International Concrete Abstracts Portal

The Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) of Natural Resources of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada, has played a significant role for more than 40 years in the broad area of concrete technology in Canada. In recent years, CANMET has become increasingly involved in research and development dealing with supplementary cemen¬titious materials, high-performance normalweight and lightweight concretes, and alkali-aggregate reactions. As part of CANMET’s technology transfer program, an international symposium on Advances in Concrete Technology was sponsored jointly with the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and other organizations in Athens, Greece, in May 1992. In June 1995, CANMET, in association with ACI and other organizations in Canada and the United Staes, sponsored the Second CANMET/ACI Symposium on Advances in Concrete Technology in Las Vegas, NV, USA. For the Athens symposium, the CANMET publication “Advances in Concrete Technology,” constituted the proceedings of the symposium. The proceedings from the Las Vegas symposium were published by ACI as SP-154. In August 1997, CANMET, in association with ACI and other organizations in Canada and New Zealand, sponsored the Third CANMET/ACI Symposium on Advances in Concrete Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. The main purpose of the symposium was to bring together representatives from industry, universities, and government agencies to present the latest information on concrete technology, and to explore new areas of research and development. Thirty-three refereed papers from 15 countries were presented and distributed at the symposium. The proceedings were published as ACI SP-171. In June 1998, CANMET, in association with ACI, Japan Concrete Institute (JCI), and several other organizations in Canada and Japan, sponsored the Fourth CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Tokushima, Japan. More than 80 papers from 20 countries were received and reviewed in accordance with the policies of ACI. Sixty-one refereed papers were accepted for presentation at the conference and for publication as ACI SP-179. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 30 papers were presented and distributed at the conference. In July-August 2001, CANMET, in association with ACI and several organizations in Singapore, sponsored the Fifth CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Singapore. More than 100 papers from 25 countries were received and reviewed in accordance with the policies of ACI. Forty-six refereed and more than 25 additional papers were accepted for presentation at the conference. The proceedings of the conference were published as ACI SP-200. In June 2003, CANMET, in association with ACI and several organizations in Romania, sponsored the Sixth CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Bucharest, Romania. More than 40 papers presented at the conference were distributed “as received,” and no formal ACI special publication was published. In May 2004, CANMET, in association with ACI and several other organizations in the United States, sponsored the Seventh CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Las Vegas, NV. Seventeen refereed papers from more than 10 countries were presented and distributed at the conference. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of the refereed papers, were published as ACI SP-222. In addition to the refereed papers, 20 additional papers were presented and distributed at the conference. In May 2006, CANMET, in association with ACI and several other organizations in Canada and the United States, sponsored the Eighth CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Montreal, QC, Canada. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 17 refereed papers, were published as ACI SP-235. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 30 additional papers were presented and distributed at the conference. In May 2007, CANMET, in association with ACI and several other organizations in Canada, Europe, and the United States, sponsored the Ninth CANMET/ACI Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology in Warsaw, Poland. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 10 refereed papers, were published as ACI SP-243. More than 20 additional papers were presented and distributed at the conference. In October 2009, ACI, in association with several organizations in Canada, Europe and the United States, sponsored the Tenth ACI Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology in Seville, Spain. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 20 refereed papers, were published as ACI SP-261. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 20 additional papers were presented at the conference and published in a supplementary papers volume. In May 2010, the Committee for the Organization of International Conferences (COIC) (formerly CANMET/ACI Conferences), in association with the Chinese Ceramics Society (CCS) and several other organizations in China, sponsored the Eleventh International Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainability Issues in Jinan, China. More than 40 papers were presented at the conference. The proceedings of the conference were published by the CCS, Beijing, China. In October 2012, the COIC, in association with ACI, sponsored the Twelfth International Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainability Issues in Prague, Czech Republic. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of more than 30 refereed papers, were published as ACI SP-288. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 40 other papers were presented at the conference and published in a supple¬mentary papers volume. In July 2015, the COIC, in association with ACI, sponsored the Thirteenth International Conference on Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainability Issues in Ottawa, ON, Canada. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 28 refereed papers, were published by ACI as SP-303. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 40 other papers were presented at the conference and published in a supplementary papers volume. In October 2018, the CCS and the China Academy of Building Research (CABR), Beijing China, in association with the COIC sponsored the Fourteenth International Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainable Issues in Beijing, China. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 19 refereed papers, were published by ACI as SP-330. In addition to the refereed papers, more than 52 other papers were presented at the conference and published in a supplementary papers volume. In July 2022, after a postponement for the Covid-19 pandemic, the ACI Italy Chapter and the University of Bergamo, Italy, sponsored the Fifteenth International Conference on Recent Advances in Concrete Technology and Sustainable Issues in Milan, Italy. The proceedings of the conference, consisting of 44 refereed papers, were published by ACI as SP-355. In addition to the refereed papers, about 20 other papers were presented at the conference and published in a supplementary papers volume. The main topics of the papers presented at the conference include: the deterioration of concrete structures; the corrosion of metallic reinforcement; the repair techniques of damaged concrete structures by using shrinkage-compensating cement-based mixtures; the protection of concrete structures by special materials to obtain watertight concrete; the reduction of the damage caused by alkali-silica reaction; the use of mineral additions such as fly ash, silica fume, and ground-granulated blast-furnace slag to improve the durability of concrete structures; and the production of concrete by reducing gas emissions and energy consumption such as the use of binders alternative to portland cement (alkali activated materials, geopolymers, sulphoaluminate cement) and recycling of wastes coming from different sources. Thanks are extended to the reviewers for the valuable efforts in reviewing all the manuscripts published in the conference proceedings and in the supplementary volume. The guidance from Dr. V. M. Malhotra and Prof. M. Collepardi, the Honorary Chairpersons of the conference, is sincerely appreciated. Also, acknowledged is the support the American Concrete Institute for the publication of the proceedings (ACI SP-355). The Editors Dr. Denny Coffetti Prof. Luigi Coppola Dr. Terence Holland

