A Study On Durability Properties of High-Performance

Materials and Structures (2008) 41:479493
DOI 10.1617/s11527-007-9260-y
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A study on durability properties of high-performance

concretes incorporating high replacement levels of slag
Erhan Guneyisi Mehmet Gesoglu
Received: 22 November 2006 / Accepted: 8 May 2007 / Published online: 6 June 2007
RILEM 2007
Abstract This paper presents an experimental study

of combined effects of curing method and high
replacement levels of blast furnace slag on the
mechanical and durability properties of high performance concrete. Two different curing methods were
simulated as follows: wet cured (in water) and air
cured (at 208C and 65% RH). The concretes with slag
were produced by partial substitution of cement with
slag at varying amounts of 5080%. The water to
cementitious material ratio was maintained at 0.40 for
all mixes. Properties that include compressive and
splitting tensile strengths, water absorption by total
immersion and by capillary rise, chloride penetration,
and resistance of concrete against damage due to
corrosion of the embedded reinforcement were measured at different ages up to 90 days. It was found that
the incorporation of slag at 50% and above-replacement levels caused a reduction in strength, especially
for the early age of air cured specimens. However,
the strength increases with the presence of slag up to
60% replacement for the 90 day wet cured specimens.
Test results also indicated that curing condition and
replacement level had significant effects on the
durability characteristics; in particular the most
prominent effects were observed on slag blended
E. Guneyisi (&) M. Gesoglu

Department of Civil Engineering, Gaziantep University,
27310 Gaziantep, Turkey
e-mail: guneyisi@gantep.edu.tr
cement concrete, which performed extremely well

when the amount of slag used in the mixture
increased up to 80%.
Keywords Absorption Blast furnace slag
Concrete durability Corrosion Curing High
replacement level
1 Introduction
The worldwide demand for high-performance cement-based materials has increased and predictions
are that it will be widely used in construction industry
during the early 21st century. Economical and
environmental considerations had a crucial role in
the supplementary cementing material usage as well
as better engineering and performance properties [1,
2]. From the viewpoints of the development of highperformance concrete and the reuse of industrial
waste products, the use of blast-furnace slag (BFS) as
a cementitious ingredient in either cement or concrete
composites has been increasing [3].
On the other hand, blast furnace slag is a quite
variable material due to the variation in its chemical
composition together with both content and composition of the glass fraction of the slag. The crystalline
part of the slag does not hydrate interfering only as
fine aggregate and crystallization seed. The hydration
mechanism of the slag is also different from that of
cement. When the slag is mixed with water, initial
480
hydration is much slower than Portland cement mixed

with water. Hydration of the slag in the presence of
Portland cement depends upon the breakdown and
dissolution of the glassy slag structure by hydroxyl
ions released during the hydration of Portland cement
and also the alkali content in cement [4]. Further
information on its characteristic can be found in the
literature [57].
There is a wealth of information in the literature
related to the influence of different slag replacements
up to about 60% on the properties of concrete [2, 8
24]. However, very limited studies have been
conducted on the use of the slag at high replacement
levels (higher that 60%). Hill and Sharp [25] studied
the effect of 75 and 95% slag replacement on the
mineralogy and microstructure of three composite
pastes and concluded that the calcium hydroxide
initially formed in the blast furnace slag-cement
systems was totally consumed within six months,
indicating the important hydraulic reactions of slag at
such high replacement levels. Miura and Iwaki [26]
investigated the strength development characteristics
of concretes containing high levels of slag (from 50
to 80%) under different curing conditions. The results
indicated that the strength development of slag
concrete depended greatly on the mixture proportions
and the curing method. Demirboga et al. [27] also
studied the relationship between ultrasonic pulse
velocity (UPV) and compressive strength for concretes containing high volume blast furnace slag (50
70%). They showed that both compressive strength
and UPV were very low for all replacement levels at
early age of curing. Hooton and Emery [28] compared the sulfate resistance of concretes incorporating
slag (from 45 to 72%). They pointed out that
concretes between 45 and 75% slag replacement of
cement did not exhibited any deterioration after the
exposure period while those made with only portland
cement showed various degrees of damage. Algahtani
et al. [29] also showed that performance on exposure
to a sodium-sulfate solution, with replacement levels
of slag at 70% and above, showed sulfate resistance
to be better than that of the Type V sulfate-resistant
cement. In the study of Almussalam et al. [30], the
plastic shrinkage of concrete made with various
dosages of several mineral admixtures, such as fly ash
(2040%), silica fume (515%), and blast furnace
slag (5070%) was investigated. Results revealed that
the rate of water evaporation in the blended cement
concretes was noted to be more than that in the plain

concretes. However, further bleeding in the former
was less than that in the latter.
2 Research significance
The purpose of this study was to assess the combined
effects of high replacement level of slag and curing
regimes on the performance characteristics of high
performance concretes. As mentioned above, these
effects have not been well documented, especially for
permeability-related durability and corrosion resistance of the embedded reinforcement in high performance concretes with higher levels of replacement
(up to 80%), and it is hoped that this investigation
will improve the knowledge on this subject and also
provide useful information to high performance
concrete users.
3 Experimental program
3.1 Materials
The materials used in this investigation were Portland
cement, blast furnace slag, fine aggregate, coarse
aggregate and superlasticizer. Portland cement (CEM
I 42.5R) conforming to the Turkish standard TS EN
197-1 (which is mainly based on the European EN
197-1) and blast furnace slag were utilized as
cementitious materials. The chemical compositions
and the physical properties of Portland cement and
blast furnace slag are given in Table 1. The slag was
obtained from Iskenderun Iron-Steel Factory in
Turkey. The slag was ground granulated in the plant
to have a Blain specific surface area of 405 m2/kg.
The XRD analysis of the slag shown in Fig. 1
displayed an amorphous hump characteristic at about
30o indicating the presence of large amounts of glass.
Moreover, as reported by the manufacturer, the
typical glass content of the slag is about 98%. The
fine aggregate was a mix of natural sand and crushed
sand whereas the coarse aggregate was crushed
limestone with a maximum particle size of 16 mm.
Both aggregates were obtained from local sources.
A commercially available sulphonated naphthalene
formaldehyde-based superplasticizer was used to give
a consistent workability.
481
Table 1 Chemical compositions and physical properties of

