This article discusses the influence of compressive shock waves on the permeability of cementitious materials. Shock waves are generated in water by Pulsed Arc Electrohydraulic Discharges (PAED). The practical aim is to increase the intrinsic permeability of the specimens. The maximum pressure amplitude of the shock wave is 250 MPa. It generates damage in the specimens and the evolution of dama...

A mortar is a material resulting of the intimate mixture of sand grains, a binder (lime, cement, etc.) and water. The properties and characteristic of the mortars mainly depend on the nature of the binder component. That is the reason for which, its evolution with time has been very related to the development of artificial cementitious materials. So, with the consolidation of the Roman civiliza...

The causes and mechanisms of corrosion of reinforcing bars in concrete are described in terms of the practical issues as well as the electrochemistry. The parameters affecting corrosion are (i) the ingress of aggressive species, such as chlorides, which break down the protective film on the reinforcing bar and (ii) the amount of those species necessary to do so. The former is largely controlled...

This paper addresses the property requirements of repair materials for high durability performance for concrete structure repair. It is proposed that the high tensile strain capacity of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (HPFRCC) makes such materials particularly suitable for repair applications, provided that the fresh properties are also adaptable to those required in p...

The authors present a computational system that can deal with pH fluctuations and the decomposition of cementitious materials exposed to various environmental actions. In order to evaluate the fall in pH due to carbon dioxide, material models are developed for the transport and equilibrium of carbon dioxide, ionization, ion equilibriums, and the carbonation reaction based on thermo-dynamic theo...

This paper presents an experimental study on the fundamental performances of a sprayed engineered cementitious composite (ECC) in repair systems. ECC serving as a repair material has been expected to be highly effective in providing durable repaired structures because of the tight crack width control and high delamination resistance. For this study, a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber-reinforced EC...

This article describes design concept and material characteristics of a new ductile fiber reinforced cementitious composite referred to as ECC (Engineered Cementitious Composite). This particular ECC contains Polyvinyl Alcohol fiber and exhibits remarkably ductile tensile property with over 1% of tensile strain capacity. The high tensile strain performance of the ECC was found successfully util...

The OECD NEA (Nuclear Energy Agency) anticipates that by 2050 the amount of nuclear-generated electricity worldwide will increase by a minimum of 1.6 times and a maximum of 3.9 times its 2008 value of 372 GWe [1]. At the same time, the amount of radioactive waste that will be produced is expected to increase substantially. High-level radioactive waste is usually derived from the burning of uran...