Concrete Durability after Load Damage and Salt Freeze-Thaw Cycles

To determine how the performance of concrete changes after initial load damage and salt freezing, concrete samples were first subjected to loading and unloading, and were then put into salt solutions to carry out rapid freeze-thaw cycle (FTC) experiments. Salt solutions were created based on the saline soil of western Jilin, China, for use in salt freeze-thaw testing. This determined the change law of the compressive strength and the dynamic elastic modulus (DEM). Additionally, low-field nuclear magnetic resonance technology and a scanning electron microscope were applied to investigate the pore characteristics and microstructure of concrete samples after FTCs. This study found that when the concrete specimens were subjected to an initial load of 0.3f under 50 FTCs, the loss in the compressive strength increased by 24% when the concrete was subjected to freeze-thaw cycles in freshwater and increased by 24% when concrete was subjected to freeze-thaw cycles in a 6.8% composite salt solution compared with the specimens without the initial load. When the concrete was subjected to FTCs in a 6.8% composite salt solution 50 times, the loss in the compressive strength increased by 110% for concrete without an initial load and increased by 109% when the concrete was subjected to an initial load of 0.3f compared with the specimens under FTCs in freshwater. The persistent effect of the FTCs also aggravated chloride ion erosion in the concrete, which gradually reduced the concrete's permeability resistance. Internal pores in the concrete, especially the proportion of above-medium-sized pores, gradually increased along with the increase in the number of FTCs. There is a good linear correlation between the change rule of compressive mechanical properties and the change rules of mass, DEM, and pore characteristics inside the concrete under rapid FTCs in different salt solutions.

Automated summary

This study examines the changes in the performance of concrete after initial load damage and salt freezing. It finds that freeze-thaw cycles have a negative impact on the compressive strength of concrete and lead to changes in pore characteristics. The presence of salt solutions exacerbates these effects and reduces the permeability resistance of the concrete.