ratio, curing condition, and
age at testing. At similarcuring condition and testing age, the times
ofcorrosion cracking for the blended cement concretespecimens were
longer than the plain cement concretespecimens, which indicated that
the former providedbetter protection to steel reinforcement against
corrosion.

16

Conclusions
Based on the results obtained from this study, thefollowing conclusions
may be drawn:
1. Cement type, w/c ratio, age, and curing procedurehad significant
effect on both strength and durabilitycharacteristics of concretes. Both
plain and blendedportland cement concretes subjected to
uncontrolledcuring in air had lower performance in terms ofstrength and
corrosion resistance compared to thecontrolled and wet curing
procedures.
2. The application of controlled curing gave averagecompressive
strengths within 5% of those obtainedat wet curing procedure for both
concrete types.However, the strength of the plain and blendedcement
concrete specimens under uncontrolled curingcondition deviated within
a range of _10% and _20%from those cured under wet curing,
respectively. Both
uncontrolled and controlled curing proceduresresulted in great
differences with respect to wet curingin terms of electrical resistivity and
corrosion timeof the concretes made with plain and blendedcements.
3. The results generally indicated that the strength gainin blended
cement concretes was higher than that inplain portland cement
concretes, especially under
controlled and wet curing conditions. The concretesmade with blended
cements had mostly lower 28-day compressive strength as compared to
the plainportland cement concretes. However, with increasingage, this
trend was reversed.
4. For a given curing condition, lowering w/c ratio ofthe mixes increased
the concrete resistivity, and fora given w/c ratio, better curing procedure
yielded
higher electrical resistivity for all concretes. Theblended cement
concretes had greater electrical resistivitythan the plain portland
cement concretes for allw/c ratios and ages.
5. The accelerated corrosion setup used under the presentstudy has
been found to be an efficient and simpletool to evaluate the durability
performance of concretes,especially in terms of resistance of
concreteagainst reinforcement corrosion.
18

Strength development and chloride penetration

in rubberized concretes with and without silica fume
Disposal of waste tires has been a major issue tocities all around the
world. Generally, the cheapestand easiest way to decompose used tires
is by burningthem. However,
the pollution due to enormousamount of smoke makes this method so
unacceptablethat it is prohibited by law in many countries ,The
discarded tires are also buried with other
industrial waste in landfills or stockpiled in hugedumps. The resulting
stockpiles, however, may causemajor health risks for the public and the
environment.
It has been estimated that around one billiontires are withdrawn from
use in the world every year. Therefore, recycling of the waste tires
seems tobe necessary by means of innovative techniques.
Innovative solutions to meet the challenge of the tiredisposal problem
involves the use of waste materialsas additives to cement-based
materials and theproduction of rubber-powder incorporated asphalt
orbituminous materialsRecently, for the recycling purpose, the
scientificcommunitys efforts has led to intense research on
therubberized concretes in which some part of naturalaggregates have
been replaced by rubber aggregates.
The use of crumb rubber and tire chips has found a lotof attention as
rubber aggregates in the literature The overall results indicated a

remarkabledecrease in strength and stiffness properties of theconcrete

after the addition of tire rubber particles.
The use of coarse rubber particles affected theconcrete properties more
negatively than do fineparticles. Interestingly, source type ofwaste tire
from which the rubber aggregates havebeen obtained plays an
important role in the performanceof the concretes. Rubber aggregates
fromtruck tires are much stiffer than those of car tires,leading to
stronger and stiffer concrete .
The chemical compositions and the physicalproperties of Portland
cement and silica fume aregiven in Table 1. The fine aggregate was a
mixture ofriver sand and crushed sand whereas the coarseaggregate
was a river gravel. Two types of scrap tirerubber came from used truck
tires castaway after asecond recapping. Crumb rubber is a fine
materialwith gradation close to that of the sand and tire chipsare
produced by mechanical shredding and containcoarser particle sizes.
The gradation of crumb rubberwas determined based on the ASTM C136
method.However, it was not possible to determine thegradation curve
for the tire chips, as for normalaggregates since they were elongated
particlesbetween 10 and 40 mm. Specific gravities for thecrumb rubber
and tire chips are 0.83 and 1.02,respectively. The particle size
distribution for theaggregates and rubber material are shown in Fig. 1. A
commercially available naphthalene formaldehydebasedsuperplasticizer
was used to give a consistentworkability. Its specific gravity is 1.18.