cementitious materials used
Item
Portland
cement
Slag
SiO2 (%)
19.73
37.45
Al2O3 (%)
5.09
11.80
Fe2O3 (%)
3.99
0.66
CaO (%)
62.86
34.83
MgO (%)
1.61
10.06
SO3 (%)
2.62
0.35
Na2O (%)
0.18
0.86
K2O (%)
0.80
0.38
Cl (%)
0.01
Insoluble residue (%)
0.24
Loss on ignition (%)

Free lime (%)
1.90
0.57
1.70
Specific gravity (g/cm3)
3.14
2.82
Setting time, Vicat needle Initial/Final

(h-min)
2-46/3-44
Le chatelier (mm)
Specific surface area (m2/kg)
327
405
Fig. 1 XRD pattern of the slag
3.2 Details of mixtures, specimens, and curing

procedures
In order to investigate the combined effects of high
replacement levels of slag and curing condition on
the performance properties of concrete, five different

concrete mixes were employed, details of which are
given in Table 2. The control mix contained only
Portland cement as the binder. In the other four
mixes, Portland cement was partially replaced with,
respectively, 50, 60, 70, and 80% slag (by weight).
The water-cementitious material (w/cm) ratio was
kept constant at 0.40 for all mixes. The superplasticizer was added at the time of mixing. All concretes
were mixed in accordance with ASTM C192 standard
in a power-driven revolving pan mixer. Concrete
cubes of 150 mm and 100 mm in size, and cylinders
of dimensions 100 200 mm were cast in steel
moulds for the study of the compressive and splitting
tensile strengths, absorption characteristics, and rapid
chloride permeability test, respectively. The specimens for the accelerated corrosion test were
100 200 mm concrete cylinders in which a
16 mm diameter steel bar was centrally embedded.
The steel bar was embedded into the concrete
cylinder such that its end was at least 30 mm from
the bottom of the cylinder, and it was coated with
epoxy at the exit from the concrete cylinder in order
to eliminate crevice corrosion at these locations. The
steel bars were cleaned with a wire brush to remove
the rust from surface just before casting the specimens. For each mixture, twelve 150 150 150 mm
cubes, twelve 100 100 100 mm cubes, twenty
100 200 mm cylinder and eight corrosion specimens were cast and compacted by a vibrating table.
After casting, the moulded specimens were covered
with a plastic sheet and left in the casting room for
24 h. They were then demoulded and divided into two
equal groups and cured under the following conditions: in the first curing condition, the specimens
were immersed in water until the age of testing (call
Table 2 Mixture proportions of the concrete

w/cm
ratio
Cement
(kg/m3)
Slag (%)
Slag
(kg/m3)
Water
(kg/m3)
Fine aggregate
Natural sand
(kg/m3)
0.40
Coarse aggregate
Crushed sand
(kg/m3)
No I (kg/m3)
No II (kg/m3)
SPa
(%)
400
160
739
238
567
303
1.7
200
160
50
60
200
240
160
160
725
722
234
233
556
554
298
296
1.7
1.7
120
70
280
160
719
232
551
295
1.7
80
80
320
160
716
231
549
294
1.7
SP: Superplasticizer (wt.% of total cementitious content)
482
as wet cured) while in the second curing condition,

those were left in a room for curing at 208C and 65%
RH until the test age (call as air cured).
3.3 Test methods
3.3.1 Compressive and splitting tensile strengths
To evaluate strength characteristics of each mixture,
the compression test was carried out on the cube
specimens (150 150 150 mm) by a 3,000 kN
capacity testing machine according to ASTM C39
while the splitting tensile strength was conducted on
the cylinder specimens (100 200 mm) according to
ASTM C496. The strength measurements of concrete
were performed at the ages of 28 and 90 days. Three
specimens from each mixture were tested at each
testing age.
3.3.2 Rate of water absorption
To measure the water absorption rate for each
mixture, three test specimens having a dimension of
100 100 100 mm were employed. The specimens
were dried in an oven at 50 58C until constant mass
and then allowed to cool to the ambient temperature
in a sealed container. Afterwards, the sides of the
specimens were coated by paraffin wax. The measurement was carried out by placing the specimens on
glass rods in a tray such that their bottom surface up
to a height of 5 mm is in contact with water, as shown
in Fig. 2. This procedure was considered to allow free
water movement through the bottom surface. The
specimens were removed from the tray and weighed
at different time intervals up to 1 h to evaluate mass
gain. The volume of water absorbed was calculated
by dividing the mass gained by the nominal surface
concrete sample
Parafin wax
water
Fig. 2 Measurement of water absorption rate of concrete
area of the specimen and by the density of water.

