Mutli-scale diagnosis of concrete damage caused by alkali-silica reaction

Title: Mutli-scale diagnosis of concrete damage caused by alkali-silica reaction
Author(s): Younes Boukari, Patrice Rivard, David Bulteel, Nor-Edine Abriak
Paper category : conference
Book title: 2nd International Symposium on Service Life Design for Infrastructures
Editor(s): K. van Breugel, Guang Ye, Yong Yuan
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-096-7
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-097-4
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2010
Pages: 221 - 228
Total Pages: 8
Nb references: 19
Language: English

Abstract: A major challenge to face for an accurate assessment of concrete damage caused by Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) is the lack of reliable and practical tools to complement conventional petrographic observations. This paper proposes a contribution to this problem by analyzing the degradation of concrete specimens affected by ASR at microscopic scale (physicochemical analysis of aggregates), mesocopic scale (petrography of polished sections) and macroscopic scale (mechanical properties, linear acoustics and nonlinear acoustics). The study focuses on early stage of degradation process.
Preliminary results suggest that nonlinear resonance is the most sensitive technique to detect early damage in concrete, but its sensibility to environmental conditions and incapacity to distinguish ASR remain serious drawbacks. The physico-chemical analysis of aggregate presents a strong potential and the characteristic to be specific to ASR, but is a destructive test. Further research is on course to develop reliability and synergy between these two original approaches.

Online publication: 2011-04-20
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00