20

Conclusions
Based on the investigation, the following conclusionsmay be drawn.
1. The use of silica fume on the strength developmentof the rubberized
concrete was very effective.For example, at 90 days, the rate of
strengthincrease due to the inclusion of silica fume was inthe range of
820% and 934% for the plain andrubberized concretes, respectively,
dependingmainly on the variation in w/cm ratio andrubbercontent.
2. The UPV of the concrete mixtures increasedwith increasing curing
time in a fashion similar tothat observed in the compressive strength.
However,it was noticed that the rate of UPV incrementwith curing period
was somewhat lower than thatof the compressive strength.
3. For a given w/cm ratio and moist curing period,the use of rubber in
the production of concreteconsiderably aggravated the chloride ion
penetrationthrough concrete but the degree of the rate ofthe increment
of the chloride permeability dependedmainly on the amount of the
rubber used.When the curing period was extended in steps of37 days
and 728 days, the reduction in themagnitude of chloride penetration
depth wassignificantly higher for both plain and rubberizedconcretes,
even at a rubber content of as high as25%. This indicated the
importance of prolongedmoist curing period, especially for the
rubberizedconcrete.

22

Improving strength, drying shrinkage, and pore

structure
of concrete using metakaolin
Performance of concrete is determined by itsmechanical and durability
properties. There are somany studies in the literature focusing on
theimprovement of concrete performance by replacementof Portland
cement to some extents of variousmineral admixtures; such as, fly ash,
silica fume,blast-furnace slag, etc. Due to pozzolanic and fillingeffects of
these certain mineral admixtures, they arecapable of enhancing the
durability through the pore
refinement and the reduction in the calcium hydroxideof the cement
paste matrix. Generally, theeffects of mineral admixtures may be
assessed asimprovement in workability, durability to thermalcracking,
durability to chemical attacks, and production
of high performance concrete .

Conclusions
The effectiveness of using MK on the performanceproperties of
concretes were investigated in thisstudy. From the above experimental
results, thefollowing conclusions are drawn:
Concretes with high strength and low shrinkagecan be made by using
Portland cement blendedwith ultrafine MK.
The study showed that the MK provided a significantincrease in both
the compressive and splittingtensile strengths when used as a modifier
inconcrete with varying amounts. WhenMKreplacescement, its positive
effect on the concrete strengthgenerally starts at early ages and also
noticeableincrease in the strength was observed at later ages. Itwas
observed that the strength of concretes incorporatedwithMKwas up to
30% greater than that ofthe plain concretes, depending mainly on
replacementlevel of MK, w/cm ratio, and testing age.
24

 For all replacement levels, the MK modifiedconcretes exhibited

remarkably lower shrinkagein comparison to the plain concretes,
irrespectiveof w/cm ratio. It is known that the dryingshrinkage is
influenced by many factors. Theresults demonstrated that the w/cm
ratio was thedominating factor because both the plain andespecially the
MK modified concretes with highw/cm exhibited relatively low drying
shrinkage.
With regard to the rate of drying shrinkage, it isevident that both plain
and MK concretes with loww/cm ratio showed a somewhat faster
developmentof shrinkage than those with high w/cm ratio.However, the
drying shrinkage rates of the concreteshad a decreasing tendency with
increaseddrying time, particularly for the MK concretes.
The inclusion of MK as a partial cementreplacementmaterial provided
an excellent
improvement in the pore structure of concrete.Irrespective of w/cm
ratio, the pore size distributionwas shifted to the smaller pore size range
dueto the incorporation of MK. The total porositydecreased substantially
with increasing replacementlevel of MK. The magnitude of thisreduction
ranged from 22 to 49%, dependingmainly on w/cm ratio and
replacement level ofMK. Moreover, there was a considerable reductionin
the mean (or median) pore diameter of thesamples due to the inclusion
of MK. The effectwas particularly beneficial at 20% MK content,where
the lowest porosity and the pore diameter
were achieved.

