Date of Graduation

8-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Richard Coffman

Committee Member

Cameron Murray

Second Committee Member

Micah Hale

Keywords

alkali silica reaction;glycerin

Abstract

The use of glycerin as a concrete additive to reduce alkali silica reaction (ASR), was evaluated and is presented in this study. Specifically, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ultra-accelerated alkali silica reaction testing procedure by means of autoclaving was employed to examine the use of glycerin for ASR mitigation or reduction by analyzing mortar bar expansion data. The fine aggregates used in this investigation consisted of highly reactive Jobe Sand or Los Lunas Sand with an autoclave expansion of 0.5 and 0.4 percent, respectively. The laboratory investigation was performed by recording the amount of expansion of the mortar bars with and without glycerin. Additionally, the effects of increasing glycerin content on the measured compressive strength of the mortar were also investigated by performing compression tests on mortar cubes cast from the same mortar mix used to investigate mortar bar expansion. Based on the findings, a correlation between increasing glycerin content (zero through five percent, six percent, and nine percent per cement paste weight) and decreasing expansion of the mortar bars was observed. However, a reduction in compressive strength up to 89 percent was observed as the glycerin content increased. Several challenges were encountered in the data collection process as the mortar bars commonly broke during demolding as the glycerin content increased. Consequently, the testing method was adjusted by allowing the mortar bars to remain in the molds for up to 28 days to account for this issue.

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