Use of Fly Ash to Minimize Deicing Salt Damage in Concrete Pavements

Abstract

Premature damage has been observed at the joints in numerous concrete pavements where calcium chloride and magnesium chloride deicing salts have been used. This damage results from a reaction between the deicing salt and the calcium hydroxide (CH) in the hydrated cement paste. This reaction leads to the formation of an expansive product known as calcium oxychloride (CAOXY). The use of supplementary cementitious materials as a replacement for cement has been proposed to reduce the CH that is available in the mixture to react with the deicing salts. Reducing the CH can reduce the amount of CAOXY that forms. In this study, mixtures representative of paving concrete were made with cements and fly ashes from across the country. CH amounts were determined by using thermogravimetric analysis, and CAOXY amounts were determined by using low-temperature differential scanning calorimetry. Various replacement levels of fly ash were used to demonstrate that the main parameter that influences the amounts of CH and CAOXY that form is the replacement level of fly ash. This paper proposes that a prescriptive specification requiring 35% cement replacement by volume with fly ash would reduce the damage caused by CAOXY formation and further proposes a performance specification to limit the CAOXY formation to below 15 g/100 g paste.