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Estimation of Electrical Resistivity of Concrete With Blast Furnace Slag
Estimation of Electrical Resistivity of Concrete With Blast Furnace Slag
Estimation of Electrical Resistivity of Concrete With Blast Furnace Slag
Blast-furnace slag (BFS) has been increasingly used in cement products and electrical resistivity of self-consolidating
production and has shown great influence on the electrical resis- concrete (SCC). The correlation coefficient of the relation-
tivity of concrete. The objective of this paper is to compare the ship between Ca(OH)2 content and electrical resistivity
theoretical values of electrical resistivity obtained through a was 0.96 for SCCs without pozzolans and 0.97 for samples
mathematical model with experimental values for concrete with
containing pozzolans.
BFS. Reference concrete mixtures with ordinary portland cement
Reinforcement corrosion is an electrochemical process
were also studied. Results indicate higher electrical resistivity
and smaller porosity for concretes with CEM III/A. The electrical that involves electric flow and causes the degradation of
resistivity of the CEM III/A concrete does not have a well-defined the concrete structures. Therefore, electrical resistivity is an
correlation with the water-binder ratio (w/b) or with the compres- important tool for evaluating corrosion probability.4,16-18
sive strength, unlike CEM I concretes. The correlation between Regarding the effects of aggregates on the electrical resis-
calculated and experimental resistivity requires a correction factor tivity of concrete, Hou et al.19 observed that the electric
for the CEM III/A concretes. In this study, the correction factor current tends to cross through the coarse aggregates rather
was obtained empirically by reducing the theoretical tortuosity of than through the interface transition zone. Therefore, the
concrete by 15%. Therefore, the model should be used in cements effect of the transition zone can be less intense than other
with BFS with the application of a correction factor. concrete parameters, such as the water-binder ratio (w/b).20
Keywords: durability; electrical resistivity; models; nondestructive testing;
porosimetry. Estimation of electrical resistivity and application
in concrete service life modeling
INTRODUCTION The model based on Archie’s and Powers’ laws can
Electrical resistivity of concrete be used to estimate the concrete electrical resistivity, as
The electrical resistivity of concrete measures the mate- proposed by D’Andrea21 and validated by Mendes et al.22
rial’s ability to conduct electrical charges through its inte- Archie23 proposed the model of Eq. (1) from studies on the
rior. The technique based on Wenner’s fourth electrodes is exploration of oil and gas in sandy oils to estimate the elec-
generally used in reinforced concrete structures, where the trical resistivity (ρʹ, in Ω.m) of sand with its pores fully filled
current is applied by the external electrodes and the voltage by brine.
is measured by the internal electrodes. Concrete electrical
resistivity has a relationship with the material’s microstruc- 0 (1)
ture,1-3 and it is directly related to the durability of cement-
based materials.4-6 where ρ0ʹ is the brine resistivity (Ω.m); εʹ is the sand porosity
Electrical resistivity measurement techniques are (% volume); and τ represents the tortuosity (dimensionless)
becoming popular among researchers for the durability of the void formed by the spaces between the grains of sand.
assessment of concrete due to their practicality and the low Therefore, Eq. (1) was adapted (Eq. (2)) to estimate the
cost involved.3,4 This technique has been used as nondestruc- electrical resistivity of concrete (ρ, Ω.m), where ρ0 (Ω.m)
tive testing to indirectly evaluate the durability of structures is the electrical resistivity of the aqueous phase; ε is the
because it is a simple and fast field methodology that pres- porosity of the concrete (% volume); and m is the tortuosity
ents reliable results and can indicate the risk of corrosion of (dimensionless) of concrete pores.21,23 Although the elec-
steel reinforcement. This test is correlated with some perfor- trical resistivity of the aqueous phase (ρ0) may vary between
mance characteristics of concrete such as chloride diffusion different concrete mixtures, its order of magnitude is much
coefficient and water absorption.2,7-12 lower compared to the total resistivity of the concrete. Thus,
According to Polder,13 a low electrical resistivity is some studies18,21,22,24,25 recommend the use of the fixed
related to the rapid penetration of chloride and a high rate value of 0.5 Ω.m in terms of simplification, without major
of corrosion. Cruz et al.14 used electrical resistivity to eval-
ACI Materials Journal, V. 118, No. 4, July 2021.
uate mortars with pozzolans in the first 28 days of age. The MS No. M-2020-172.R1, doi: 10.14359/51732597, received September 4, 2020, and
reviewed under Institute publication policies. Copyright © 2021, American Concrete
results showed that electrical resistivity can be used to assess Institute. All rights reserved, including the making of copies unless permission is
the degree of hydration. Ghoddousi and Saadabadi15 inves- obtained from the copyright proprietors. Pertinent discussion including author’s
closure, if any, will be published ten months from this journal’s date if the discussion
tigated the effect of metakaolin and silica fume on hydration is received within four months of the paper’s print publication.
