Resistance of Mineral Admixture Concrete to Acid Attack

Abstract

The effect of an aggressive chemical environment on concrete prepared with ordinary Portland cement and silica fume, either as a binary combination or a ternary combination with fly ash, is investigated in the present study. The adverse environmental conditions are simulated by using either 1% sulfuric acid, 1% hydrochloric acid or 1% nitric acid. The corrosion process was monitored by measuring the mass loss and compressive strength for a period of one year. It was found that the course of action of acid attack is dependent on the type of acid and solubility of the calcium salt formed. The presence of mineral admixtures was found to lower the detrimental effect of all types of acids on concrete. Ternary mixes with OPC, silica fume and fly ash performed better than binary mixes containing only silica fume as supplementary cementitious material.