Experimental Tests of Pre - placed Aggregate Concrete for Concrete Repairs

Sammanfattning: Since a large part of the hydropower structures in Sweden was built in the 1950s and 1960s, many of them are slowly but surely exhibiting deterioration. The hydropower companies are facing big challenges and are consequently investing in effective repairing methods since a hydropower structure failure could pose serious consequences and dangers to people, the environment, and the community. Many structures within hydropower are made of concrete and the demands on the new supplementing concrete are high. Concrete with the potential to meet these high demands is the pre-placed aggregate concrete, which has shown promising results regarding its mechanical properties in previous studies. For this reason, this type of concrete is of interest to investigate. The focus has not been on optimizing the pre-placed aggregate concrete for full-scale productions. Instead, the main objectives of this master thesis were to study and analyze the mechanical properties of this type of concrete, such as shrinkage, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, freeze-thaw resistance and moreover investigate parameters of importance in the mix design to obtain a homogenous and easy flowing grout that successfully could fill the voids between the coarse aggregates. The investigations were carried out by laboratory experiments in the research and laboratory facilities of Vattenfall in Älvkarleby. The mix design of the grout was developed using the methods and requirements stated in the American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM standards, and The Swedish Institute for Standards, SiS. A total of 15 grout-mixes were made. However, only the last five were used to cast specimens as the air content was insufficient in the first ten. The results indicated that it is necessary to replace the air-entraining admixture with microspheres in order for the pre-placed aggregate concrete to meet the requirements in exposure class XF3 and XC4. The scaling of the pre-placed aggregate concrete was less than 0.1 kg/m2 at 56 cycles, and thus, the freeze-thaw resistance was classed as very good. Moreover, the use of slag considerably reduced the bleeding of the grout and also improved the casting results. However, on the other hand, it increased the shrinkage of the pre-placed aggregate concrete. An efficiency factor of 0.6 proved to be too low since the compressive strength of the specimen with slag was approximately 50 % higher than the ones without. Furthermore, the shrinkage of the pre-placed aggregate concrete was after 63 days found to be lower than that of the conventional concrete. Also, the compressive strength of the pre-placed aggregate concrete without slag proved to be approximately 15 % lower than that of conventional concrete. Additionally, vibration during casting was found to increase the compressive strength of the pre-placed aggregate concrete and also improved the casting results. Low bleeding, combined with a high discharge time of approximately 45 seconds for 1.7 liters of grout, generated the best casting results. The results from the investigations have shown that this type of concrete has great potential. However, actions and further investigations should be made to see whether changing the fine aggregate size to a smaller one improves the ability of the grout to penetrate the voids between the coarse aggregates. Moreover, pump injection of the grout should be tested instead of pouring it over the coarse aggregates to see whether it improves the casting results and the mechanical properties.