Role of ITZ in the Degradation Process of Blended Cement Concrete under Magnesium Sulfate Attack
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 9
Abstract
Although the importance of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) to sulfate attack is obvious, the relation between the ITZ and the rate of degradation is still unclear. The impact of ITZ volume content on the degradation of concrete, including length, mass, and elastic dynamic modulus () variation, fully immersed in magnesium sulfate solution were investigated in this work. The microstructure was analyzed by backscattered electron imaging (BSE) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) mapping analysis. The performance of concrete exposed to magnesium sulfate highly depended on the aggregate and the composition of raw materials. There was a trend toward more serious deterioration with increasing ITZ in the reference and limestone filler blended group after 12 months of exposure. The degradation of specimens made with slag was independent of the variation of ITZ content. Gypsum tended to precipitate in the ITZ under magnesium sulfate attack. The EDX analysis confirmed the decomposition of C-S-H, accompanied by the formation of degradation products M-S-H.
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Data Availability Statement
The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time due to technical or time limitations.
Acknowledgments
The research leading to these findings has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51978505), the National Key Technology R&D Programs (2016YFC0700802), the State Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Reuse for Building Materials (SWR-2017-003), the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2019YFSY0018), the State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures (Wuhan University of Technology) (SYSJJ2016-01), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Dr. Yun Gao, Dr. Yong Zhang, Dr. Yang Lv, Dr. Zhijun Tan, Dr. Jeroen Dils, and Nicolas Coppieters are greatly acknowledged for their precious assistance in performing experiments.
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Received: Mar 28, 2019
Accepted: Feb 11, 2020
Published online: Jun 18, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 18, 2020
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