Compliance Concept in Protection of Concrete from Freezing-and-Thawing Damage

A mechanistic analysis is presented on the characteristics that would enable particles that form annulus voids when concrete freezes to be used as an alternative technology to air entrainment for protection of concrete from freezing-and-thawing damage. The paper introduces a concept of particle compliance and related equations to establish a fundamental basis for identifying and selecting particle types to use as additives in concrete to prevent freezing-and-thawing damage. Standard freezing-and-thawing testing confirms the results of the analysis and shows that the minimum quantity of particles needed to achieve a freezing-and-thawing durable concrete varies with the particle type. Particle types such as polymeric hollow-core microspheres or polymeric solid-core particles would be insensitive to the factors that impact air entrainment obtained with surfactants, resulting in a more robust and reliable basis to consistently protect concrete from freezing-and-thawing damage. Keywords: air-void spacing; annulus void; compliance ratio; effective diameter; freezing-and-thawing durability; microspheres; particles; protected paste volume; void-particle duality.