Study on calcium dissolution of concrete specimens with surface cracks

Abstract

The effects of crack width, crack depth and water-cement ratio (w/c) on calcium dissolution resistance of cracked concrete were evaluated. Results show that the degradation in physical properties and mechanical properties of concrete after dissolution increase with the increasing crack width, crack depth and w/c. In the case of concrete with w/c of 0.40 and dissolution age of 100 d, the degradation of splitting tensile strength of specimens with crack widths of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mm was 1.27 times, 1.39 times and 1.54 times that of uncracked specimens. Dissolution resistance of cracked concrete is obviously lower than that of uncracked concrete, and the effect of crack width on it is more significant than that of crack depth, and the higher the w/c of concrete, the more significant the effect of crack width. Dissolution damage increasing coefficient of cracked concrete can be used to quantitatively characterise the effect of cracks on the dissolution damage of concrete, and its maximum value is approximately 1.08 corresponding to the crack width of 0.3 mm. The results of this study can be used as a reference for the accurate evaluation of calcium dissolution resistance and service life of the water-related concrete structures.

Keywords:

• Cracked concrete
• calcium dissolution
• water-cement ratio
• crack width
• crack depth
• physical properties
• mechanical properties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51408192) and the Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (No. B200202232).