Degradation Mechanism and Numerical Simulation of Pervious Concrete under Salt Freezing-Thawing Cycle

Abstract

In order to explore the occurrence area of pervious concrete freeze-thaw deterioration, the mass loss, strength deterioration, ultrasonic longitudinal wave velocity and dynamic elastic modulus attenuation of pervious concrete under freeze-thaw cycles were measured, and a prediction model of freeze-thaw damage was established. The mechanical properties of hardened cement pastes with the same W/C ratio under freeze-thaw cycles were also measured. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) was used to measure the pore structure characteristic parameters and pore size distribution changes of cement paste under freeze-thaw cycle, and the microstructure evolution of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) of paste and aggregate was observed by SEM scanning electron microscopy. Finally, a pervious concrete model was established by DEM to analyze the relationship between the number of freeze-thaw cycles and the mesoscopic parameters. The results indicated that the quality, strength and dynamic elastic modulus of pervious concrete deteriorate to different degrees under the conditions of water freezing and salt freezing. The damage sensitivity and strength loss of freeze-thaw damage is greater than the dynamic elastic modulus loss, which is greater than mass loss. In the pervious concrete paste which underwent 100 freeze-thaw cycles, the pore structure and macro strength had no obvious change, and hardened paste and the aggregate-interface-generated defects increased with the increase in freezing and thawing times, indicating that the deterioration of pervious concrete performance under freeze-thaw cycles was closely related to the deterioration of the interface strength of the aggregate and hardened paste. The pervious concrete model established by DEM can accurately simulate the change of the compressive modulus and the strength of pervious concrete during freeze-thaw cycles.