Improving the Durability of Cement-based Grouts against Adverse Climatic Conditions in Cold Climates

摘要

Cement-based grouts (CBGs) are of the materials that receive significant attention nowadays given their widespread application in the structure industry. Grouts' performance must be such that well perform the task of absorbing and transmitting various static and dynamic loads to mostly concrete substrates and foundations and be resistant against the issues and risks that threaten grouts health, durability, and quality during their service life. Continuous freeze and thaw damage of water inside the grout are of the common causes of vulnerability in cold climates. The study tried to prevent the creation of these cracks by presenting new mix designs and modifying grouts structure using modern materials and technologies of nano and micro materials. The mix designs designed and tested in this paper were based on the replacement of the weight percentage of cement with microsilica and nanosilica and the comparison of changes and their effects on various properties of the grout. The results obtained from the study showed the significant and positive effect of weighted replacement of the controlled amount of microsilica and nanosilica instead of cement in terms of durability and grout resistance under adverse climatic conditions in cold areas. According to the results, the modification of the mix design with this method significantly prevented the compressive strength loss and reduced the negative effect of continuous thaw and freeze cycles to 7% in some cases.