Workability, mechanical properties and affinity of artificial reef concrete

•A new artificial reef concrete (NARC) was proposed.•The effect of raw materials on the performances of NARC was studied.•The feasibility of NARC in artificial reef is verified.•NARC is superior to ordinary Portland cement concrete. A new artificial reef concrete (NARC) with sulphoaluminate cement, marine sand and sea water et al. was proposed. The effect of cement type, sand type and water type on the workability (namely slump, slump loss cohesiveness, water retention), mechanical properties namely compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and dynamic elastic modulus) and affinity (namely surface initial pH value and the leaching rate of alkaline material in concrete) of concrete was studied. The microstructure of concrete was detected by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and pore structure analyzer, respectively. The studies show that NARC has superior workability, mechanical properties and affinity compared to ordinary Portland cement concrete with river sand and fresh water. Therefore, the feasibility of NARC in artificial reef is verified.