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Assessing the long-term durability of concrete structures subjected to external sulfate attack (ESA) poses a significant challenge, primarily due to the lack of a well-defined quantitative metric for durability limit states. Traditional performance indicators such as compressive strength, mass loss, and expansion strain are insufficient for providing a comprehensive understanding of the extent of damage and are often difficult to measure accurately in practice. The primary objective of this study is to introduce a novel durability failure indicator, namely the failure thickness of concrete under ESA exposure, designed to quantitatively assess the ultimate limit state of concrete durability. Experiments were conducted and the results confirmed that the failure thickness can reliably reflect changes in both the elastic modulus and compressive strength of concrete exposed to ESA. A prediction model for estimating the failure thickness was subsequently developed, integrating key influencing factors like sulfate concentration, initial aluminate content, and sulfate ion diffusion coefficient. The established model exhibited a high degree of correlation between the predicted and experimental failure thickness values, with a low margin of error. The findings of this research contribute to serve as a foundation for both lifespan prediction and durability design of concrete structures exposed to sulfate-rich environments. • We propose a durability failure indicator based on critical sulfate concentration. • Concrete performance deterioration can be well characterized by failure thickness. • The validity of the prediction model of failure thickness was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cathode ray tube (CRT) funnel glass has been used to partially or totally replace natural sand as fine aggregate in concrete. It is an effective and environmentally friendly method of recycling the increasing number of discarded CRT in the electronic industry. However, little research has been performed on its durability performance under environmental attacks, in particular in the areas of chloride ion penetration and sulfate attack, the two major environmental attacks on reinforced concrete structures. This study presents an experimental investigation on the durability performances of concrete using CRT funnel glass as fine aggregate in 8% sodium chloride solution, 5% sodium sulfate solution and 10% sodium sulfate solution. Four volume replacement ratios (the ratio of CRT glass to natural sand), i.e. 0%, 30%, 60%, 100%, are considered. The chloride ion content along concrete depth direction, compressive strength and elastic modulus of concrete was measured with attack time. The test results show that although the compressive strength and elastic modulus decrease with increasing content of CRT funnel glass in concrete, the long-term resistance to chloride ion penetration is enhanced by using CRT funnel glass as fine aggregate. Furthermore, the compressive strength, rather than dynamic elastic modulus of concrete containing CRT glass, is more sensitive to sulfate attack. The relative increase in strength of CRT glass concrete is obviously larger than that of control concrete under sulfate attack. This study also provides a reference for the durability design of concrete structures using CRT funnel glass as fine aggregate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The performance of concrete under sulfate attack and dry-wet cycles is investigated. • A newly defined index is proposed to describe the progress of sulfate attack. • A novel method is proposed to assess the performance of sulfate-attacked concrete. Sulfate attack is a major cause of concrete durability deteriorations. Mass loss, strength reductions, and expansive strain of concrete specimens are generally used in laboratory testing to identify the resistance of concrete materials to sulfate attack. However, these indicators cannot be directly used to quantitatively predict the bearing capacity of actual concrete structures under sulfate attack. There exists a significant size effect between laboratory and engineering size concrete components. In this study, the durability performance of concrete specimens, exposed to sulfate attack and dry–wet cycles, was investigated. Mass loss, dynamic elastic modulus, compressive strength, and sulfate ions distributions of deteriorated concrete were measured over time. Test results indicate that the newly defined integral area of sulfate ions distributions is a suitable index to describe the non-uniform deteriorations behavior of sulfate–attacked concrete; and a novel method based on the homogenizations theory is proposed to predict the deteriorations level of components of attacked concrete structures, which provides a potential use in assessing the loading capacity of actual concrete structures based on accelerated test results in a laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]