These values were plotted against the square root of
time. Then, the rate of water absorption was calculated from the slope of the line for each concrete. The
test was conducted at the ages of 28 and 90 days. For
each concrete mixture, three specimens were used
and the average values were reported.
3.3.3 Water absorption (WA)
The water absorption test was conducted on concrete
cubes (100 100 100 mm). The absorption test was
carried out according to ASTM C642 [31]. For the
determination of water absorption by total immersion, firstly, the dry mass for each specimen was
recorded. For this, the concrete specimens were dried
to constant weight in an oven at 50 58C. The total
drying times of the various specimens varied with the
composition of the concrete and its curing history and
ranged between 20 and 35 days. This drying method
was selected as it is considered to minimize any
modification to the capillary pore structure that would
be caused by a higher temperature and more rapid
drying. Thereafter, they were totally immersed in
water at 208C and the mass of each specimen was
recorded after 48 h of immersion into the water. The
48 h water absorption percentage of each specimen
was then evaluated for comparison purposes. Three
specimens from each mixture were tested at the ages
of 28 and 90 days and the average values were
reported.
3.3.4 Chloride permeability
The resistance of the concrete to the penetration of
the chloride ions was measured in terms of charge
passed through the concrete in accordance with
ASTM C1202 [32]. Soon after the specified curing
periods, two 50-mm disk specimens were cut from
the mid-portion of each 100 200-mm cylinder
specimen and were conditioned as mentioned in
ASTM C1202. Then, the disk specimens were
transferred to the test cell in which one face of the
specimen was in contact with 0.3 N sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and the other face with 3% NaCl
solution. A direct current (DC) of 60 0.1 volts was
applied across the specimen faces, and the current
across the specimen was recorded at every 5 min
interval, covering a total period of 6 h. By knowing
483
the current and time history, the total charge (coulombs) passed through the specimen was computed
by Simpsons integration. The results presented are
the averages from two concrete specimens. The test
was conducted at the ages of 28 and 90 days.
cracking. The variation of current with time and

time to cracking of the specimens were determined
for all mixtures. Two specimens from each concrete
mixture were tested at the ages of 28 and 90 days.
3.3.5 Accelerated corrosion cell
4 Test results and discussion
An accelerated corrosion testing technique was

utilized to compare the corrosion performance of
control and slag blended cement concretes. Similar
cells with some differences were reported by other
researchers [3338]. In this study, the specimens
were immersed to its half height into a 5% sodium
chloride (NaCl) solution and the steel bar (working
electrode) was connected to the positive terminal of a
DC power source while the negative terminal was
connected to stainless steel plates (counter electrode)
placed near the specimen in the solution. In this
circuit, the steel bar was the anode, the steel plates
were the cathode, and the sodium chloride solution
was the electrolyte. The corrosion process was
initiated by impressing an anodic potential of 12 V.
Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the corrosion cell.
The specimens were monitored periodically to see
how long it takes for corrosion cracks to appear on
the surface. The current increased abruptly when the
specimen cracked, indicating the occurrence of
A summary of test results regarding the compressive

and splitting tensile strengths, water absorption by
capillary rise and total immersion, chloride permeability, and time to failure of the concretes containing
high replacement levels of slag are given in Table 3
and graphically depicted in Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11,
respectively.
Fig. 3 Schematic
representation of
accelerated corrosion cell
4.1 Compressive and splitting tensile strengths

The data concerning the variation of compressive
strength with respect to concrete age and curing
condition for concretes containing 0, 50, 60, 70, and
80% slag is presented in Fig. 4. The strength values
for the control and slag concretes ranged from 50.6 to
63.1 MPa and from 27.9 to 66.2 MPa, respectively,
depending mainly on slag content, curing condition,
and concrete age. The figure indicates that there was
a systematic decrease in compressive strength with
the increase in slag content. This is more pronounced
484
Table 3 Summary of test results

Property
Mixture
Air cured
Wet cured
28 days
Mean
Compressive strength (MPa)
Splitting tensile strength (MPa)
Rate of water absorption (mm/min0.5)
Water absorption (%)
Chloride permeability (Coulombs)
Time to failure (Hours)
90 days
COV
Mean
28 days
COV
Mean
90 days
COV
Meana
COVb
Control
50.6
9.0
57.9
4.7
56.2
3.5
63.1
5.4
50% slag
41.9
10.7
54.6
3.2
49.0
1.6
66.2
3.3
60% slag
38.3
2.3
51.8
7.5
43.1
5.7
64.5
1.2
70% slag
30.9
5.4
43.5
5.4
37.1
5.5
57.8
4.7
80% slag
27.9
3.4
38.0
2.8
34.2
2.7
51.4
2.7
Control
4.01
6.2
4.64
5.0
4.41
12.5
5.09
2.3
50% slag
3.36
10.7
4.37
7.9
3.93
6.0
5.20
2.5
60% slag
3.18
4.4
4.27
1.0
3.69
11.5
5.17
8.8
70% slag
2.78
4.6
3.91
14.5
3.39
1.6
5.00
0.6
80% slag
2.57
3.3
3.41
14.3
3.05
1.2
4.57
2.6
Control
50% slag
0.231
0.220
5.6
3.1
0.209
0.170
9.3
9.9
0.200
0.176
4.2
7.9
0.166
0.117
1.2
4.9
60% slag
0.206
4.4
0.156
3.8
0.165
6.0
0.107
4.0
70% slag
0.201
7.7
0.145
5.4
0.158
2.4
0.090
6.2
80% slag
0.188
2.9
0.137
8.4
0.152
1.8
0.082
2.6
Control
5.16
6.1
4.58
5.4
4.50
1.2
3.90
1.1
50% slag
4.67
4.0
3.84
5.7
4.00
4.1
3.01
5.5
60% slag
4.50
3.2
3.73
8.9
3.85
2.6
2.95
2.3
70% slag
4.33
6.5
3.66
5.2
3.80
2.7
2.84
3.0
80% slag
4.39
9.4
3.61
7.2
3.75
2.2
2.79
0.8
Control
4800
2.8
4050
2.2
4250
4.1
3750
0.9
50% slag
2700
6.0
1850
6.7
2050
2.1
1410
2.3
60% slag
2330
3.6
1770
2.3
1870
3.2
1070
3.5
70% slag
2100
4.1
1650
3.3
1600
3.3
960
3.1
80% slag
2050
4.4
1500
3.0
1580
5.4
880
1.7
Control
50% slag
78.0
83.0
5.7
2.3
92.0
109.0
3.2
1.0
85.0
93.7
2.5
1.0
115.0
139.5
3.1
1.8
60% slag
88.9
0.7
116.0
4.3
101.0
0.3
149.2
0.7
70% slag
90.0
1.1
123.0
10.0
110.7
2.1
161.6
6.2
80% slag
91.2
0.2
129.0
3.1
114.0
2.8
175.1
0.9
The number of observation is 3 for compression, split, and absorption tests while that is 2 for chloride permeability and corrosion
tests
COV: Coefficients of variation (%)
for concretes subjected to air curing condition.

