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Deicing salts are often applied to the surface of pavements and bridge decks in the winter to melt ice, thereby improving safety for the traveling public. In this paper, the influence of NaCl deicing salt on freezing and thawing temperatures of pore solution and corresponding damage of mortar specimens were investigated. A low-temperature longitudinal guarded comparative calorimeter (LGCC) was developed to cool down a mortar sample at a rate of 2°C/h and to re-heat the mortar at a rate of 4°C/h. Heat flux during freezing and thawing cycles was monitored, and the temperatures at which freezing and thawing events occurred were detected. During cooling and heating, acoustic emission (AE) activity was measured to quantify the damage (cracking) caused by aggregate/paste thermal mismatch and/or phase changes. The results show that NaCl solution in a mortar sample freezes at a lower temperature than the value expected from its bulk phase diagram because of under-cooling. Conversely, the frozen solution in mortar melts at the same melting temperature as the bulk frozen NaCl solution. As the salt concentration increases, the freezing temperature is lowered. For samples containing more highly concentrated solutions, an additional exothermic event is observed whose corresponding temperature is greater than the aqueous NaCl liquidus line in the phase diagram. Damage also begins to occur at this temperature. For mortar samples saturated by solutions with 5 % and 15 % NaCl by mass, greater freeze/thaw damage is observed. The AE calorimeter developed herein is applicable for investigating damage behavior during freezing and thawing of different phases in pore solution (in mortars).

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This paper describes a model to predict the acoustic absorption of Enhanced Porosity Concrete (EPC). The acoustic absorption coefficient was determined experimentally using an impedance tube, while an electro-acoustic analogy was implemented to develop the predictive model, considering the pore structure of EPC as a series of resistors and inductors. The physical features of the pore network were experimentally characterized using image analysis and a pore volume characterization technique. A parameter termed "structure factor" was introduced to account for the increased density of air that is not displaced by the acoustic wave pressure. The maximum acoustic absorption coefficient was found to decrease linearly with an increase in the structure factor. The development of this model and its correlation with physical measurements enable the prediction of acoustic absorption in EPC based on the geometric features of the pore structure. This model enabled a parametric study to be conducted to ascertain the effects of pore size, aperture size, porosity, and specimen thickness on acoustic absorption. An optimal pore to aperture diameter ratio was observed to exist, that maximizes acoustic absorption. The parametric study is believed to be able to aid in the design of EPC for acoustic absorption by better understanding the type of pore features that should be targeted for best performance.

Early-age cracking has been found to occur in some concrete bridge decks, slabs, and pavements when the volumetric changes associated with drying, hydration, and temperature reduction are prevented. While free-shrinkage tests can quantify length change, they may not always be sufficient for detecting materials that are prone to cracking, since the potential for cracking is influenced by complex interactions of strength gain, stiffness development, creep, shrinkage, the degree of restraint, and toughness. The simplicity of the ring test enables it to be used as a comparative test to screen potential mixture designs. From the use of this test, AASHTO developed a provisional standard ring test that establishes specimen geometry; however, the provisional standard does not provide an approach for quantifying stress development or indicating how close a specimen may be to failure. Described is a simple stress solution for quantifying the results of the ring test. Issues related to ring and free-shrinkage specimen geometries are discussed to improve the fundamental understanding of the information provided by the ring test. Also described is how elastic stress and actual stress can be compared to measure the stress relaxation in a material. To better illustrate the microcracking and visible-crack development process, acoustic-emission testing was performed. These experiments indicated that specimens with a higher level of restraint exhibited more microcracking as a part of the stress relaxation process.

these materials to be used and specified more widely in Indiana. It is recommended that a training video be developed that highlights the benefits of this material, describes its use, and discusses important features associated with placement and testing

Mortar samples were saturated with NaCl solutions of various concentrations and subjected to freezethaw cycles. Passive and active acoustic emission (AE) testing was conducted. The freezing temperature of the NaCl solutions in mortar corresponded with the sudden observation of passive AE events. The acoustic energy and damage parameter were calculated to evaluate the extent of freeze-thaw damage. The influence of the NaCl solution concentration and whether the solution freezes on freeze-thaw damage are discussed.

Electrical measurements are becoming a common method to assess the transport properties of concrete. For a saturated homogenous system, the surface resistance and the uniaxial resistance measurements provide equivalent measures of resistivity once geometry is appropriately taken into account. However, cementitious systems are not always homogenous. This article compares bulk and surface resistance measurements in cementitious materials intentionally composed of layered materials (i.e., layers with different resistivities). For this study, layered systems were composed of paste and mortar layers, representing the heterogeneity that can exist in the surface layers of field applications as a result of differences in moisture content, segregation, ionic ingress, carbonation, finishing operations, or ionic leaching. The objective of this article is to illustrate that these electrical measures can differ in layered systems (with sharp layer boundaries) and to demonstrate the impact of the surface layer properties on the estimation for the underlying material properties, for both cylindrical and prismatic specimens. Accounting for the effects of a surface layer requires a separate correction in addition to the overall specimen geometry corrections.