Using GPS to find a perfect mix: search for solutions to potential corrosion problems without ever leaving your desk - E-Concrete

Concrete Producer, The, May, 2003 by Amara Rozgus

When I first learned of Durability GPS, I thought about my husband. An avid fisherman, he was on the prowl this winter for his first handheld global positioning system. He read articles, spent hours online, and visited several fishing outfitters to learn about how to select the perfect GPS. Now after a few spring outings, I'm not sure he's proven the point that GPS is helping him fish better. I've been asking which walleye was caught with the GPS locator, and which was caught with good old experience. Even so, I'm open to purchasing just about anything to help him bring home some fresh fish.

Unfortunate for the fishing aficionados in the audience, the Durability GPS is not what I thought it would be. It's more. Recently release by Master Builders Inc., Cleveland, the Durability Global Product Selector is a Web application that functions as a multi-level selector system that considers all of the project parameters a producer might consider. After looking at these factors, it recommends specific admixtures to include in the mix design to achieve improved durability.

A step-by-step approach

Concrete producers, architects, engineers, owners, and contractors can use this Web-based tool to specify the right materials and design structures for long service life. Users can specify chemical admixtures formulated to prevent various conditions that threaten and compromise concrete durability like corrosion, cracking, alkali-silica reactivity, and chemical attack.

The software is a multi-level selector system that allows you to "drill down" from the type of structure to the product specification level of information. To use the Durability GPS, a producer should typically follow these steps:

1. First, select the type of structure you will be building from the EZ Links (parking structures, floor slabs, mass concrete, etc.).

2. Next, consider all the potential concrete problems your structure may face (cracking, corrosion, etc.).

3. Select a problem to explore the possible causes of the problem, such as volume change.

4. Select a solution to view an array of recommendations for preventing the problem in your structure like a shrinkage-reducing admixture.

5. Select another recommendation (step 4) or problem (step 3) and repeat until you have compiled recommendations for all of your structure's potential concrete problem areas.

Like my husband on his search for the perfect fish locator, you may spend hours online testing out the different options available. This HTML-based application requires only an Internet connection and browser to operate.

There is also a link to the American Concrete Institute Web site so users can reference structural system information. The information can be used in preparation of specifications or other documents, and/or the user can click over to Master Builders' site to retrieve product data sheets, materials safety data sheets, and specification samples for most products. The user can explore all relevant "causes" and "solutions" and determine the best combination of products to use.

"All in all, the Durability GPS system appears to be a useful navigation tool for specifiers who are interested in learning which admixture products to use," says Mike Caldarone, principal engineer with Construction Technology Laboratories Inc., Skokie, Ill.

Any designer, producer, owner, or decision-maker interested in constructing a more durable concrete structure might use the Durability GPS to help identify admixtures to include in the concrete specifications to help achieve the desired durability. And just as important, any concrete sales representative can point to this tool to help convince a decision maker that concrete should be the choice building material.

--AMARA ROZGUS
Contact Rozgus at arozgus@hanley.wood.com
with E-Concrete ideas.

To learn more about this system, visit www.masterbuilders.com/support/ pageDurabilityGPS.