Durability of concrete mixtures containing supplementary cementitious materials in rapid chloride permeability test

Durability and long-term performance of concrete exposed to deleterious ions and environmental conditions are major concerns. The rapid chloride permeability (RCP) test is commonly used in specifications in the United States to evaluate the permeability of concrete. To evaluate the critical factors that control the service life of structures, the investigation of various concrete mixtures is required. In this paper, the performance of 54 concrete mixtures containing three types of water-reducing admixtures, two types of aggregates, and two levels of cement contents are evaluated in the RCP and freezing-and-thawing tests and the air void structure of selected mixtures are analyzed. It was found that the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) significantly enhances the performance of concrete mixtures in the RCP test. In addition, mixtures containing up to 30% of Class C fly ash and 50% slag content achieved exceptional durability performance in both RCP and freezing-and-thawing (F-T) tests. The “very-low” RCP values were found for mixtures containing Class F fly ash and polycarboxylate ether (PCE) admixture.