However, for the wet cured concrete tested at later
age (90 days), it was observed that the presence of
slag is highly beneficial at 50 and 60% replacement
with a strength exceeding that of the control. A
noticeable strength reduction is observed at 70% and
above-replacement level. This trend agrees with
results reported elsewhere [3942]. From Fig. 4, it
is also evident that the curing methods had considerable effect on the compressive strength development, especially for wet cured slag concretes. For the
control and slag concretes, air curing resulted in
significantly lower 28- and 90-day strengths as
compared to wet curing. It was observed that the
ratio of the compressive strength of the specimens
subjected to air curing to those cured under wet for
485
6
80
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
60
70
50
40
30
20
1
10
0
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
20
40
Fig. 4 Effects of slag replacement and curing conditions on 28

and 90 day compressive strength of concretes
Splitting tensile strength (MPa)
100
6000
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Replacement levels of slag (%)
0,3
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
0,25
0,2
0,15
0,1
0,05
0
0
20
40
20
40
60
80
100

and 90 day splitting tensile strength of concretes
0.5
80

and 90 day water absorption of concretes
Rate of water absorption (mm/min )
60
60
80
100

and 90 day water absorption rate of concretes

and 90 day chloride permeability of concretes
the control concrete deviated up to -10%. However,

this ratio for concretes containing slag lay within a
range of 11 to 26%, depending mainly on slag
content and testing age. This implies that slag
concretes are more sensitive to curing method than
plain cement concretes.
The strength variation pattern for splitting tensile
strength of control and slag concretes is similar to
that of compressive strength, as can be seen in Fig. 5.
The splitting tensile strength, in general, is decreasing
with increasing slag content, except for the 50 and
60% slag concretes in the case of 90-day wet curing.
However, the decrease in splitting tensile strength
was slightly smaller compared to the decrease in
compressive strength. Irrespective of curing condition
486
and testing age, the 80% slag concretes showed lower

compressive and splitting tensile strengths.
4.2 Absorption characteristics
The change in water absorption rate with concrete
age and curing condition for the control and slag
concretes are given in Fig. 6. It is clear that rate of
water absorption decreases systematically with an
increase in curing period (from 28 to 90 days), and
the gradients of the water absorption tends to
decrease with increase in the replacement level of
slag. Generally, slag concrete performed better than
the control concrete and marked improvements in
terms of lower rate of water penetration through
capillary suction were apparent, particularly under
wet curing condition. It was found that the rate of
water absorption of air cured slag concretes was
about 1.1 to 1.5 times lower than that of control
concretes, depending on slag content and curing
period. However, that in the wet cured slag concretes
was in the range of 1.2 to 2.0. This reduced water
absorption rate reflects a finer pore structure that
would, for example, inhibit ingress of aggressive
elements into the pore system, especially under
proper curing condition [43]. The previously mentioned figure also highlights the advantages of adding
slag to the mixture, even at high replacement levels
(from 50 to 80%), to decrease the water absorption
rate of the concrete mixtures. Further, it demonstrates
the dependence of water absorption rate on the
proportion of slag in the mixture, testing age, and
curing procedure employed. This is contrary to
experience with most blast furnace slags. The reason
for this may be that a more reactive slag was utilized.
Figure 7 shows the variation in water absorption
with concrete age and curing condition for the control
and slag concretes. Similar to the rate of water
absorption test results, water absorption characteristics of the concrete specimens decreased with
increasing slag content, irrespective of curing condition and testing age. However, the differences in the
water absorption characteristics of the control and
slag concrete due to curing method became more
significant after 28 days and were remarkably lower
for slag concrete compared to the control concrete.
Furthermore, the reduction in the water absorption
with increasing test age was about 12% and 15%
for air and wet cured conventional concretes,
respectively, while it was about 1822% and 30

35% for air and wet cured slag concretes, respectively. This reduction in the water absorption with
age indicates better performance of slag blended
cement concretes over conventional concrete. The
improvement in the performance of the air cured
samples might be explained due to the surface
carbonation of the air-cured concrete resulted in
enhanced reduction in sorptivity. In the studies of Bai
et al. [43] and Dias [44], it is pointed out that aircured concrete undergoes an increase in weight and a
reduction in sorptivity as a result of carbonation of
the surface zone.
4.3 Resistance to chloride ion penetration
The effect of wet and air curing conditions (up to 28
and 90 days of age) and high replacement levels of
slag (from 50 to 80%) on chloride permeability of the
concrete is shown in Fig. 8. The calculated total
passing charge which is an indication of the concretes resistance to penetration of the chloride ions
ranged from 3,750 to 4,800 coulombs (from moderate
to high chloride permeability rating according to
ASTM 1202 guidelines, concerning the chloride ion
permeability rating) for the control mixture, depending on curing condition and testing age. However,
these values ranged from 880 to 2,700 coulombs
(from very low to moderate chloride permeability
rating) for the concrete mixture having slag in
different proportions. This indicated that the slag
concretes had remarkably lower permeability than the
control concretes, irrespective of curing condition
and testing age. From Fig. 8, it is also evident that the
concretes containing 50% and above-replacement
levels of slag showed sharply reduced values of the
charge for all curing condition and testing age. For
example, at 70 and 80% replacement levels, the
90 day wet cured slag concretes had a charge value of
less than 1,000 coulombs, which is considered to
have an excellent resistance to the penetration of
chloride ions according to ASTM 1202. The large
decrease in the permeability with the use of supplementary cementing materials in the above concretes
is due to the change in the pore structure of the
hydrated cementitious system [45, 46].
As it is also observed in Fig. 8, the extension of the
curing period from 28 to 90 days and the enhancement of the curing conditions applied to the test
487
Fig. 9 Typical time-current

