Are Deicing Salts Necessary to Promote Scaling in Concrete?
Publication: Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 134, Issue 7
Abstract
The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of the material parameters such as permeability, thermal diffusivity, and pore size distribution on the mechanical behavior of cementitious structures submitted to frost action, such as surface scaling. An experimental device, in which a cement paste specimen is exposed to freezing-thawing cycles under a thermal gradient, has been developed. The experimental results show that under high thermal gradient (up to ), skin damage can occur without a saline layer in contact with the frozen surface. This can be explained and quantified in the framework of poromechanics. The model is based on the coupling between liquid-ice crystal thermodynamic equilibrium, liquid water transport, thermal conduction, and elastic properties of the different phases that form the saturated porous material. It eventually predicts that a less permeable sample is more susceptible to damage by surface defacement, which explains the observed experimental result.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Volume 134 • Issue 7 • July 2008
Pages: 589 - 598
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 22, 2006
Accepted: Nov 19, 2007
Published online: Jul 1, 2008
Published in print: Jul 2008
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Christian Hellmich
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