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h i g h l i g h t sAutogenous crack healing of mortar exposed to marine environments is investigated.Mortars are able to autogenously heal or seal crack widths up to 100 lm.Crack sealing is also obtained by formation of a brucite layer at the surface. The resistance against chloride penetration improves due to the healing process. 10 lm is the critical crack width for chloride penetration.

The effect of partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by blast-furnace slag (BFS) on concrete's resistance to chlorides was examined by comparing chloride profiles and colour change boundaries after non-steady state migration and natural diffusion tests, cfr. NT Build 492 and NT Build 443, respectively. Chloride profiles were obtained by means of potentiometric titration and the colour change boundaries by spraying 0.1 M AgNO3-solution. One OPC mixture and three BFS mixtures, with cement replacement levels of 50, 70 and 85 %, were tested. It was found that, compared to OPC concrete, migration coefficients of 50 and 70 % BFS concrete are decreased with 32 and 57 %, respectively. Diffusion coefficients are reduced by 66 and 50 %, respectively. Nevertheless, the chloride binding capacity of BFS concrete, determined from the difference between total and free chlorides, was lower than for OPC concrete. The results for 85 % BFS concrete differ from the results for 50 and 70 % BFS concrete, since higher migration and diffusion coefficients are found. Besides, free chloride concentrations at the colour change boundary (ccb), obtained after spraying with AgNO3-solution, amounted to 0.30 mol/l on average. There was no clear relation between the free chloride content at ccb and the BFS content