for the 90 day wet cured
control and slag blended
cement concrete specimens
0.6
Control specimen
Specimen with 60% slag
Corrosion Current (A)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
Time (Hours)
specimens resulted in a reduction of the total charge

passed through the concretes, with the difference
much more marked for the slag concretes than the
control concretes, especially under wet curing condition. Test results exhibited that the chloride permeability of the air cured control concrete was
determined as about 1.1 times higher than that of
the wet cured control concrete, whereas for blast
furnace slag blended cement concrete, the equivalent
increase in the dry/wet ratio ranged from 1.3 to 1.7
times, depending on replacement level of slag and
testing age. This indicates that the lack of proper
curing significantly aggravated the chloride ion
penetration through concretes. However, concrete
mixtures containing slag suffered more at all replacement levels, particularly for later age (90 days). The
obvious reason for this that the slag blended cement
concrete requires prolonged moist curing, in order to
take advantage of the beneficial effects of the
hydraulic activity and pore refinement.
Fig. 9, current-time curve 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 current was detected until failure.
Almost a similar variation of the corrosion current
with time has also been observed by other researchers
[3338]. The sudden rise of the current intensity
coincided with the cracking of the specimen. Thus,
this curve was used to determine the corrosion time
of the specimen when the specimen cracked due to
corrosion and the current started to increase sharply.
The first visual evidence of corrosion was the
appearance of brown stains on the surface of the
4.4 Corrosion resistance

The corrosion behavior of steel bars embedded in
control and slag blended cement concrete specimens
subjected to wet and air curing conditions were
studied by impressing a constant anodic potential.
The current required to maintain the fixed potential
was plotted against time and the typical curves of
corrosion current with time for the 28 day wet cured
control and slag concrete specimens are illustrated in
Fig. 9. Typical corrosion specimens after the conclusion of the test are shown in Fig. 10. As seen from
Fig. 10 Photograph showing typical corrosion specimens after

the accelerated corrosion test
488
specimens. Cracking was observed shortly thereafter

and it was associated with a sudden rise in the
current. Figure 11 demonstrates the average corrosion
times for the control and slag subjected to different
curing conditions. Time to cracking in the control
concrete specimens was in the range of 85115 h (3
to 5 days) whereas that in slag blended cement
concrete specimens was in the range of 83175 h (3
to 8 days), depending mainly on replacement level,
curing condition, and age at testing. It was observed
that for a given curing condition and testing age, the
times of corrosion cracking for the slag concrete
specimens were relatively longer compared to the
control concrete specimens, which implies that the
former provides better protection to steel reinforcement against corrosion. From Fig. 11, it was also
noted that time to cracking increased (up to 52%)
with increasing slag content, especially for the
specimens subjected to wet curing condition. The
effect of curing condition was more noticeable for
both control and especially slag concretes, as seen in
Fig. 10. An approximately 10% difference was
observed between the time to cracking of air cured
and wet cured control concrete specimens tested at
28 days, whereas that for blast furnace slag blended
cement concrete specimens was in the range of
1325%. At later age (90 days), the percentage
difference increased significantly for both concrete
types. However, slag blended concrete specimens
were affected more negatively by the lack of curing
than the control concrete specimens due to the change
4.5 Analysis of variance
150
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed

statistically to investigate the influence of replacement level of slag, curing condition, and testing age
on the compressive and splitting tensile strengths,
water absorption rate, water absorption, chloride
permeability, and time to failure of the concretes.
For this purpose, the replacement level, curing
condition, and age were selected as factors whereas
the concrete properties were assigned as dependent
variables. The Minitab software was used to analyze
experimentally obtained data.
The following null hypotheses were tested using a
0
0.05 level of significance: (1). H0 : there is no
difference in the mean compressive strength (or
splitting tensile strength, water absorption rate, water
absorption, chloride permeability, time to failure)
00
when different replacement levels are used; (2). H0 :
there is no difference in the mean compressive
strength (or splitting tensile strength, water absorption rate, water absorption, chloride permeability,
time to failure) when different curing condition are
000
applied; (3). H0 : there is no difference in the mean
compressive strength (or splitting tensile strength,
water absorption rate, water absorption, chloride
permeability, time to failure) when different testing
age are used.
Results obtained from statistical analysis were
shown in Table 4. According to the ANOVA table, it
was pointed out that at 95% confidence level,
replacement level of slag, curing regime, and testing
age had significant effects on the properties of
concrete measured because none of the P-values
were above the significance level (0.05).
100
4.6 Correlation between concrete properties
250
Wet cured
Dry cured
Test age: 28 days
Test age: 90 days
200
Time to failure (hours)
in hydration kinetics of cements and the hydration

development at the curing cessation time [47].
50
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Fig. 11 Effects of slag replacement and curing conditions on

the average time required to crack the specimens tested at 28
and 90 days
In order to understand the interdependence between

the properties of the concrete measured in the present
investigation, the correlation between compressive
strength (or chloride permeability) and water absorption (or rate of water absorption, chloride permeability, time to failure) of concrete specimens with and
without slag was studied. The plots are illustrated in
Figs. 12 and 13. From Fig. 12, it was observed that
489
Table 4 Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results for hardened properties of concrete

