FACTORS AFFECTING STRENGTH AND DURABILITY OF CONCRETE MADE WITH VARIOUS CEMENTS

This investigation examined variables influencing the 28-day compressive strength and 50-cycle salt scaling loss of concretes made with 18 Type 10 cements. Statistical analysis was performed on test data consisting of chemical and physical properties of cements; properties of fresh concretes; compressive strength, salt scaling loss, and air void parameters of mature concretes. For a similar water-cement ratio and cement content, results from the correlation analysis indicated that the 28-day concrete strength and 50-cycle salt scaling loss were influenced significantly by the chemical and physical properties of the cement used in the mix. Compressive strength has a strong negative correlation with alkali content, indicating that cements with a high alkali content produced concretes with lower compressive strength. Fineness (percent of particles in the 4 to 20-micro m range) is related to low salt scaling loss. Equations predicting strength and salt scaling loss of concrete were developed by using multiple linear regression.