Novel insights on the setting process, hardened properties, and durability of sustainable ultra-high-performance seawater sea sand concrete

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Using seawater and sea sand to prepare concrete could effectively alleviate the shortage of freshwater and river sand resources and promote the sustainable development of concrete. However, the current research on the setting process, hardened properties, and sustainability of ultra-high-performance seawater sea sand concrete (UHPSSC) remain considerably limited. In this paper, the UHPSSC was designed to mitigate the autogenous shrinkage and enhance the sustainability, and the effect of seawater, untreated and desalinated sea sand on the setting process, mechanical properties, durability, and sustainability was explored by various tests. Results show that the abundant ions (e.g., Cl- and SO42-) in seawater and untreated sea sand promote the dissolution and nucleation of cement, accelerating the hydration process, and seawater provides a high pH hydration environment, which enhances the pozzolanic reaction activity of silica fume and fly ash. This leads to the enhanced flexural and compressive strengths at early age, reduced flowability, and increased autogenous shrinkage. Although the seawater and untreated sea sand considerably alleviate the natural raw materials consumption, the mechanical performance at 28 d and durability are reduced, thereby decreasing the sustainability index by 7.8 %. The desalination treatment of sea sand decelerates the hydration process of UHPSSC with untreated sea sand due to the lower ion content in desalinated sea sand. The application of desalinated sea sand mitigates the adverse impact of untreated sea sand on the workability, mechanical properties, and durability. However, this desalination process requires more energy and freshwater consumption, thereby decreasing sustainability index. The fly ash incorporation could improve the workability of UHPSSC, and decrease the autogenous shrinkage value by 17.9 %. Moreover, it mitigates the environmental effect without compromising the mechanical properties and durability, leading to an impressive 42.8 % improvement in sustainability. Durability assessment reveals that the prepared UHPSSC specimen maintains outstanding mechanical properties even after 360 d of exposure to severe marine environment, indicating its excellent durability. This paper provides novel insights for achieving a cleaner and more sustainable concrete production.