Effect of silica fume addition on the PGNAA measurement of chlorine in concrete.

Pozzolanic materials, such as fly ash (FA), silica fume (SF), and blast furnace slag (BFS) are added to Portland cement in concrete to prevent reinforcement steel corrosion in concrete. Further preventive measure against reinforcement steel corrosion require monitoring of chloride salts concentration in concrete using non-destructive techniques, such as the prompt gamma-ray neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) technique. Due to interferences between gamma-rays from chlorine and calcium in PGNAA technique, detection limit of chlorine in concrete strongly depends upon calcium concentration in concrete. SF mainly contains silica and its addition to cement concrete reduces overall concentration of calcium in concrete. This may result in an improvement in detection limit of chlorine in SF-based concrete in PGNAA studies. Particularly for chlorine detection using 6.11 and 6.62 MeV prompt gamma-rays that strongly interfere with 6.42 MeV prompt gamma-rays from calcium. In this study, SF was added to Portland cement to prevent concrete reinforcement steel from corrosion. The chlorine concentration in SF cement concrete specimens containing 0.2-3.0 wt% chlorine was measured through yield of 1.16, 1.95, 6.11, 6.62, 7.41, 7.79, and 8.58 MeV chlorine gamma-rays using PGNAA technique. An excellent agreement was noted between the experimental yield of the prompt gamma-rays and the gamma-ray yield calculated through the Monte Carlo simulations. Further the minimum detectable concentration (MDC) of chlorine in SF cement concrete was calculated and compared with the MDC values of chlorine in plain concrete and concrete mixed with fly ash cement. The MDC of chlorine in SF-based concrete through 6.11 MeV, and 6.62 MeV chlorine gamma-rays was found to be improved as compared to those in plain concrete and concrete mixed with fly ash cement.