The Risk of Alkali–Carbonate Reaction and the Freeze–Thaw Resistance of Waste Dolomite Slag-Based Concrete

Abstract

The alkali–carbonate reaction (ACR) is a type of alkali–aggregate reaction (AAR) that may lead to serious damage in concrete construction. There is sufficient research on the effect of the ACR on dolomite limestone; however, research on the effect of the ACR on pure dolomite is absent, and there are a large number of dolomite resources that cannot be effectively utilized in civil engineering. This study aims to investigate whether the ACR occurs in pure dolomite spoil and to determine the freeze–thaw resistance of pure waste dolomite slag-based concrete (PWDSC). In this study, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the lithofacies method (LM) confirmed that the tested samples were pure dolomite. The rock cylinder method (RCM) and rapid preliminary screening testing for carbonate aggregates (AAR-5) were employed to determine the alkali activity of pure dolomite: the RCM indicated a variation of −0.09% in length during the 84-day test period, the AAR-5 exhibited a length expansion rate of 0.03% within 28 days, and the expansion rates were less than 0.1%. These findings suggest that pure waste dolomite slag (PWDS) does not possess alkali activity. The freeze–thaw cycle test showed no significant spalling on the concrete surface, the inside of the cement produced few micro-cracks according to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) test showed a decrease of approximately 20% after 200 freeze–thaw cycles. The results verified that ACR does not occur in PWDS and that it can withstand freeze–thaw damage, to a certain extent, when used as concrete coarse aggregate.