Accelerated and Natural Carbonation of Concretes with Internal Curing and Shrinkage/Viscosity Modifiers

Published

January 5, 2014

Author(s)

Alejandro Duran-Herrera, Jose M. Mendoza-Rangel, Edgar de los Santos Rodriguez, Francisco Vazquez, P Valdez, Dale P. Bentz

Abstract

In many parts of the world, corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete induced by carbonation of the concrete continues to be a major durability concern. This paper investigates the accelerated and natural carbonation resistance of a set of 7 concretes, specifically evaluating the effects of internal curing and/or shrinkage/viscosity modifiers on carbonation resistance. In addition to five different ordinary portland cement (OPC) concretes, two concretes containing 20 % of a Class F fly ash as replacement for cement on a mass basis are also evaluated. For all 7 concrete mixtures, a good correlation between accelerated (lab) and natural (field) measured carbonation coefficients is observed. Conversely, there is less correlation observed between the specimens' carbonation resistance and their respective 28 d compressive strengths, with the mixtures containing the shrinkage/viscosity modifier specifically exhibiting an anomalous behavior of higher carbonation resistance at lower strength levels. For both the accelerated and natural exposures, the lowest carbonation coefficients are obtained for two mixtures, one containing the shrinkage/viscosity modifier added in the mixing water and the other containing the same admixture along with internal curing provided by prewetting fine lightweight aggregate with water. Additionally, the fly ash mixtures exhibited a significantly higher carbonation coefficient in both exposures than their corresponding OPC concretes.

Citation

Materials and Structures

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-013-0226-y

Local Download

Keywords

Accelerated testing, carbonation, fly ash, internal curing, natural exposure, viscosity modifier.

Citation

Duran-Herrera, A. , Mendoza-Rangel, J. , de los Santos Rodriguez, E. , Vazquez, F. , Valdez, P. and Bentz, D. (2014), Accelerated and Natural Carbonation of Concretes with Internal Curing and Shrinkage/Viscosity Modifiers, Materials and Structures, [online], https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-013-0226-y, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=914100 (Accessed October 13, 2025)