Incorporating superabsorbent polymer (SAP), which has the abilities of absorption and desorption in concrete can achieve the effect of internal curing. The influences of the volume, particle size and ways of entrained water of SAP on the workability, compressive strength, shrinkage, carbonation resistance and chloride penetration resistance of concrete were analyzed through the macroscopic and microscopic test. The results show that pre-absorbed SAP can increase the slump of the mixture, but SAP without water absorption and pre-absorbed SAP with the deduction of internal curing water from mixing water can reduce the slump. The improvement effects of SAP on compressive strength of concrete increase gradually with the increase of age. Especially from 28 days, the compressive strength of concrete increases obviously. At later age, the compressive strengths of SAP concrete under natural curing environment exceed the strength of reference concrete under natural curing environment and nearly reach the strengths of reference concrete under standard curing environment. SAP effectively reduces the shrinkage of concrete, improves the concrete's abilities of carbonation resistance and chloride penetration resistance. The microscopic test results show that SAP can effectively improve the micro structure and make the pore structure refined. When SAP is added into concrete, the gel pores and small capillary pores are increased, the size of big capillary pores and air pores are reduced.

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Durability of concrete is of great significance to prolong the service life of concrete structures in corrosive environments. Aiming at the economical and environment-friendly production of concrete by comprehensive utilization of the supplementary cementitious materials made of industrial byproducts, the resistances to chloride penetration, sulfate attack, and frost of high-performance concrete were studied in this paper. Fifteen concretes were designed at different water–binder ratio with the changes of contents of fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), and admixture of sulfate corrosion-resistance (AS). The compressive strength, the total electric flux of chloride penetrability, the sulfate resistance coefficient, and the indices of freezing and thawing were measured. Results indicate that, depending on the chemical composition, fineness, and pozzolanic activity, the supplementary cementitious admixtures had different effects on the compressive strength and the durability of concrete; despite having a higher fineness and pozzolanic activity, the GGBS gave out a negative effect on concrete due to a similar chemical composition with cement; the SF and FA presented beneficial effects on concrete whether they were used singly with GGBS or jointly with GGBS; the AS improved the compressive strength and the sulfate corrosion resistance of concrete. In general, the grade of durability was positively related to the compressive strength of concrete. Except for the concretes admixed only with GGBS or with GGBS and FA, others had super durability with the compressive strength varying from 70 MPa to 113 MPa. The concretes with water to binder ratio of 0.29 and total binders of 500 kg/m3 admixed with 7% FA + 8% SF + 8% GGBS or 7% FA + 8% SF + 8% GGBS + (10~12)% AS presented the highest grades of resistances specified in China codes to chloride penetration, sulfate corrosion, and frost, while the compressive strength was about 100 MPa.

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