Laboratory Monitoring of Electrical Resistance of Concrete (Research Note)

Document Type : Research Note

Authors

1 Chief of Laboratory of research and development of Tehran cement Co

2 Assistant Professor of Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Centre

Abstract

Common methods of controlling setting, hardness, process of strength growth of concrete are tests for determining the setting time of mortar (ISIRI 392) and concrete (ISIRI 6046) and determining the compressive strength of concrete (ISIRI 3206). Since these physical and mechanical methods do not fully reflect the behavior of concrete and also it is time and money consuming, application of electrical resistance of concrete has been investigated. Therefore, in this study, an extensive laboratory operation was designed. In the first stage, 11 samples of cement were prepared, the phases of which varied, but due to laboratory cementation, their fineness and grading were almost the same. Physical and chemical analysis of cement samples were performed. In the next step, 22 concrete mixtures with 11 cement samples were prepared, so that 11 mixtures with the title of control (without additives) and 11 mixtures with constant dosage of commercial super plasticizer (based on poly carboxylate). Compressive strength tests has been performed at ages of 7, 28 and 90 days. Also, an electrical resistance test was performed, which was performed regularly from the time of cement contact with water until 31 days later. The results showed that at least three peaks of 8, 16 and 23 days in the electrical resistance curve are seen along the test time. In almost all samples, the electrical resistance is reduced to about 3 hours, which indicates the setting time of the concrete. Based on the results of this study, formula was presented

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