Durability assessment of high-performance concretes containing graphene oxide

Abstract

The emphasis to reduce the cement utilization in construction has facilitated the use of mineral admixture resulting in an end product with enhanced performance characteristics in environments of severe exposures. The utilization of ternary and quaternary blends in construction industry been gaining prominence due to enhanced performance obtained because of the synergistic effects of various mineral admixtures. The work at present is focused on evaluating compressive strength and durability properties studies of high-performance concrete incorporating ash (FA), silica fume (SF) and graphene oxide (GO). The performance characteristics of various combinations of GO-FA, GO-SF and FA-SF-GO are assessed by formulating a suitable experimental programme. The experimental formulation was designed to evaluate the performance characteristics of concretes in marine environment where chloride and sulphate attack are highly prominent. Parameters were evaluated through various tests like Compressive Strength, Acid Attack test, Rapid Chloride Penetration test and Cyclic Wetting- Drying test. A relative comparison of results has been presented, shows that both the ternary and quaternary blended cement concrete containing combinations of GO-FA, GO-SF and FA-SF-GO have shown better results than the conventional concrete, mix proportions C8F2G4, C9S1G4, C7F2S1G4 containing 0.04% of GO are showing higher compressive strength values of 85, 74, 86 MPa for 365 days of fresh water curing, The highest resistivity values of 103, 109, 94 KΩ-cm are obtained for the quaternary blended cement mixes, Lowest RCPT values were achieved by mixes C7F2S1G2, C7F2S1G4, C7F2S1G8 corresponding to quaternary blends, The results of cyclic wet dry test have indicated the resistance to chloride permeability in concretes containing GO is very high in comparison to conventional concretes.