• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.91-107
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• 2023

An effective approach to promoting sustainability within the construction industry is the use of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) as a substitute for natural aggregates. Ensuring the frost resilience of RAC technologies is crucial to facilitate their adoption in regions characterized by cold temperatures. The main aim of this study was to use the Random Forests (RF) approach to forecast the frost durability of RAC in cold locations, with a focus on the durability factor (DF) value. Herein, three optimization algorithms named Sine-cosine optimization algorithm (SCA), Black widow optimization algorithm (BWOA), and Equilibrium optimizer (EO) were considered for determing optimal values of RF hyperparameters. The findings show that all developed systems faithfully represented the DF, with an R² for the train and test data phases of better than 0.9539 and 0.9777, respectively. In two assessment and learning stages, EO - RF is found to be superior than BWOA - RF and SCA - RF. The outperformed model's performance (EO - RF) was superior to that of ANN (from literature) by raising the values of R² and reducing the RMSE values. Considering the justifications, as well as the comparisons from metrics and Taylor diagram's findings, it could be found out that, although other RF models were equally reliable in predicting the the frost durability of RAC based on the durability factor (DF) value in cold climates, the developed EO - RF strategy excelled them all.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.393-400
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• 2013

Concrete undergoing early frost damage in cold weather will experience significant loss of not only strength, but also of permeability and durability. Accordingly, concrete codes like ACI-306R prescribe a minimum compressive strength and duration of curing to prevent frost damage at an early age and secure the quality of concrete. Such minimum compressive strength and duration of curing are mostly defined based on the strength development of concrete. However, concrete subjected to frost damage at early age may not show a consistent relationship between its strength and durability. Especially, since durability of concrete is of utmost importance in nuclear power plant structures, this relationship should be imperatively clarified. Therefore, this study verifies the feasibility of the minimum compressive strength specified in the codes like ACI-306R by evaluating the strength development and the durability preventing the frost damage of early age concrete for nuclear power plant. The results indicate that the value of 5 MPa specified by the concrete standards like ACI-306R as the minimum compressive strength to prevent the early frost damage is reasonable in terms of the strength development, but seems to be inappropriate in the viewpoint of the resistance to chloride ion penetration and freeze-thaw. Consequently, it is recommended to propose a minimum compressive strength preventing early frost damage in terms of not only the strength development, but also in terms of the durability to secure the quality of concrete for nuclear power plants in cold climates.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.99-109
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• 2021

Slag blended concrete is widely used as a mineral admixture in the modern concrete industry. This study shows an optimization process that determines the optimal mixture of air-entrained slag blended concrete considering carbonation durability, frost durability, CO2 emission, and materials cost. First, the aim of optimization is set as total cost, which equals material cost plus CO2 emission cost. The constraints of optimization consist of strength, workability, carbonation durability with climate change, frost durability, range of components and component ratio, and absolute volume. A genetic algorithm is used to determine optimal mixtures considering aim function and various constraints. Second, mixture design examples are shown considering four different cases, namely, mixtures without considering carbonation (Case 1), mixtures considering carbonation (Case 2), mixtures considering carbonation coupled with climate change (Case 3), and mixtures of high strength concrete (Case 4). The results show that the carbonization is the controlling factor of the mixture design of the concrete with ordinary strength (the designed strength is 30MPa). To meet the challenge of climate change, stronger concrete must be used. For high-strength slag blended concrete (design strength is 55MPa), strength is the control factor of mixture design.

• Magazine of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.89-96
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• 1992

It is generally known that the frost-resistance of concrete is much affected by the air content in concrete and by the air void system or air distribution. And also the frost-resistance is believed to vary with the stre¬ngth of concrete. This article is prepared to describe, based on experiment, the effect of the air content and the air void system, particularly the effect of the spacing factor, on the freeze-thaw resistance of the high strength conc¬rete. For this purpose, I first worked on Non-AE concrete to make its compressive strength set about 400 to 500 kg/em'. However, the freeze-thaw test on the Non-AE concrete resulted in low durability factor, I.e., 10-2~0%. Thus to enhance the durability, another supplementary step was needed. I used AE admixture. which enhanced durability by changing the air content from 2% to 12%. The frost-thaw test was then performed 500 cycles on the 20 kind of concrete mixtures which differ in unit cement content and in water-cement ratio. Keywords : frost -resistance, air content, air void system, air distribution, spacing factor, freeze-thaw test, dur ability factor. capillary cavity, Linear Traverse Method.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.177-185
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to evaluate freezing-thawing and surface scaling resistance in order to examine the frost durability of concrete in a chloride-inherent environment. The mixing design for this study is as follows: 3 water binder ratios of 0.37, 0.42, and 0.47; 2-ingredient type concrete (50% OPC concrete and 50% ground granulated blast-furnace slag), and 3-ingredient type concrete (50% OPC concrete, 15% fly ash, and 35% ground granulated blast-furnace slag). As found in this study, the decrease of durability was much more noticeable in combined deterioration through both salt damage and frost damage than in a single deterioration through either ofthese; when using blast-furnace slag in freezing-thawing seawater, the frost durability and surface deterioration resistance was evaluated as higher than when using OPC concrete. BF 50% concrete, especially, rather than BFS35%+FA15%, had a notable effect on resistance to chloride penetration and freezing/expansion. It has been confirmed that surface deterioration can be evaluated through a quantitative analysis of scaling, calculated from concrete's underwater weight and surface-dry weight as affected by the freezing-thawing of seawater.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.577-580
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• 2006

