Acid Resistance, Water Permeability and Chloride Penetrability of Concrete Containing Crushed Basalt as Aggregates (original) (raw)
2015, Journal of Materials Science and Engineering A
Basaltic rocks are used extensively as engineering materials including aggregates for Portland cement concrete and asphalt concrete. Syria is very rich in Basaltic rocks. There are reserves estimated to be several billion tonnes according to recent geological investigations. The annual production of concrete in Syria is about 20 million m 3 , containing about 35 million tonnes of aggregates. Due to some concerns, use of basalt as concrete aggregate is very limited in Syria. Because of additional costs of transportation of dolomite aggregate produced in quarries located about 200 km far from the southern region, studying suitability of basaltic rocks occurring in As-Swaida'a region as local aggregate source would be very important. As-Swaida is basically an agricultural city. However, it has recently witnessed urban and industrial developments. This paper is part of larger research on evaluating the basaltic rocks extracted from As-Swaida'a region, as a potential source of concrete aggregate. Effects of aggressive acidic environments on concrete have been investigated through 3 months of exposure to 5% H 2 SO 4 , 10% HCl, 5% HNO 3 and 10% CH 3 COOH solutions. In addition, concrete permeability measured in terms of water penetration depth was evaluated for concrete after two curing time of 28 and 90 days. A RCPT (Rapid chloride penetration test) has also been carried out according to ASTM C 1202. Dolomite aggregate were used for comparison. Petrographical, chemical and physical characteristics of basaltic rocks have been reported as well. The experimental results revealed that As-Swaida'a basaltic rocks were suitable for production of crushed rock aggregates for concrete production. The resistance to all acidic solutions, except H 2 SO 4 solution, was improved substantially with the use of basalt aggregate. In addition, the resistance to water permeation and to chloride penetration of concrete increased with the use of basalt aggregates compared with dolomite aggregate. Moreover, definite correlations were noted between some acidic attacks.
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