How engineers came to understand sulfate attack
We’ve discussed the mechanisms of sulfate attack in a previous blog. Soils in the western United States and the prairie provinces of Canada often contain high concentrations of sulfates. The […]
We’ve discussed the mechanisms of sulfate attack in a previous blog. Soils in the western United States and the prairie provinces of Canada often contain high concentrations of sulfates. The […]
Those of us who live in northern latitudes would do well to review the basics of cold weather concreting every fall. The American Concrete Institute’s “Guide to Cold Weather Concreting” (ACI […]
There are generally three aspects to the performance of a structure. The first is structural. The structure needs to resist the gravitational, wind, and other loads to which it will […]
We’ve discussed concrete durability in quite a few blog posts, but we’ve only alluded indirectly to concrete service life prediction. Hossam Alalaily explains the basics. Q: What do you mean […]
ASTM C1778, “Standard Guide for Reducing the Risk of Deleterious Alkali-Aggregate Reaction in Concrete,” can help you decide how best to mitigate expansions due to reactive aggregates. It covers both […]
When finishing air-entrained concrete, less is more. Hard-troweled surfaces and air-entrained concrete don’t mix. If you need to entrain air—that is, if the concrete will experience cycles of freezing and […]
Throughout my career, our industry has been pursuing performance specifications for concrete. That is, we want specifications for what the concrete must do, not what it must be. The sticking […]
Concrete in certain environments is subject to sulfate attack. These include seawater, some industrial environments, sanitary sewers, and sulfate-bearing soils and groundwater. As engineers have known since the early 1900s, […]
ASTM C1556 and NT Build 492 both measure the ease with which chloride ions migrate into concrete. Both test methods estimate the diffusion coefficient, a measure of the rate at […]
We’ve previously discussed a new standard that promotes sustainability through the use of ground recycled glass in concrete. Now let’s get some background on ASTM C1866.* Most glass falls into […]