Assessment of alkali-silica reactivity of aggregates by concrete expansion tests in alkaline solutions at 38°C

A new accelerated concrete prism expansion test at 38°C (accelerated CPT) is proposed for assessing the alkali-reactivity of concrete aggregates. In this test, concrete prisms with a standardized mix composition and different alkali contents are immersed in alkaline solutions with compositions simulating the pore liquid of hardened concretes. The concrete prism expansion test at 38°C and RH > 95% (traditional CPT) was taken as a reference test, in order to define the appropriate expansion limit criterion for the proposed accelerated CPT. Three natural aggregates of known field performance and different alkali-silica reactivity were tested. The compositions of alkaline solutions were designed by assuming total dissolution of cement alkalis and taking a ratio between the mass fractions of effective water consumed by cement hydration and of alkalis uptaken by cement hydrates equal to unity. This simplified approach was found in acceptable agreement with literature empirical equations correlating pore solution alkalinity of hardened Portland cement mixes with total alkali content of cement. Elaboration of expansion data through both pass-fail and Threshold Alkali Level (TAL)-evaluation approaches indicated that, for the accelerated CPT, an expansion limit criterion of 0.04% after 120 days of testing in alkaline solutions is appropriate to evaluate the aggregate alkali-reactivity congruently with the traditional CPT. Use of the proposed test method in place of the traditional CPT would reduce test duration from 365 to 120 days.