Design and production of concrete

The concrete to be exposed at the marine exposure site at Rødbyhavn was produced under strict control at the Concrete Centre's HighTech Concrete Laboratory. Altogether thirtyseven concrete blocks and a large number of small test specimens were produced. Fifteen large concrete blocks (400 litres - 2 x 1 x 0.2 m) each having different concrete composition and seven instrumented blocks have been placed partly submerged in Rødbyhavn harbour. The concrete blocks will be monitored closely at least until the end of the construction period, which is expected to be in 2020.

The 15 large concrete blocks represent 15 different concrete conpositions. The choice of concrete compositions for the blocks is partly based on typical concrete types, which have previously been used in connection with larger Danish infrastructure projects such as the Great Belt Link and the Øresund Link. Some of the concrete composition were also chosen with the purpose of testing new and alternative types of concrete such as self-compacting concrete (SCC) and slag cement concrete.

The concretes were designed to have a water/cement ratio of 0.4 and an air content of 4.5 %. In addition, concretes with ternary blends of low-alkali cement, fly ash and silica fume were also designed with both higher and lower water/cement ratios as well as without entrained air. Finally, three of the concrete types were also produced as SCC.

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Materials

Mix design

Batching

Mixing and casting

Curing