A study on durability properties of high-performance

concretes incorporating high replacement levels of slag
The worldwide demand for high-performance cement-based materials
has increased and predictionsare that it will be widely used in
construction industryduring the early 21st century. Economical
andenvironmental considerations had a crucial role inthe supplementary
cementing material usage as wellas better engineering and performance
properties. From the viewpoints of the development of
highperformanceconcrete and the reuse of industrialwaste products, the
use of blast-furnace slag (BFS) asa cementitious ingredient in either
cement or concretecomposites has been increasing.On the other hand,
blast furnace slag is a quitevariable material due to the variation in its
chemicalcomposition together with both content and compositionof the
glass fraction of the slag.
The crystallinepart of the slag does not hydrate interfering only asfine
aggregate and crystallization seed.
The hydrationmechanism of the slag is also different from that
ofcement. When the slag is mixed with water, initial hydration is much
slower than Portland cement mixed
26

with water. Hydration of the slag in the presence ofPortland cement

depends upon the breakdown anddissolution of the glassy slag structure
by hydroxylions released during the hydration of Portland cementand
also the alkali content in cement. Furtherinformation on its characteristic
can be found in the literature

Conclusions
The following conclusions are drawn from the testresults and analysis
presented in this paper:
1. For the mixtures with high replacement levels ofslag, curing played a
critical role in realizing thefull potential of concrete in terms of strength
andespecially durability characteristics.
2. Generally, there was a systematic decrease inboth compressive and
splitting tensile strengthswith the increase in slag content,
especiallyunder air curing condition. However, the incorporationof up to
60% slag to partially replacedPortland cement in concrete caused an
increasein long-term compressive and splitting tensilestrengths.

3.Slag concrete exhibited marginally lower absorptioncharacteristics

than control concrete. Anincrease in slag content (from 50 to
80%)reduced the water penetration by total immersionand capillary
action, particularly under wetcuring condition.
4. It was observed that the concretes containing50% and abovereplacement levels of slag
showed sharply reduced values of the charge,irrespective of curing
condition and testing age.Results indicated that the chloride
permeabilityof the air cured control concrete was about 1.1times higher
than that of the wet cured controlconcrete, whereas for slag blended
cement concrete,the equivalent increase in the dry/wet ratioranged
from 1.3 to 1.7 times, depending onreplacement level of slag and
testing age. Thisimplies that concretes containing high
replacementlevels of slag are very sensitive to thecuring method
adopted.

Comparative study on strength, sorptivity, and chloride

ingress characteristics of air-cured and water-cured
concretes modified with metakaolin
Concrete is the most important element of theinfrastructure and welldesigned concrete can be adurable construction material. However, the
28

environmentalaspects of Portland cement are a growingconcern, as

cement manufacturing is responsible forabout 2.5% of total worldwide
emissions fromindustrial sources. One effective way to diminish
the environmental impact is to use natural pozzolansand/or
supplementary cementing materials, as apartial cement replacement.
This strategy will havethe potential to reduce costs, conserve energy,
andreduced waste volumes [1]. The cementing materialsthat are widely
used, concrete constituents, are flyash, granulated blast furnace slag,
and silica fume [2].Metakaolin (MK), produced by controlled
thermaltreatment of kaolin, is the most recent mineraladmixture to be
commercially introduced to theconcrete construction industry. The
utilization ofcalcined clay in the form of high-reactivity MK aspozzolans
for concrete has received considerableinterest in recent years. This
interest has been focusedon the consumption of calcium hydroxide
(CH)produced by cement hydration which is associatedwith poor
durability. Thus, the use of MK improveslong-term strength and
durability. In addition, it isalso possible to obtain early strength
enhancementthrough the filling effect

