Effect of Dosage of Non-Chloride Accelerator versus Chloride Accelerator on the Cracking Potential of Concrete Repair Slabs.

摘要

Due to strict placement time and strength constraints during the construction of concrete pavement repair slabs, accelerators must be incorporated into the mixture design. Since the most common accelerator, calcium chloride, promotes corrosion of concrete reinforcement, a calcium nitrate-based accelerator was studied as an alternative. To replicate mixtures used in the field, commercial accelerators commonly used in concrete pavement repair slabs were used in the current study. Crack risk of different mixtures was assessed using modeling and cracking frame testing. HIPERPAV modeling was conducted using several measured mixture properties; namely, concrete mechanical properties, strength-based and heat of hydration-based activation energies, hydration parameters using calorimetric studies, and adiabatic temperature rise profiles. Autogenous shrinkage was also measured to assess the effect of moisture consumption on concrete volume contraction. The findings of the current study indicate that the cracking risk associated with calcium nitrate-based accelerator matches the performance of a calcium-chloride based accelerator when placement is conducted during nighttime hours.