The Resistance of Novel Concrete Prepared by Gap-Graded Blended Cement under Chloride-Sulfate Attack

Abstract The resistance of concrete under chloride-sulfate attack dominates the durability of marine constructions. The binder played a more important role in chloride-sulfate resistance of concrete due to the dynamic hydration process. Incorporating supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) was beneficial to the microstructure densification of cement paste, but the low hydraulic activities of SCMs resulted in the decrease of mechanical properties, activating activities of SCMs would raise the cracking risk of cement paste. On the basic of close packing theory, a gap-graded blended cement contained calcined hydrotalcite and metakaolin was adopted to prepare concrete with high resistance under chloride-sulfate attack in present study. The gap-graded blended cement concrete presented comparable strength with Portland cement concrete, even though only 25% clinker used in the blended cement. Because of the continuous hydration of alumina-rich SCMs and functional components, the secondary hydration products with high chloride binding capacity helped blocking ions ingress, resulting in the one-magnitude decrease of chloride diffusivity. At the early period of soaking duration in chloride-sulfate solution, the sulfate ions were beneficial to delaying the migration of chloride. And the cracks introduced by expansive products from sulfate attack would observably accelerate the release and continuous ingress of chloride at late period.