Concrete containing supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) as partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement is regarded as green and durable concrete, with several advantages such as improved strength gain mechanism, resistance to degradation and extended service life of structure. Water absorption or porosity of concrete is directly related to the durability of concrete. In this present study, five concrete mixes involving three different SCMs are investigated for water absorption and rapid chloride penetration rating. A comparison between porosity values obtained using four standard testing methods, i.e., BS 1881-122, RILEM CPC 11.1, RILEM CPC 11.3, and ASTM C642 are presented for three different concrete mixes containing varied compositions and proportions of two SCMs. The testing method by RILEM CPC 11.3 includes distinctive sample preparation and is regarded as a stringent method to represent the degree of concrete porosity. Two additional concrete mixes with three SCMs are further investigated for their water absorption and immersion following the testing method by RILEM CPC 11.3. The impact of SCMs on concrete porosity is discussed. A linear correlation between porosity and rapid chloride penetration (RCP) ratings obtained as per ASTM C1202-19 on specimens of all investigated concrete mixes is proposed as a rapid approach to assess chloride penetration of concrete specimens containing SCMs.

Reinforced concrete flat slabs or flat plates continue to be among the most popular floor systems due to speed of construction and inherent flexibility it offers in relation to locations of partitions. However, flat slab/plate floor systems that are deficient in two-way shear strength are susceptible to brittle failure at a slab–column junction that may propagate and lead to progressive collapse of a larger segment of the structural system. Deficiency in two-way shear strength may be due to design/construction errors, material under-strength, or overload. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite laminates in the form of sheets and/or strips are used in structurally deficient flat slab systems to enhance the two-way shear capacity, flexural strength, stiffness, and ductility. Glass FRP (GFRP) has been used successfully but carbon FRP (CFRP) sheets/strips/laminates are more commonly used as a practical alternative to other expensive and/or challenging methods such column enlargement. This article reviews the literature on the methodology and effectiveness of utilizing FRP sheets/strips and laminates at the column/slab intersection to enhance punching shear strength of flat slabs.

Recently, most of researchers are focusing on the use of ecofriendly and natural fibers for reinforcement in concrete. One of the most recent materials that is being used is Basalt fiber due to its low cost and exceptional characteristics over glass and carbon fibers. This material is tested to be used as alternative to conventional steel reinforcement bars in reinforced concrete structures also. Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (BFRP) bars are relatively new type of FRP reinforcement material. The present paper is a parametric study for flexural behavior of concrete members reinforced using BFRP rebars using finite element analysis (FEA). FEA software – Abaqus is used for numerical simulation of selected beams. A comparison between experimentally evaluated and numerically obtained load vs midspan deflection response of beam is presented. Due to a good agreement between these two approaches, FE model was used to conduct parametric study. The parameters that were changed from experimentally tested beams are number and size (diameter) of BFRP bars to study effect of reinforcement detailing and reinforcement ratio on load vs. midspan deflection response. A comparison between experimentally determined and numerically evaluated load vs midspan deflection response was carried out and found to be consistent with mean absolute percentage error of 4.80%.