Secondary Ettringite Formation - Related cases

1. Concrete railway sleepers in Finland showed damage in 1995. Railway sleepers are large precast, reinforced concrete members. During their fabrication, the are usually steam cured at high temperatures to accelerate curing and speed fabrication.

These sleepers exhibited both ASR damage and SEF damage.

Engineers at the precast concrete plant in Finland remedied the succeeding sleepers by removing the heat treatment and prohibiting the use of the high alkali cement that the plant had been using.

2. Concrete railway sleepers in Australia exhibited similar problem of ASR and SEF expansions.

3. Material presented at the 74^th Annual Meeting of TRB (Transportation Research Board) in Washington, D. C. in 1996 showed that a wide range of highway pavements in the Midwestern U. S. were undergoing deterioration at least partly responsible from SEF.