An in-situ 3D micro-XRD investigation of water uptake by alkali-silica-reaction (ASR) product

Abstract

The ASR products in concrete have various chemical compositions. It is yet unclear whether and how these products develop micro-expansion upon moisture ingress. This paper presents a 3D in-situ observation of the crystallography and volume change of an ASR-product-filled vein under varying relative-humidity (R.H.). The vein was observed to contain two layered nano-crystalline phases with distinct basal spacings, and was distributed heterogeneously in space. When R.H. changed from 10% to >38%, the basal spacing increased from 7.43 Å to 8.89 Å for one phase, whereas it remained constant (~10.9 Å) for the other. This is the first time that an ASR product is observed in-situ to exhibit crystal structural expansion during wetting process. However, the product-filled vein exhibited no noticeable swelling when R.H. varied from 10% to 97%. Our findings provide the first direct evidence that the moisturization-induced crystal structural change of ASR product may not be a plausible explanation to the macroscale concrete expansion.