Conclusions
From the results presented in this paper, the followingconclusions can
be drawn:
1. This study indicated that the inclusion of MKinto concrete significantly
enhanced the strengthand especially permeability-related
durabilitycharacteristics of the concrete in varying magnitudes.Concrete
containing MK shows higherstrength than that of the plain concrete
butmarginally lower chloride penetration depths andsorptivities. The
order of the magnitude isdepended mainly on replacement level of
MK,w/b ratio, concrete age, and curing condition.
2. Curing played a critical role in realizing the fullpotential of concrete. It
is necessary to paycareful attention when using MK in concrete dueto
the fact that the performance properties of the MK-modified concretes
are more sensitive tocuring method adopted.
3. Irrespective of w/b ratio and replacement levelsof MK, air-cured
concretes exhibit lower strengthand considerably higher permeability
relative toequivalent concrete that is water cured. It wasobserved that
the strength of the plain and MKmodifieconcretes subjected to air curing
deviatedup to _24% and _34% from those curedunder water,
respectively. The application of aircuring also resulted in marked
differences withrespect to the water curing in terms of sorptivityand
chloride ingress characteristics of the concretes,particularly for those
made with MK.
4. The comparison of the order of the variation inthe concrete properties
(strength, sorptivity coefficient,depth of chloride penetration at 90
days,and chloride penetration coefficient) pointed outthat there is a
strong correlation between them.The four measured concrete properties
30

hadsimilar tendency for both plain and MK-modifiedconcretes in that the

latter had better performancein comparison to the former.

Transport properties based multi-objective

mixproportioning optimization of high
performanceconcretes
The use of concrete possessing both high strength anddurability,
hereinafter called high performance concrete(HPC), has been increasing
all over the world.The factors which justify its popularity are
highworkability, high strength, and high durability, forvarious structural
purposes. Although the definitionsof HPC are varied, the essence of HPC
emphasizesthree main characteristics. Apart from the three
basicingredients (cement, aggregates and water) in
conventionalconcrete, mineral additives like fly ash,silica fume, and
admixtures such as high range waterreducers (superplasticizers), have
been incorporatedto make highly workable, high-strength and
durableconcrete .Designers of concrete structures havebeen mostly
interested in the strength characteristicsof the materials; however, for a
variety of reasons,they should now consider durability. According tothe
ACI committee , the durability of Portlandcement concrete is defined as
its ability to resistweathering action, chemical attack, abrasion, or any
other process of deterioration. According to Mehtaand Monteiro ,a
durable concrete will retain its
original form, quality, and serviceability, whenexposed to its intended
service environment.Permeation is one of the most important
parametersof measuring the durability of concrete .Permeation
properties of the near surface concreteand the various transport
mechanisms which governthe ingress of chloride into concrete, are
themajorfactors that influence concrete durability .The permeability of
concretedepends on the pore structure of concrete. Manyresearchers
have found that the microstructure ofconcrete can be improved and
permeability of
concrete can be decreased, by adding mineral additivessuch as fly ash,
silica fume, and blast furnaceslag. To achieve high-strength, workable
and moredurable concretes, researchers suggested usinghigh range
water reducers and mineral additives inhigh-performance concrete.

