Recent development of microwave applications for concrete treatment

Abstract

Microwave heating is an attractive new technique for concrete treatment due to its high efficiency and low energy consumption. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the scientific and technical achievements of microwave-assisted concrete treatment. The research progress is classified into microwave heating mechanism, experimental studies and numerical studies. The theoretical fundamentals for the microwave-assisted concrete heating process are investigated in detail, covering areas such as the microwave heating characteristics, governing equations, dielectric properties and multi-field coupling effects. Several attractive microwave applications for concrete treatment are summarized, including microwave-assisted concrete recycling, microwave-accelerated concrete curing, microwave-assisted concrete drilling, and microwave-assisted nondestructive monitoring. Future efforts, as well as theoretical and technical challenges for industrial applications of microwave for concrete treatment, are discussed, which providing guidance for the development of microwave applications for concrete treatment.