Development and Performance Evaluation of Rotary Underwater Abrasion Tester

Abstract

We developed a rotary underwater abrasion tester that can be applied to high strength concrete materials with a large coarse aggregate. In this study, firstly, we experimentally investigated the test conditions under which the developed tester can generate stable flow and large abrasion action. The results confirmed that (1) a stable water flow can be generated when the initial water level is 40 cm and rotational speed is 70 rpm and (2) a large abrasive force was generated by using an abrasive material in the shape of a prism with a length of 19 mm, width of 19 mm, and height of 20 mm. Secondly, we performed an accelerated abrasion test for concrete and mortar and confirmed the characteristics of abrasion on the specimens. The results indicated that, when dissimilar materials are adjacent to each other, the downstream specimen, where the materials are switched, is affected by the dissimilar materials. Conversely, it was confirmed that a longer flow distance of the same material was effective in reducing the effect of the dissimilar materials.