Dependent variable
Compressive strength
Source of variation
541.2
96.2
0.00002
yes
1153.5
205.1
0.00000
yes
1
42
3000.4
5.6
533.5
0.00000
yes
Replacement level
1.57
64.0
0.00003
yes
Curing condition
7.08
288.8
0.00001
yes
18.53
755.2
0.00000
yes
42
0.02
Replacement level
0.00214
88.4
0.00002
yes
Curing condition
0.02665
1101.4
0.00000
yes
1651.7
0.00000
yes
0.00004
yes
Error
Replacement level
0.03996
42
0.00002
0.15120
19.5
Curing condition
8.85800
1139.8
0.00000
yes
Testing age
6.16330
793.1
0.00002
yes
42
0.00777
Error
Replacement level
594668.7
108.1
0.00000
yes
Curing condition
3847669.0
699.6
0.00000
yes
1
42
5050519.0
5500.2
918.2
0.00000
yes
Testing age
Error
Time to failure
Significance
Testing age
Chloride permeability
P-level
Error
Water absorption
Computed F
Replacement level
Testing age
Rate of water absorption
Mean Square (MS)
Curing condition
Testing age
Error
Splitting tensile strength
Degree of freedom
Replacement level
1000.8
19.5
0.00022
yes
Curing condition
20398.1
397.6
0.00010
yes
8643.0
168.5
0.00080
yes
Testing age
Error
42
the compressive strength data and the water absorption data (or rate of water absorption, chloride
permeability data) suggested the presence of inverse
type of relationship between them; the higher the
compressive strength, the lower the water absorption
(or rate of water absorption, chloride permeability).
However, the compressive strength increased with
increasing the time to failure of concrete specimens
for both plain and slag concretes. It was also evident
that the correlation coefficients between the measured
properties for the slag concrete was somewhat low
since the data obtained from slag concrete mixtures
exhibited more scatter while those for the plain
concrete was close to unity, suggesting fairly good
correlation between them.
To quantify the type and nature of interdependence between the chloride permeability and the
other three measured properties (water absorption,
51.3
rate of water absorption, and time to failure) for plain

and slag concretes, the plots, as shown in Fig. 13, are
used. It was clear that the chloride permeability,
water absorption, and rate of water absorption
appeared to follow similar trends. However, the
chloride permeability and the time to failure had an
inverse type of relationship. The previously mentioned figures also indicated that for both plain and
slag concretes, the chloride permeability data was
well correlated with the data obtained from the
absorption and corrosion tests, and produced higher
correlation coefficients. For all cases, the correlation
coefficients R2 were in the range of 0.810.91 and
0.910.96 for the plain and slag concretes, respectively. This implies that there was a good relationship
between the chloride permeability and the others,
irrespective of replacement levels of slag, curing
conditions, and testing ages.
490
c) 80
80
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
70
60
50
y = -14.136x + 98.413
R2 = 0.5305
40
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
70
y = -9.8114x + 101.48
R2 = 0.9597
a)
30
20
y = -0.0115x + 105.61
R2 = 0.9779
60
50
40
30
y = -0.0126x + 67.214
R2 = 0.2936
20
10
10
0
0
1000
d) 80
80
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
70
60
50
40
y = -180,66x + 73,525
R2 = 0,4084
30
3000
4000
5000
6000
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
70
y = -181,59x + 93,583
R2 = 0,9038
b)
2000
20
y = 0.3053x + 28.746
R2 = 0.901
60
50
40
y = 0.265x + 14.589
R2 = 0.4056
30
20
10
10
0
0
0,05
0,1
0,15
0,2
0,25
0,3
50
100
150
200
250
Fig. 12 Correlation between compressive strength and (a) water absorption, (b) rate of water absorption, (c) chloride permeability,
and (d) time to failure for concretes with and without slag
As discussed above, the correlation coefficients

(R2) between the compressive strength and water
absorption (48 h immersion test) of the concretes
were low while those between the chloride permeability and water absorption of the concretes were
very high. It has been reported that the strength
changes are mainly attributed to the interaction of
paste thickness, bond strength, and modulus of
elasticity of paste and aggregates. The pore size
distribution and microcracks are also important
factors that determine mechanical properties of
cementitious materials [48]. However, both the
permeability and absorption characteristics of the
concrete are primarily affected by the pore structure
and pore fluid conductivity together with the related
changes occurred in the pore structure. Thus, the rate
of any transport process depends on the microstructural characteristics of the concrete mixes [49].
Therefore, these reasons suggest that the mechanisms
of strength and water absorption are fundamentally
different and influenced by many different factors,
thus leading to a poor correlation between them.
However, the interdependence between the permeability and absorption provided relatively higher
correlation coefficient.
5 Conclusions
The following conclusions are drawn from the test
results and analysis presented in this paper:
1.
2.
For the mixtures with high replacement levels of