32

Conclusions
An experimental program was set up in order to examinethe slump,
compressive strength, split tensile strength,static elastic modulus,
ultrasonic pulse velocity, water
absorption, water penetration, and chloride ion penetrationvalues of the
HPCs. The effects of mix designparameters on the permeation
properties of HPCs wereinvestigated. Furthermore, transportation
propertiesbased multi-objective mix proportioning
optimizationofHPCwas performed.Based on the findings of the studythe
following conclusions can be drawn:
The use of silica fume in concrete productionconsiderably improved
the transport properties ofHPCs.
Increasing the amount of fine to total aggregateratio and
superplasticizer contents did not
significantly influence the permeation propertiesof HPCs.
As expected, increasing the w/b ratio remarkablyincreased the
permeation properties, and increasingthe total binder content (cement ?
silicafume) decreased the permeation properties ofHPCs, noticeably.
Forty-two different optimum mix proportionswere obtained at the end
of the multi objectiveoptimization study. Mixture that has the
highestdesirability function value was experimentallyproduced, and it
was seen that theoreticallyobtained optimum mix proportions can be
usedto minimize permeation properties of HPCs.

34

Corrosion behavior of reinforcing steel embedded in

chloride contaminatedconcretes with and without
metakaolin
Reinforced concrete (R/C) is the most commonly used
compositematerial in structural practices due to ease in applications
andlower cost of construction. Besides, reinforced concrete
structuresoffer good service under certain environmental conditions.
Theworldwide demand for high performance concrete with
improvedcorrosion resistance has increased and it is expected that it will
bewidely used in construction industry during next decades. The
corrosionresistance of concrete has an important effect on the durability
and hence its performance. Therefore, it can be said thatconcrete
performance depends mainly on the environmental conditionsand the
quality of the concrete.
The presence of chloride ions R/C plays a major role in
reinforcementcorrosion and hence for the durability and service lifeof
R/C structures .The existence of chlorides within reinforcedconcrete
accelerates the initiation of reinforcement corrosion andresults in severe
deterioration of concrete structures. Once thechloride content at the
reinforcement reaches a threshold valueand enough oxygen and
moisture are present, the reinforcementcorrosion will be initiated . When
corrosion is initiated, activecorrosion results in a volumetric expansion of
the rust aroundthe reinforcing bars against the surrounding concrete . It
is
known that, in well designed and high quality concrete, the riskof
corrosion is expected to be minimal since it provides chemicaland
physical conservation to the embedded steel reinforcementbars.
The corrosion of rebar in concrete is generally considered
asanelectrochemical process. Therefore, the use of
electrochemicaltechniques for the appraisal of corrosion behavior ofR/C
in this regard, becomes a prominent field of durability study.

Conclusions
Based on the findings presented in this study, the following
conclusionscan be drawn:
_ Times to failure in chloride contaminated concretes were shortenedas
the chloride concentration increased. The shortest failuretime was
observed at control concrete with 3.03% chloridecontent (5 h). However,
the longest time was observed at15MK concrete (132 h). It was
observed that there are large differencesbetween time to failure values
of the plain and MKconcretes. This situation implies that the utilization
36

of MK iseffective for enhancing the corrosion resistance to concrete The

minimum corrosion current density values were measured15MK
concretes irrespective of the chloride contamination
level. The values obtained for 5MK concretes were fall betweenthose of
plain and 15MK concretes. However, 5MK concretesdemonstrated a
close trend to that of 15MK. For example, at0.91% chloride
contamination level, corrosion current densitiesof control and 5MK
concretes were 1.80 and 1.11 times that of15MK concrete, respectively.
When the chloride concentrationincreased to 1.82%, these ratios
become 1.97 and 1.02 for control
and 5MK concretes, respectively.
_ Corrosion rates of the concretes seemed to have similar trendswith the
aforementioned findings. The highest corrosion ratewas measured as
0.0058 mm/yr in control concrete at 3.03%chloride contamination.
However, use of MK provided approximately50% reduction in corrosion
rate.
_ Increased level of chloride contamination resulted in
significantreduction in electrical resistivity of concretes. The lower
theelectrical resistivity the higher the corrosion risk occurs in
reinforcedconcrete. However, the utilization of MK notablyimproved
electrical resistivity of the concretes, especially at15% level of
replacement.

