Repeatability and reliability of new air and water permeability tests for assessing the durability of high-performance concretes

This paper reports on the accuracy of new test methods developed to measure the air and water permeability of high-performance concretes (HPCs). Five representative HPC and one normal concrete (NC) mixtures were tested to estimate both repeatability and reliability of the proposed methods. Repeatability acceptance was adjudged using values of signal-noise ratio (SNR) and discrimination ratio (DR), and reliability was investigated by comparing against standard laboratory-based test methods (i.e., the RILEM gas permeability test and BS EN water penetration test). With SNR and DR values satisfying recommended criteria, it was concluded that test repeatability error has no significant influence on results. In addition, the research confirmed strong positive relationships between the proposed test methods and existing standard permeability assessment techniques. Based on these findings, the proposed test methods show strong potential to become recognized as international methods for determining the permeability of HPCs.

[1]  L Gaerty.  Silica fume concrete , 1990 .

[2]  K. N. Derucher,et al.  Permeability of concrete mixtures. I: Literature review , 1986 .

[3]  A. Neville,et al.  High performance concrete—An overview , 1998 .

[4]  P B Bamforth,et al.  The relationship between permeability coefficients for concrete obtained using liquid and gas , 1987 .

[5]  Ali S. Hadi,et al.  Regression Analysis by Example: Chatterjee/Regression , 2006 .

[6]  W. D. Hoff,et al.  Water Transport in Brick, Stone and Concrete , 2002 .

[7]  Lars-Olof Nilsson,et al.  Resistance of Concrete to Chloride Ingress: Testing and modelling , 2011 .

[8]  C Andrade,et al.  Suitability of Torrent Permeability Tester to Measure Air-Permeability of Covercrete , 2000 .

[9]  M. Romer,et al.  Effect of moisture and concrete composition on the torrent permeability measurement , 2005 .

[10]  P. Basheer,et al.  Mechanical and durability properties of high performance concretes containing supplementary cementitious materials , 2010 .

[11]  Adrian Long,et al.  Why assess the properties of near-surface concrete? , 2001 .

[12]  Lh McCurrich.  PERMEABILITY TESTING OF SITE CONCRETE. A REVIEW OF METHODS AND EXPERIENCE , 1987 .

[13]  David Pocock.  Concrete durability testing in Middle East construction , 2007 .

[14]  Adrian Long,et al.  Assessment of the effectiveness of the guard ring in obtaining a uni-directional flow in an in situ water permeability test , 2015 .

[15]  Franklin A. Graybill,et al.  Regression Analysis-Concepts and Applications , 1995 .

[16]  Adrian Long,et al.  EFFECT OF RELATIVE HUMIDITY AND AIR PERMEABILITY ON PREDICTION OF THE RATE OF CARBONATION OF CONCRETE , 2001 .

[17]  R. Torrent,et al.  A two-chamber vacuum cell for measuring the coefficient of permeability to air of the concrete cover on site , 1992 .

[18]  Douglas C. Montgomery,et al.  Statistical quality control : a modern introduction , 2009 .