In Canada, high-performance concretes (HPCs) are increasingly used in construction and repair, particularly for its durability, which is distinctly superior compared with ordinary concrete. The current tendency is to provide for a spacing factor of air bubbles lower than 230 μm in all HPCs that are subjected to freeze–thaw cycles. This choice is basically the outcome of an ongoing controversy as to the necessity of providing a good network of entrained air bubbles to protect HPCs against freeze–thaw cycles. In the future, the optimal use of HPC will depend, among other factors, on a better understanding of minimal requirements regarding the characteristics of air voids to ensure a good behavior of HPCs under freeze–thaw cycles. The results of the investigation reported herein show that a spacing factor lower than approximately 500 μm can be sufficient to ensure a good resistance of HPCs to scaling. It is also shown that surface trawling, slump, and set-retarding agents have only secondary effects on the scaling resistance of HPCs. Silica fume and membrane curing have allowed to improve significantly the scaling resistance of the HPCs under investigation. Key words: high-performance concrete, durability, scaling, set-retarding agent, silica fume, surface finishing, curing, pumping, entrained air, spacing factor.
Dynamics of entrained air bubbles inside a piezodriven inkjet printhead
