Ingenieurbauten des Bundesfernstraßenbereichs sind aufgrund ihrer Exposition an vielen Stellen besonders betroffen von Graffiti. Graffitischmierer nehmen hierbei keine Rücksicht auf die Art der Substratmaterialien, und besonders poröse Untergründe bereiten Schwierigkeiten bei der Reinigung. Um Baustoffoberflächen besser zu schützen und von Graffiti leichter reinigen zu können, wurden in den vergangen Jahren spezielle Prophylaxesysteme (Anti-Graffiti-Systeme, AGS) entwickelten. Für die Beurteilung der Funktionalität und Verwendbarkeit dieser Anti-Graffiti-Systeme wurden von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) eine neue Technische Prüfvorschrift und Technische Lieferbedingungen (TP/TL AGS-Beton) erarbeitet. Die TP/TL AGS-Beton gilt hierbei nur für die Beurteilung von AGS auf Betonuntergründen. In einer Forschungsstudie wurde untersucht, inwieweit die vorhandene Prüfvorschrift für Betonsubstrate auch auf andere Untergründe, z. B. Naturstein oder Klinker, angewendet werden kann. Weiterhin wurde untersucht, welche Faktoren eine Rolle bei der Reinigung von mit AGS behandelten verschiedenen Substraten spielen.
Cementitious materials, in particular concrete, are durable materials if prepared appropriately and the Service life of concrete structures is now often required to last 120 years or more. Concrete durability depends strongly on intrinsic (e.g. composition, porosity) and exterior factors (e.g. moisture condition and composition, frost cycles, load pattem). Deleterious actions leading to concrete degradation are often created by the environment. Extemal sulfate attack is one of the more spectacular damage scenarios for concrete structures caused by the ingress of sulfate ions into the pore System of the material and successive formation of expanding phases. Though in recent years well studied there are still many questions remaining conceming the mechanisms of sulfate attack. In particular over the last ten years, with the increased utilization of blended cements, new questions arose concerning the sulfate resistance of those binder Systems. In the presented study therefore a method was developed to analyze the changes of the phase composition within the micro structure due to sulfate attack. The analytical method was based on pX-Ray diffraction (pXRD) using Synchrotron radiation in Debye-Scherrer (transmission) geometry. The spatial resolution of the method is ca. 10 pm and allows the characterization of phase transformations in the wake of damaging processes in more detail compared to other techniques. Furthermore, the experimental setup provides the possibility for analyzing the phase assemblage of a given sample without destroying the micro structure. This is possible because the specimens for phase analysis consists of thick sections, which can be used for further microscopic analysis of the micro structure and micro chemistry (e.g. by SEM-EDX). Samples containing supplementary cementitious materials were measured in comparison and to reconstruct the influence of the degradation process in detail. Additionally, reaction ffonts within the samples were localized by micro x-ray fluorescence analysis (MXRF).
Mechanisms of degradation of concrete by external sufate ions under laboratory and field conditions
(2011)
The durability of concrete is a major challenge for the construction, which devotes one third to one half of its annual investment to building maintenance. The lack of fieid data regarding concrete durability, especially in the case of exposure to Sulfate ions (“sulfate attack”) makes it dijficult to determine the appropriate fest methods andperformance criteria. Additionally, the increased use of sustainable blends (cement with mineral admixtures, typically slag from the iron industiy) suffers from a lack of experience regarding their long-term performance. Most results for sulfate resistance are derived from accelerated laboratoiy tests xvhere performance criteria are based only on macroscopic properties, especially expansion. To fill this gap and better widerstand the mechanisms of sulfate attack under real conditions, a parallel study of laboratoiy micro-concrete and fieid concrete samples under sulfate exposure was undertaken, focussing on microstructural changes in addition to the conventional macroscopic characterisation.
Four exposure regimes were designed in the laboratoiy: full immersion (ponding), pH-control, semi-immersion and wet/diy cycles. Pure Portland blends and slag blends witli high level of slag replacement (70 wt.-%) were investigated.
The exposure regime has been found to play a major role in the damage process. In ponding conditions, the damage process takes place in three stages characterised by a first period of induction, followed by surface damage thatfinally extends to the bulle of the material. Paradoxically, the w/c-ratio does not seem to have much impact on the ionic transport phenomena but might be more decisive in the microstructure mechanical strength against local stresses. The slag blends, considered as sulfate resistant in ponding exposure, revealed badperformances under wet/diy cycles. This beliaviour was attributed to poor proper physical resistance of the slag hydrates against diying.
The fieid concretes selected for the comparison with the laboratoiy cases were partially buried in a sulfate-enriched soil in Argentina. A pure Portland blend and a slag blends with high level of slag replacement (80 wt.-%) were investigated. The submerged part of the samples could be compared to the laboratoiy ponding exposure, wliile the upper layer of the samples subjected to weathering could be compared to the laboratoiy wet/diy cycles exposure. The fieid obsen’ations tend to confirm the laboratoiy results and validate the fest settings.
It has been underlined that a direct relationship between damage (e.g.; cracking/expansion) andphase assemblage was not evident. However, the study highlights that sulfate combination with the hydrates of the cement (e.g.; C-S-H) and with those of the slag would play a rote in the initiation of the expansion, which would be attributed to a swelling of the hydrates or to the precipitation offine ettringite after the Saturation level in sulfate of the hydrates has been reached.
The interaction of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash (MSWI bottom ash), when utilized as an aggregate in concrete, with the cement matrix was investigated. The most prominent reaction observed in lab and field concrete was the formation of aluminium hydroxide and the release of hydrogen gas from aluminium grains reacting in the alkaline environment. The expansive aluminium reaction was identified as a main cause of extensive spalling on the concrete surface. Due to the higher content of bottle glass as part of the ash, in all samples, reaction products of an alkali-silica reaction (ASR) could be observed as well. However, damage due to ASR were less severe than those caused by the aluminium reaction. The expansion rates were low and only a few of the lab samples showed cracking. Microstructural analysis of the samples indicated clearly that a large quantity of the alkali-silica gel which was formed was accommodated in the pores and voids without exerting any strain on the material.
The goal of this study was to find a correlation between cleaning efficacy of substrates protected with anti-graffiti systems (AGS) and their porosity, surface roughness, and composition as well as usability of the Technical Testing Guideline for Anti-Graffiti Systems (TP-AGS, issued by BASt) for natural stone and brick/clinker masonry. The results showed that the cleaning efficacy mainly depends on the porosity of the substrate and the type of AGS. Also, higher surface roughness contributed to a lower cleaning efficacy. The results showed also that concrete panels and cement joints in masonry represented the worst case. The color change of all substrate materials compared to concrete was mostly within acceptable limits. Gloss changes were significant for a number of substrates. In particular, several of the wax-treated low-porosity substrates exceeded the threshold value of 10. The limit of water vapor permeability of the AGS prescribed in the TP-AGS might be too high for natural stone substrates. In general, the TP-AGS is useful for the determination of the efficiency factor of anti-graffiti agents on various substrates.