slag, curing played a critical role in realizing the
full potential of concrete in terms of strength and
especially durability characteristics.
Generally, there was a systematic decrease in
both compressive and splitting tensile strengths
with the increase in slag content, especially
under air curing condition. However, the incorporation of up to 60% slag to partially replaced
Portland cement in concrete caused an increase
in long-term compressive and splitting tensile
strengths.
a)
6000
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
y = 818.28x + 501.61
R2 = 0.9094
5000
4000
3000
2000
y = 802.63x - 1285.4
R2 = 0.9259
1000
0
0
b)
6000
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
y = 14807x + 1228,2
R2 = 0,8187
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
y = 11894x - 124,89
R2 = 0,9584
0
0
0,05
0,1
0,15
0,2
0,25
0,3
c)
6000
Plain concrete
Slag concrete
Fig. 13 Correlation
between chloride
permeability and (a) water
absorption, (b) rate of water
absorption, and (c) time to
failure for concretes with
and without slag
491
5000
y = -24.741x + 6501.1
R2 = 0.8063
4000
3000
y = -17.017x + 3704.6
R2 = 0.9053
2000
1000
0
0
50
100
150
200
492
3.
4.
5.
6.
Slag concrete exhibited marginally lower absorption characteristics than control concrete. An
increase in slag content (from 50 to 80%)
reduced the water penetration by total immersion
and capillary action, particularly under wet
curing condition.
It was observed that the concretes containing
50% and above-replacement levels of slag
showed sharply reduced values of the charge,
irrespective of curing condition and testing age.
Results indicated that the chloride permeability
of the air cured control concrete was about 1.1
times higher than that of the wet cured control
concrete, whereas for slag blended cement concrete, the equivalent increase in the dry/wet ratio
ranged from 1.3 to 1.7 times, depending on
replacement level of slag and testing age. This
implies that concretes containing high replacement levels of slag are very sensitive to the
curing method adopted.
Based on the results of the rapid corrosion test,
slag concrete specimens had superior performance and mostly gave longer time to failure at
similar curing condition and testing age in
comparison to control specimens. Similar to
water absorption and chloride permeability
results, the corrosion resistance of the specimens
increased considerably with increasing slag content. For example, the 90 day wet cured specimen
containing high level of slag (80% slag) exhibited about 52% higher corrosion resistance than
the control sample.
The effect of wet and air curing regimes on the
durability related properties was more pronounced in the presence of slag, particularly at
higher replacement levels (5080%). It was
observed that large differences in values between
wet and air curing were obtained for the slag
mixtures. This illustrates and reinforces the
importance of proper curing for concrete containing 50% and above-replacement level.
This study has been exclusively focused on the

hardened properties of the high performance concrete
containing high replacement level of slag under air
and wet curing regimes. During the experimental
study, an assumption of concrete saturation has been
made. However, the degree of concrete saturation
plays an important role. Therefore, it should be
pointed out that further research should be useful in

order to better understand the effect of this saturation
issue on the relative test results.
References
1. Badogiannis E, Papadakis VG, Chaniotakis E, Tsivilis S
(2004) Exploitation of poor Greek kaolins: strength
development of metakaolin concrete and evaluation by
means of k-value. Cem Concr Res 34:10351041
2. Ramezanianpour AA, Malhotra VM (1995) Effect of curing on the compressive strength, resistance to chloride ion
penetration and porosity of concretes incorporating slag,
fly ash, or silica fume. Cem Concr Compos 17:125133
3. Babu KG, Kumar VSR (2000) Efficiency of GGBS in
concrete. Cem Concr Res 30:10311036
4. Pal SC, Mukherjee A, Pathak SR (2003) Investigation of
hydraulic activity of ground granulated blast furnace slag
in concrete. Cem Concr Res 33:14811486
5. Itoh H (2004) Rapid discrimination of the character of the
water-cooled blast furnace slag used for Portland slag
cement. J Mater Sci 39:21912193
6. Mill KC, Courtney L, Fox AB, Harris B. Idoyaga Z,
Richardson MJ (2002) The use of thermal analysis in the
determination of the crystalline fraction of slag films.
Thermochim Acta 391:175184
7. Gao JM, Qian CX, Liu HF, Wang B, Li L (2005) ITZ
microstructure of concrete containing GGBS. Cem Concr
Res 35:12991304
8. Ozyildirim C (1994) Investigation of low-permeability
concretes containing slag and silica fume. ACI Mater J
91(2):197202
9. Afrani I, Rogers C (1994) The effects of different
cementing materials and curing on concrete scaling. Cem
Concr Aggr 16(2):132139
10. Parrott LJ (1996) Some effects of cement and curing upon
carbonation and reinforcement corrosion in concrete.
Mater Struct 29(187):164173
11. Wainwright PJ, Aitaider H (1995) The influence of cement
source and slag additions on the bleeding of concrete. Cem
Concr Res 25(7):14451456
12. Lumley JS, Gollop RS, Moir GK, Taylor HFW (1996)
Degrees of reaction of the slag in some blends with Portland cements. Cem Concr Res 26:139151
13. Alshamsi AM (1997) Microsilica and ground granulated
blast furnace slag effects on hydration temperature. Cem
Concr Res 27(12):18511859
14. Dehghanian C, Arjemandi M (1997) Influence of slag
blended cement concrete on chloride diffusion rate. Cem
Concr Res 27(6):937945
15. Jau WC, Tsay DS (1998) A study of the basic engineering
properties of slag cement concrete and its resistance to
seawater corrosion. Cem Concr Res 28(10):13631371
16. Erdogdu K, Tokyay M, Turker P (1999) Comparison of
intergrinding and separate grinding for the production of
natural pozzolan and GBFS-incorporated blended cements.
Cement Concr Res 29(5):743746