This paper presents the experimental results of frost durability characteristics including freezing-thawing and de-icing salt scaling of the concrete used for gutter of the road. Mixtures were proportioned with the three level of water-binder ratio (W/B), 0.58, 0.53, and 0.48, and two binder compositions corresponding to Type I cement without any supplementary cementitious materials (OPC) and Type I cement with 30% blast-furnace slag replacement (Slag30). Also, two different solutions of calcium chloride and water that contains 0 and 8g of anhydrous calcium chloride in each 100 mL of solution, respectively, were used to evaluate their effect on the frost durability resistance. Test results showed that the Slag30 mixture exhibited higher durability factor and lower mass loss values than those made with OPC. Among the mixture tested in this work, the mixtures (OPC and Slag30) made with a relatively higher W/B of 0.58 exhibited large amount of the de-icing salt scaling regardless of calcium chloride concentration. Finally, the use of slag can be used effectively in terms of economy and frost durability of the concrete designated for gutter.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.171-175
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• 2010

This paper presents the experimental results of frost durability characteristics including freezing-thawing and de-icing salt scaling of the concrete for gutter of the road and marine structure. Mixtures were proportioned with the three level of water-binder ratio(W/B) and three binder compositions corresponding to Type I cement with 0%, 30% and 50% GGBS(Ground granulated blast furnace slag) replacement. Also, two different solutions of calcium chloride were used to evaluate their effect on the frost durability resistance. Specially, in case of complex of freezing and thawing with salt and carbonation, the deterioration of concrete surface is evaluated. Test results showed that the BFS30 and BFS50 mixture exhibited higher durability and lower mass loss values than those made with OPC mix and the use of GGBS can be used effectively in terms of economy and frost durability of the concrete to be in complex deterioration. Therefore, the resistance to complex deterioration with freezing-thawing was strongly influenced by the strength and the type of cement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.76-81
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• 2001

Recently, the structure is higher and larger, so that the application of high-strength concrete is increased, And as the development of construction skills, it is possible to place during the winter. Concrete work during winter is indispensible to shorten time of completion and cut costs. When concrete work during winter is placed, it has anxiety that concrete freeze at low temperature. As repetition of concrete's freezing cause reduction of durability, it is necessary for mixing to pay attention to air content and W/C ratios. Accordingly, in this study, we estimate the frost resistance by air content and W/C ratios, and development of strength after early-frost damage in the high-strength concrete during the cold weather. In this study, it could be confirmed that factors which were air content, W/C ratios and early curing period, affected on the frost resistance.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.17 no.3 s.87
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• pp.455-464
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• 2005

Today the application of antiwashout underwater concrete to the construction sites is increasing steadily, while its reliability is in issue. Particularly, antiwashout underwater concrete is known to have very weak durability on frost attack, and hence Japan society of civil engineers(JSCE) regulated that not to use of antiwashout underwater concrete where the freezing and thawing is suspected. This study aims the improvement of the freezing and thawing resistance for antiwashout underwater concrete. From the results of fundamental test, FA20 and SG50 showed good performance in fluidity and long term compressive strength than control concrete. Meanwhile, MK10 marked the highest compressive strength through the whole curing age but a defect on fluidity was discovered. The results from the repeated freezing and thawing test show that the large volumes of air entrapped by cellulose based antiwashout underwater admixture gave bad effects to frost durability and hence not much benefits were confirmed from the use of mineral admixtures. However there were some increasing effects on frost durability of MK10 and SG50 by securing $6{\pm}0.5\%$ of entraining air. In the meantime, there was a increasing tendency of frost durability by increasing blame's fineness of ground granulated blast furnace slag.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 1991.10a
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• pp.5-10
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• 1991

This study was performed to find out the effect about the spacing factor and durability factor to evaluate the durability of concrete in high-strength concrete with freezing and thawing as following each condition, 1) unit cement content : 500kg/$\textrm{m}^3$, 550kg/$\textrm{m}^3$ 2) water/cement ratio : 25%, 30%, 35% 3) air content : below 1.5%, 1.6~3.5%, 4~6%, over 7% From the results tested, a variation of air content was more effective to the durability of concrete than that of water/cement ratio and unit cement content.