Durability aspect of concretes composed of cold bonded

and sintered flyash lightweight aggregates
Management of industrial waste materials is one of the mostimportant
environmental issues. Concrete technology can proposesome solutions
for recycling some industrial wastes such as fly ash(FA), silica fume (SF),
and ground granulated blast furnace slag
(GGBFS). For couple of decades usage of such minerals as a
cementreplacement substance has been practiced by many
investigators.However, utilization of industrial waste powder materials
suchas FA and GGBFS in production of artificial aggregate has
attractedthe attentions of investigators and practitioners as an
alternativeway for larger consumption.
Since aggregate is the main occupants of concrete (about 6575% of
total concrete volume), it may be considered as an effectivesolution to
use such waste materials as artificial aggregate in concrete.Artificial

aggregates can be manufactured through processingof different

materials and production methods like coldbonding pelletization and
sintering . Cold bondingis a type of bonding method which accounts for
the ability of pozzolanicpowder material to react with calcium hydroxide
at ordinary
temperatures to form a water resistant bonding material.
Pelletized aggregates are left to cure for several days to producean
aggregate with proper strength to be used in concrete production. On
the other hand, sintering method which is mainlybased on atomic
diffusion is a common application for mass production
of lightweight aggregates. Because, aggregate particles,immediately
after pelletization process are treated with high temperaturesup to 1200
_C, and become ready for use without keepingfor long term curing
periods.

38

Conclusions

Based on the findings presented above, the following conclusionsmay be

drawn.
_ Cold bonded (CB) and sintered (S) aggregates were producedwith
water absorption values of 16.3% and 11.7%, respectively.The
aggregate crushing strength of S aggregates was about34 times
greater than that of CB aggregates, depending ongrain size. Higher
strength aggregate provides opportunity forproduction of concrete with
improved mechanical property.
_ Inclusion of silica fume (SF) resulted in significant enhancementof
compressive strength of the LWCs. The combined use of Saggregate and
SF provided the compressive strength values of54 MPa and 44 MPa for
w/b ratios of 0.35 and 0.55, respectively.
_ The improvement in water sorptivity due to pozzolanic andmicrofilling
effect of SF was observed at both groups of LWCs.The aggregate type
was also appeared to be influential on theimprovement of capillary
water penetration behavior ofconcretes.
_ Reflecting the chloride penetrability into concrete, total chargevalues
were significantly reduced in LWCs due to incorporationof SF. However,
the utilization of S aggregates seemed to bemore effective than
inclusion of SF in diminishing the chargevalues. For example, addition of
SF provided 14% decrease forLWC-CB concrete with w/b ratio of 0.35.
However, for the samew/b ratio, LWC-S concrete had 34% less value
than LWC-CB
concrete.
_ Gas permeability coefficients of the LWCs were ranged between3.04
14.02 (_10_16) m2 and 4.7818.54 (_10_16) m2 for LWC-Sand LWC-CB
groups, respectively. Due to enhancement incement paste matrix, SF
modified LWCs revealed less permeability.
The significance of aggregate type on the gas permeabilitybehavior of
concretes were also observed in this test.
_ The resistances of the LWCs against corrosion cracking wereproved to
be enhanced through incorporating SF and especiallyS aggregate. The
crack time in the accelerated corrosion test wasextended up to five
times when S aggregate was used instead ofCB aggregate. The highest
failure time was measured as138 days for SF modified LWC-S with 0.35
40

w/b ratio while theminimum crack initiation time was observed as 18

days forplain LWC-CB with w/b ratio of 0.55.
_ The correlations between compressive strength and other propertiesof
LWCs revealed that concretes with S aggregate hadvery high R2 values
between 0.91 and 0.99 while these valuesfor CB aggregate incorporated
ones ranged from 0.39 to 0.85.