Samples of Type K shrinkage-compensating cement from all 17 mills producing that cement in 1974 were obtained and evaluated for compliance with the specification that was proposed at that time for these types of cements. The cements were also evaluated for specific gravity, fineness, heat of hydration, and expansion and drying shrinkage in mortars. An X-ray diffraction analysis was also made for each cement in an attempt to compare cements to note significant differences in composition or relative amounts of constituents. A standard concrete mixture was also made with all the cements and evaluated for air content, slump, compressive strength, expansion, and drying shrinkage. The results from these evaluations are revisited. The application of the 1974 proposed specification called attention to several short-comings in that specification.

In order to be cost-effective, surface repairs carried out on concrete structures have to perform satisfactorily over a sufficient period of time. Among the factors that can affect the durability of concrete repairs, drying shrinkage is certainly one of the most significant. Shrinkage compensating concretes (ShCC’s) represent a very attractive alternative to prevent shrinkage cracking in repairs. This paper summarizes the results of a project devoted to repair ShCC’s made with an expansive component, more specifically their robustness as a function of selected parameters. The investigated expansive systems were either, a calcium sulfoaluminate-based (ASTM Type K cement or Type K component) or calcium oxide-based (ASTM Type G component). The assessment of robustness addressed the influence of the mixture design parameters (cement composition, type and dosage of expansive agent, w/cm ratio) and the curing conditions (moist curing conditions, temperature) upon the ShCC’s expansive behavior, the bond between ShCC repairs and an existing concrete substrate, and the chemical prestress generated through the bond. Overall, the results yielded in this study demonstrate the remarkable potential of ShCC’s as crack-resistant and durable repair materials.

Type K Shrinkage Compensating Concrete (SCC) concrete is uniquely suited for use in slabs and walls because it typically requires fewer expansion joints than a convention portland cement (PC) concrete. This allows for continuous placement of much larger slabs and walls and facilitates the construction of high performance smooth slabs with few interruptions. Typically shrinkage-compensating concrete construction practice is to pour adjoining wall sections a minimum of five days apart in order to allow for the initial expansion of the material. The need for unrestrained expansion is implied in the ACI 223R-10 Design Guide in Chapter 5 in a discussion on sequencing the placement of wall segments. This paper discusses testing that was performed at two different locations, spanning both two different times of year and two unique climates. The tests used vibrating wire strain gages (VWSG) to investigate the restrained behavior of a wall segment in a six million gallon clear well tank in Springfield, IL, as well as the unrestrained behavior of two slabs-on-grade in Los Angeles, CA. Measurements were taken for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 170 days. Testing results are then compared to similar scenarios using ordinary PC concrete.

Concrete floor on ground represents an important application for concrete use in Italy. Despite their widespread use, a large percentage of concrete floors does not meet the performance requirements in terms of functionality and durability for various reasons; among them, restrained shrinkage cracking and curling represent one of the most important causes of defects. Cracking is mainly due to the drying shrinkage in presence of internal and external restraints, while curling is due to the shrinkage gradient due to the floor thickness. An analytical approach to shrinkage cracking and curling is often overlooked by designers in lieu of the design of contraction joints that allow the cracking of concrete under controlled conditions. Nowadays, the growing needs of concrete floors purchasers in terms of durability and functionality suggests the use of special concretes for flooring. For instance, the use of shrinkage-compensating concretes reduces the number of contraction joints and enhances the concrete slab performances. This study presents the non-linear finite element analysis of a jointless floor made with a shrinkage-compensating concrete obtained with the use of a blend of calcium sulpho-aluminate cement and ordinary Portland cement.