17. Gu P, Beaudoin JJ, Zhang MH, Malhotra VM (2000)
Performance of reinforcing steel in concrete containing
silica fume and blast-furnace slag ponded with sodium
chloride solution. ACI Mater J 97(3):254262
18. Wainwright PJ, Rey N (2000) The influence of ground
granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) additions and time
delay on the bleeding of concrete. Cem Concr Comp
22:253257
19. Hooton RD (2000) Canadian use of ground granulated
blast-furnace slag as a supplementary cementing material
for enhanced performance of concrete. Can J Civil Eng
27(4):754760
20. Li Z, Ding Z (2003) Property improvement of portland
cement by incorporating with metakaolin and slag. Cem
Concr Res 33:579584
21. Chang PK, Hou WM (2003) A study on the hydration
properties of high performance slag concrete analyzed by
SRA. Cem Concr Res 33:183189
22. Li G, Zhao X (2003) Properties of concrete incorporating
fly ash and ground granulated blast-furnace slag. Cem
Concr Comp 25:293299
23. Sobolev K, Yeginobali A (2005) The development of
high-strength mortars with improved thermal and acid
resistance. Cem Concr Res 35(3):578583
24. Muralidharan S, Vedalakshmi R, Saraswathi V, Joseph J,
Palaniswamy N (2005) Studies on the aspects of chloride
ion determination in different types of concrete under
macro-cell corrosion conditions. Build Environ 40:1275
1281
25. Hill N, Sharp JH (2002) The mineralogy and microstructure of three composite cements with high replacement
levels. Cem Concr Comp 24:191199
26. Miura T, Iwaki I (2000) Strength development of concrete
incorporating high levels of ground granulated blast-furnace slag at low temperatures. ACI Mater J 97(1):6670
_ Karakoc MB (2004) Relation27. Demirboga R, Turkmen I,
ship between ultrasonic velocity and compressive strength
for high-volume mineral-admixtured concrete. Cem Concr
Res 34:23292336
28. Hooton RD, Emery JJ (1990) Sulfate resistance of a
Canadian slag cement. ACI Mater J 87(6):547555
29. Algahtani AS, Rasheeduzzafar, Alsaadoun SS (1994)
Rebar corrosion and sulfate resistance of blast-furnace slag
cement. J Mater Civ Eng 6(2):223239
30. Almussalam AA, Maslehuddin M, Abdul-Waris M, Dakhil
FH, Al-Amoudi OSB (1999) Plastic shrinkage cracking of
blended cement concretes in hot environments. Mag Concr
Res 51(4):241246
31. ASTM C64297, Test method for density, absorption, and
voids in hardened concrete, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, American Society for Testing and Materials, Vol.
04.02, October 2006
32. ASTM C120205, Test method for electrical indication of
concretes ability to resist chloride ion penetration, Annual
Book of ASTM Standards, American Society for Testing
and Materials, Vol. 04.02, October 2006
33. Al-Tayyib AJ, Al-Zahrani MM (1990) Corrosion of steel
reinforcement in polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete
structure. ACI Mater J 87(2):108113
493
34. Detwiler RJ, Kjellsen KO, Gjorv OE (1991) Resistance to
chloride intrusion of concrete cured at different temperature. ACI Mater J 88(1):1924
35. Shaker FA, El-Dieb AS, Reda MM (1997) Durability of
styrene butadiene latex modified concrete. Cem Concr Res
27(5):711720
36. Okba SH, El-Dieb AS, Reda MM (1997) Evaluation of the
corrosion resistance of latex modified concrete (LMC).
Cem and Concr Res 27(6):861868
37. Al-Zahani MM, Al-Dulaijan SU, Ibrahim M, Saricimen H,
Sharif FM (2002) Effect of waterproofing coating on steel
reinforcement corrosion and physical properties of concrete. Cem Concr Comp 24:127137
zturan T, Gesoglu M (2005) A study on
38. Guneyisi E, O
reinforcement corrosion and related properties of plain and
blended cement concretes under different curing conditions. Cem Concr Comp 27(4):449461
39. Hogan FJ, Meusel JW (1981) Evaluation for durability and
strength development of a ground granulated blast furnace
slag. Cem Concr Aggr 3(1):4052
40. Roy DM, Idorn GM (1982) Hydration, structure, and
properties of blast furnace slag cement, mortars, and concrete. J Am Concr Inst 79:444457
zberk E, Altay B (1997)
41. Tas demir MA, Tas demir C, O
Fineness effect of GGBS on the properties and microstructure of concrete. In: Proceedingsof the 1st International Symposium on Mineral Admixtures in Cement,
Istanbul, Turkey, pp 198215
42. Khatip JM, Hibbert JJ (2005) Selected engineering properties of concrete incorporating slag and metakaolin.
Constr Build Mater 19:460472
43. Bai J, Wild S, Sabir BB (2002) Sorptivity and strength of
air-cured and water-cured PC-PFA-MK concrete and the
influence of binder composition on carbonation depth. Cem
Concr Res 32:18131821
44. Dias WPS (2000) Reduction of concrete sorptivity with
age through carbonation. Cem Concr Res 30:12551261
45. Malhotra VM, Carette GG, Bilodeau A, Sivasumdaram V
(1991) Some aspect of durability of high volume ASTM
class F fly ash concrete. In: Malhotra VM (ed) Proceedings
of the second CANMET/ACI International Conference on
Durability of Concrete, American Concrete Institute (ACI)
Special Publication SP-126, pp 6582
46. Plante P, Bilodeau A (1989) Rapid chloride ion permeability test: data on concretes incorporating supplementary
cementing materials. In: Malhotra VM (ed) Proceeding of
the third CANMET/ACI International Conference on the
Use of Fly Ash, Silica Fume, Slag, and Natural Pozzolans,
ACI Special Publication SP 114-30, pp 625644
47. Bonavetti V, Donza H, Rahhal V, Irassar E (2000) Influence of initial curing on the properties of concrete containing limestone blended cement. Cem Concr Res 30:703
708
48. Kolias S, Georgiou C (2005) The effect of paste volume
and of water content on the strength and water absorption
of concrete. Cem Concr Comp 27:211216
49. Buenfeld NR, Glass GK, Hassanein AM, Zhang JZ (1998)
Chloride transport in concrete subjected to electrical field.
J Mater Civ Eng 10(4):220228

A Study On Durability Properties of High-Performance

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Study On Durability Properties of High-Performance

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Materials and Structures (2008) 41:479493