Revisiting concrete frost salt scaling: On the role of the frozen salt solution micro-structure

Sara Bahafid*, Max Hendriks, Stefan Jacobsen, Mette Geiker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
10 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We simulate the glue-spall stress due to mechanical interactions between a frozen saline solution (brine-ice composite) and a non-air entrained concrete surface including the impact of the micro-structure of the frozen solution. The presence of brine channels at the ice/concrete interface was found to be a prerequisite to induce stress during freezing and hence for scaling to occur. Pure ice does not result in scaling as it does not have brine channels. Furthermore, the size of the brine channels and their distribution was found determinant for the magnitude of the glue-spall stress in the concrete and the experimentally observed pessimum effect of a medium salt concentration was explained based on the change of the microstructure of the brine-ice composite at different salt concentrations and temperatures. The predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental observations and the few numerical demonstrations related to frost salt scaling in the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Article number106803
Number of pages11
JournalCement and Concrete Research
Volume157
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

  • Durability
  • Freezing and thawing
  • Frost salt scaling
  • Glue-spall
  • Modelling

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