Abrasion and impact resistance of concrete under Arctic conditions

Zaki, Rowyda Adel Abdelrahman (2020) Abrasion and impact resistance of concrete under Arctic conditions. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This research program aims to investigate the mechanical properties, impact resistance, and abrasion resistance of steel fibers reinforced concrete under cold temperatures. The abrasion and impact resistance of steel fiber reinforced concrete were also evaluated before and after exposure to salt scaling. The studied parameters are the type of concrete (self-consolidated concrete and vibrated concrete), type of steel fibers (SFs) (coated and uncoated), SFs end conditions (needle, single-hooked ends and double-hooked ends), length of SFs (35 mm and 60 mm), volumes of SFs (0%, 0.35%, and 1%), saturation condition, coarse aggregate size (10 mm and 20 mm), coarse to fine aggregate ratio (0.7 and 2), and cement content (300 kg/m³ and 550 kg/m³). The mechanical properties of concrete were evaluated by conducting compressive strength, splitting tensile strength (STS) and flexural strength (FS) tests. The impact resistance was assessed by conducting two tests; drop weight test and flexural impact test. Meanwhile, the abrasion resistance of concrete was evaluated by performing rotating cutter test and sand blasting test. The results showed that salt scaled concrete specimens exhibited a considerable reduction in the impact and abrasion resistance compared to non-scaled concrete specimens. However, adding SFs (especially coated SFs) alleviated this reduction and contributed to improve the abrasion and impact resistance of salt scaled concrete surface. The results also revealed that decreasing the temperature below the room temperature (25ᴼC) contributed to enhancing the compressive strength, STS, FS, abrasion resistance, and impact resistance of concrete mixtures. In the meantime, the effect of cold temperatures in enhancing the mechanical properties and abrasion resistance was more pronounced in the saturated samples compared to unsaturated samples. The results also showed that despite the negative effect of cold temperature in increasing the brittleness of concrete, using SFs helped to alleviate the low temperature brittleness of concrete and improved its mechanical properties and impact resistance.

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