HPC Composites Formulated to Counteract Early ASR Expansion

Abstract

The authors investigated the ability of different high-performance concrete (HPC) composites to restrain an alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in the presence of reactive aggregates. They evaluated the effectiveness of different binary and ternary blended cementitious systems comprising optimized contents of pulverized fly ash (PFA) and silica fume (SF) in suppressing ASR expansion. They assessed different mortar mixtures made of different contents of PFA (up to 40%) and SF (up to 15%) with water-to-binder (W/B) ratios of 0.27 for ASR expansion according to standard procedures for accelerated mortar bar test. The results showed a given pessimal combination among the ternary mixtures in which there was an obvious synergistic interaction where ASR expansion was at its minimum level.