Effects of Asphalt Modification of Paste–Aggregate Interface on the Transport and Mechanical Properties of Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 6
Abstract
The addition of polymer emulsion in cement paste improves concrete impermeability. However, a high polymer emulsion content (usually 10%–20% of the mass of cement) is typically required to significantly improve the performance of concrete, which might increase material costs and decrease the compressive strength of concrete. This study seeks to develop a better method for improving concrete impermeability without significantly decreasing the concrete strength at a relatively low polymer emulsion content. In this study, the aggregates were pretreated with asphalt emulsion to concentrate hydrophobic asphalt film in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ). The effects of asphalt emulsion-coated aggregate (ACA) on the transport and mechanical properties of concrete were investigated. The aggregates were pretreated with asphalt emulsion at dosages of 0.1%, 0.4%, 0.7%, and 1.0% mass of the coarse aggregates, and the replacement percentages of normal coarse aggregates (NCA) by ACA were 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%. Water absorption (WA) by capillarity, compressive strength, and stress-strain curves were obtained. The porosity and microhardness of ITZ around ACA were also investigated. The results indicated that the porosity of ITZ within of the aggregate surfaces increased over two times, and its microhardness decreased by approximately 30% when the coated asphalt emulsion content increased to 0.7% and 1.0%, thus decreasing the concrete strength by approximately 20%. The WA rate was influenced by the mutual effects of the hydrophobicity of asphalt film and increased porosity in ITZ. The proper replacement percentage of NCA by ACA (30%) improve concrete impermeability and reduce concrete brittleness without significantly decreasing the concrete strength at a relatively low asphalt emulsion content (0.4% mass of coarse aggregates).
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all of the data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0310001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51972250 and 51872216), Hubei Technology Innovation Key Program (2018AAA004), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT:2020 III005JL).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 6 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 31, 2020
Accepted: Nov 9, 2020
Published online: Mar 27, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Aug 27, 2021
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