Microstructural, mechanical and physical assessment of Portland Cement Concrete pavement modified by sodium acetate under various curing conditions

Al-Kheetan, MJ; Ghaffar, SH; Awad, S; Chougan, M; Byzyka, J; Rahman, MM

Abstract

Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement was studied with incorporation of an environmentally friendly eco-additive, sodium acetate (C2H3NaO2). This additive was added to PCC pavement in three different percentages of 2%, 4% and 6% of binder weight. For a comprehensive elucidation of the eco-additive incorporation on the performance of PCC pavement, casted samples were cured in three different environments, namely: water, outdoors and pond water. Water absorption tests, flexural and compressive strength tests after 7 and 28 days of curing were conducted and results compared with the control samples without any addition of sodium acetate. Results demonstrated a significant improvement in the impermeability, compressive strength and flexural strength of PCC pavement when sodium acetate concrete is cured in a water bath and outdoors. However, no/little improvement in the impermeability, compressive strength and flexural strength was observed in sodium acetate samples that were cured in pond water. Microstructural analysis of treated samples by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) illustrated the strengthening effect that sodium acetate provides to the pore structure of concrete pavement.

Citation

Al-Kheetan, M., Ghaffar, S., Awad, S., Chougan, M., Byzyka, J., & Rahman, M. (2021). Microstructural, mechanical and physical assessment of Portland Cement Concrete pavement modified by sodium acetate under various curing conditions. Infrastructures, 6(8), e113. https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6080113

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 11, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 12, 2021
• Deposit Date: Aug 16, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 16, 2021
• Journal: Infrastructures
• Print ISSN: 2412-3811
• Publisher: MDPI
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 8
• Pages: e113
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6080113
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6080113
• Related Public URLs: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/infrastructures
• Additional Information: Additional Information : ** From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ **Journal IDs: eissn 2412-3811 **History: published 12-08-2021; accepted 11-08-2021