Development of blast furnace slag mixtures against frost salt attack

Carbonation is considered to be one of the most detrimental processes contributing to the frost salt attack deterioration of blast furnace slag (bfs) concrete. In this paper, the application of sodium monofluorophosphate (Na-MFP) as a curing solution or surface pre-treatment compound to improve frost salt scaling resistance of carbonated bfs mortar was studied. It was found that the treated specimens were more durable against frost salt attack than a conventional mortar with air-entrainment. The optimum mixture design can be achieved by using a suitable dosage of air-entraining agent, along with the Na-MFP application. The experimental results show that the optimized mixtures have an acceptable frost salt scaling durability that is comparable to the performance of ordinary Portland cement mixtures. The results obtained from a natural exposure confirm this healing phenomenon.