CPIIZ (up to 14% of fly ash), CPIV (up to 50% of fly ash), EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
and CPV (up to 5% of limestone filler). The authors verified Materials
good correlations between the data. This is very useful to In this study, 40 concrete mixtures (Tables 1 and 2) were
make it possible to include durability in engineering projects produced. Sulfate-resistant portland cement Type III avail-
from the design stage. able in the Brazilian market was used in 31 mixtures. This
However, BFS is widely used in civil constructions to cement is equivalent to CEM III/A (BFS content of approx-
produce cement or concrete. Portland cement Type III is one imately 60%). The sulfate resistance property is a conse-
example of this kind of cement from Brazil. This cement quence of the high slag content found in this cement. For
uses up to 75% of BFS in their composition. In this case, this comparison of results, ordinary portland cement (CEM I)
study aimed to verify the possibility of applying Eq. (2) to was used in nine mixtures. This cement is equivalent to
(5) to cements with high slag content. This is a gap that was portland cement CEM I 52.5R (portland cement with high
not filled in the study of Mendes et al.22 early strength).35 The chemical composition of the binders
Therefore, the objective of this paper was to compare the obtained by X-ray fluorescence is shown in Table 3.
theoretical values of electrical resistivity obtained through Some parameters were fixed for the 40 concrete mixtures’
a mathematical model (Eq. (2) to (5)) with experimental designs: coarse aggregate with a maximum dimension of
values for concrete with BFS. Forty concrete mixtures were 12.5 mm and modulus of fineness of 5.61; fine aggregate
analyzed in the present study. Then, the electrical resistivity with a maximum dimension of 4.8 mm and modulus of fine-
estimated for these concretes was compared with the values ness of 2.62; and mortar content of 52% and consistency
obtained experimentally at 28 days. In addition, the resis- of 100 ± 20 mm. The maximum size of the aggregates and
tivity of the concretes was also assessed at 91 days because their modulus of fineness were fixed because they can influ-
the reactions of the slag are known to be slower than the ence the results of electrical resistivity, as reported by some
hydration of the clinker. This is also an innovation compared studies.19,36 The mortar content and consistency were fixed
to the study by Mendes et al.,22 where the authors only eval- to facilitate the comparison of concretes with similar appli-
uated resistivity at 28 days. The relationship between elec- cability. Two naphthalene-based additives (plasticizer and
trical resistivity and compressive strength tests were also superplasticizer) were used to control concrete consistency.
investigated at these two ages. Thus, this research covers a wide variety of mixtures (all
with the same consistency) with w/c from 0.32 to 0.72 and
RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE cement content from 259 to 663 kg/m3. This facilitates the
This study aims to encourage the practical application of possibility of extrapolating the results to a larger number of
the tested equations (Eq. (2) to (5)). This would be the best practical applications.
use of this research. The main advantage of these equations Cylindrical specimens of 100 mm diameter and 200 mm
is that they are easy to apply. This encourages their use in height were cast. The cure was performed by immersion in
everyday civil engineering decision-making. Although other water. Some specimens were tested after 28 days of curing,
models exist in the literature, their complexity inhibits real and others after 91 days of curing.
application in practice. Therefore, the model studied in this
paper aims to be as applicable as possible. Electrical resistivity and compressive strength tests
Also, estimating the resistivity mathematically means The electrical resistivity test was performed according
being able to use this parameter in modeling the concrete to Wenner’s method (four points), based on the standard
service life28 and/or in defining concrete mixture design.22 established by UNE 83988-2:2014.37 The test consisted of
This step is very important to allow including durability the use of four electrodes spaced by 0.05 m. An electrical
parameters from the design stage of civil constructions. charge applied between the two external electrodes results
in a difference of potential, which is measured by the two
internal electrodes of the equipment.
The test was carried out with the specimens in a satu- was executed according to the ABNT NBR 5739:200738
rated surface-dry state. Three specimens were used for each standard, using equipment for the rupture with 1000 kN of
concrete mixture, and three measurements were made in capacity and speed of load application of 0.45 ± 0.15 MPa/s.
each of them, always spaced by angles of 120 degrees. The
electrical resistivity values obtained in the test needs to be Estimation of electrical resistivity
corrected according to the size of the specimen used. In the The electrical resistivity was calculated according to
case of the specimens used in this study, the correction factor the law of Archie,23 Powers,26 and Mills27 (Eq. (2) to (5)).
was 0.377, according to the UNE 83988-2:2014 standard.37 According to D’Andrea,21 the m values used in Eq. (2)
The compressive strength test was realized on the same were 2.7 and 1.7 for the CEM III/A and CEM I cements,
specimens used in the electrical resistivity test. The test