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of Concrete
Need for a standard procedure
Amount of sample
For each type of mixture, pH was measured using 5, 10,
and 20 g (0.18, 0.35, and 0.71 oz) of material with various
dilution ratios. Sample graphs are shown in Fig. 1 to 4. Fig. 2: Measured pH versus dilution ratio for concrete with a
The difference in pH was less than 0.30. 0.4 w/cm
Table 2:
Measured pH values for various concrete materials
Material Measured pH*
0.4 w/cm cement paste 12.71
0.4 w/cm mortar 12.69
0.4 w/cm concrete 12.62 Sample Size
Fig. 1: Measured pH versus dilution ratio for cement paste with Fig. 4: Measured pH versus dilution ratio for concrete with 50%
a 0.4 w/cm cement replacement by weight with fly ash
Sample gradation
Tests were conducted using powdered samples
obtained from concrete with a w/cm of 0.40 and no fly ash.
The pH measurements were conducted on the portion of
the sample that was retained on the 2.00 mm (No. 10)
sieve (large particles), the portion passing the 2.00 mm
(No. 10) sieve and retained on the 850 m (No. 20) sieve
(intermediate particles), and the portion passing the 850 m
(No. 20) sieve (small particles) using a dilution ratio of
1:2. The pH values for the large particle size portion and
the small particle size portion were found to be 11.55 and
Sample Size 12.48, respectively. Although the difference in pH was
nearly 0.93, the pH of the combined sample was 12.37,
indicating that its not necessary to obtain a sample
passing through the 850 m (No. 20) sieve. The particle
size distribution of the sample and measured pH values
Fig. 5: Measured pH versus dilution ratio for carbonated concrete are shown in Table 3.
sample from a 20-year-old sidewalk
Temperature
Raising the temperature of a saturated solution of
calcium hydroxide from 0 to 60 C (32 to 140 F) has been
reported to decrease measured pH from 13.423 to 11.449.4
The graph in Fig. 7 shows the effect of temperature found
in the test program over a narrow temperature range.