Long-term efficiency of silica fume and fly ash to suppress ASR in field structures

Abstract

The potential of ASR in concrete can be assessed by the concrete prism test. However, the transferability of the results obtained with accelerated tests to concrete behavior under field conditions has to be validated. Such a validation was performed ten years ago for concrete produced with Portland cement and various Swiss aggregates. In recent years, the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) has increased. So far, no validation for such types of concrete has been conducted in Switzerland. The goal of the current project is to fill this gap and provide the missing validation. Eight structures where chosen for the investigation. In all of them concrete containing SCM was used and the results of the concrete prism test at time of construction were available. In general, the results of the concrete prism test correlate with the degree of damage in the structures assessed by the analysis of the microstructure.

Keywords

• Alkali-aggregate reaction
• Concrete prism test
• Field exposure
• Validation
• Microstructure