Abstract
Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) addition as an internal curing (IC) agent in concrete is an approach being adopted for the mitigation of autogenous shrinkage. Micro-voids created by SAP are arguably believed to be detrimental to the mechanical properties especially the fracture tendencies of the concrete. This paper presents the report of an experimental study of SAP’s influence on the splitting tensile strength and fracture energy of low water/binder (W/B) high-performance concrete (HPC). Reference HPC mixtures (M1F, M1S, M2 and M3) designed for a 28-day minimum cube compressive strength of 70 N/mm2 (MPa) were examined for the effect of SAP grain size, content and binder type on the above stated properties. Wedge splitting test was carried out on 100 mm cube specimen of HPC containing varied SAP contents (0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 by weight of binder (bwob)) and SAP sizes, cured by water immersion for 28, 56 and 90 days respectively. The results obtained was plotted as splitting force (Fsp in kN) against the crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD in mm) for computing the work of fracture (Wf), which is the area under the Fsp CMOD curve. The study concludes that the splitting tensile strength and fracture energy of the HPCs are not directly affected by SAP addition (i.e. neither grain size nor content).
Highlights
High performance concrete (HPC) is defined by ACI (1999) as concrete meeting special combinations of performance and uniformity requirements that cannot always be achieved routinely using conventional constituents and normal mixing, placing, and curing practice
The production involves high contents of fines and admixtures requiring good proportioning and handling towards achieving good workability, curing needs and other specific performance requirements. This type of concrete is known to be susceptible to autogenous-shrinkage-caused-cracking which superabsorbent polymers (SAP) incorporation as an internal curing (IC) agent in high-performance concrete (HPC) is reported as an effective approach to mitigate
The data obtained was computed for each sample for calculation of the work of fracture (Wf) which is the area under the Fsp - CMOD curve using the trapezoidal rule in accordance to [19, 9] recommendations and the calculation of the fracture energy (GF)
Summary
High performance concrete (HPC) is defined by ACI (1999) as concrete meeting special combinations of performance and uniformity requirements that cannot always be achieved routinely using conventional constituents and normal mixing, placing, and curing practice The production involves high contents of fines (i.e. cement and other pozzolanic materials) and admixtures requiring good proportioning and handling towards achieving good workability, curing needs and other specific performance requirements. This type of concrete is known to be susceptible to autogenous-shrinkage-caused-cracking which superabsorbent polymers (SAP) incorporation as an internal curing (IC) agent in HPC is reported as an effective approach to mitigate. SAP’s created microvoids are arguably believed to be detrimental to the mechanical properties especially the fracture tendencies of the concrete
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