Service Life Prediction of Concrete Against Freezing and Thawing Based on Water Absorption Results

Abstract

Freezing and thawing resistance performance of concrete is a critical issue when evaluating the durability performance of concrete. This paper aims to predict the freezing and thawing resistance performance of concrete based water absorption indexes, meanwhile, five groups of experiments on porosity, short-term water absorption, long-term water absorption, MIP and pore structure scanning were respectively carried out for concrete. According to the experimental results, the important indexes such as porosity, water absorption, gas content and bubble spacing coefficient were obtained, which provided the basis for the prediction of durability and service life. The concept of equilibrium time ratio is introduced to simplify the calculation process. Based on the critical saturation theory, the service life of concrete against freezing and thawing is predicted by combining the environmental parameters and the indexes measured in experiments. The calculated results verified that the freeze-thaw durability life of air-entrained concrete is significantly increased compared with that of concrete without air-entrained concrete. In addition, a wide range of the service life was predicted for the 5 mixes, and the results could provide a guidance for selecting a proper mix design of concrete subjected to freezing and thawing.