Durability of concrete subjected to the combined actions of flexural stress, freeze-thaw cycles and bittern solutions

Freeze-thaw durabilities of three types of concretes-normal portland cement concrete (OPC), high strength concrete (HSC) and steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete (SFRHSC) were systemically investigated under the attacks of chemical solution, and combination of external flexural stress and chemical solution. Four kinds of bitterns from salt lakes in Sinkiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Tibet provinces of China were used as chemical attack solutions. The relative dynamic modulus (RDM) was used as an index for evaluating the damage degree during the course of chemical attack and stress corrosion. The experimental results show that the freeze-thaw durability of concrete is visibly reduced in the present of the flexural stress, i e , stress accelerates the damage process. In order to quantify the stress accelerated effect, a stress accelerating coefficient was proposed. The stress accelerating coefficient is closely related with the types of bitterns and the numbers of freeze-thaw cycles is. The more numbers of freeze-thaw cycles is, the greater the stress accelerating coefficient for various concretes will be. In addition, there also exists a critical ratio of external stress to the maximum flexural stress. If the stress ratio exceeds the critical one, the freeze-thaw durability of various concretes will be greatly decreased compared to the responding concretes without applied stress. The critical stress ratio of OPC, HSC and SFRHSC is 0.30, 0.40 and 0.40, respectively, indicating that HSC and SFRHSC have advantages over OPC and are suitable to use in the bittern erosion regions.