Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

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Construction and Building Materials

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Review

A review on the recovery of fire-damaged concrete with post-fire-curing

Lang Li a,b, Long Shi c, Qingyuan Wang a,b,⇑, Yongjie Liu a,b, Jiangfeng Dong a, Hong Zhang a,b,
Guomin Zhang c,⇑
a
Failure Mechanics & Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, College of Architecture & Environment, Sichuan University,
Chengdu 610065, China
b
Key Laboratory of Deep Underground Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
c
Civil and Infrastructure Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia

h i g h l i g h t s

Mechanism of recovery after post-fire curing was reviewed.

General testing properties and testing methods were summarized.

Recovery of properties after re-curing was reviewed and summarized.

Effects of some factors on the recovery were reviewed and discussed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The recovery of concrete by post-fire-curing is non-negligible in assessing the residual properties of con-
Received 8 August 2019 crete after the fire or similar hazardous disasters. This paper reviewed the related studies on this subject.
Received in revised form 1 November 2019 The post-fire-curing was introduced, the mechanism of post-fire-curing and the properties tested were
Accepted 8 November 2019
reviewed. Moreover, some factors influencing the recovery were discussed. The recovery after the
Available online 28 November 2019
post-fire-curing is based on the rehydration of the dehydrates produced in the high-temperatures expo-
sure. Moisture is essential to the recovery, so water post-fire-curing always results in better recovery.
Keywords:
After the recovery, the pore structures can recover to the pre-fire level while the mechanical properties
Cement
Concrete
and durability cannot. The mechanism and the contribution of the further hydration of unhydrated
Mortar cement grain are still not clear. The direct relationship between the rehydration and the strength recov-
Paste ery needs further investigation in future studies.
High temperature Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Recovery
Post-fire-curing
Rehydration

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Post-fire-curing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1. Post-fire-curing methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2. Mechanism of recovery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.1. Dehydration products after high-temperature exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.2. Recovery and rehydration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3. Property testing and analyzing methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Recovery of properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1. Mechanical properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1.1. Compressive strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1.2. Tensile strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

⇑ Corresponding authors at: Failure Mechanics & Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, College of Architecture &
Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China (Q. Wang).
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (L. Li), [email protected] (Q. Wang), [email protected] (G. Zhang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117564
0950-0618/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

3.1.3. Elastic modulus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2. Durability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3. Pores and cracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4. Factors influencing the recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.1. Exposed temperatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2. Mixture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.1. Presence of aggregate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.2. Blending materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3. Post-fire-curing conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3.1. Moisture content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3.2. Post-fire-curing duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5. Conclusions and research needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Declaration of Competing Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

1. Introduction third can be classified as damage caused by chemical changes. Dur-

ing the post-fire-curing process, the chemical changes are reversed,
As one of the most widely used construction materials in the the dehydrated cement matrix was rehydrated under with the sup-
world, concrete may encounter the threats of fire or high temper- ply of water [41–43]. Benefited from the rehydration, the physical
atures during serving. Even its fire resistance is better than other damages were also got partly recovered.
kinds of construction materials such as steel and wood, concrete The phenomenon of post-fire-curing was first reported by Crook
gets damaged when exposed to fire and high temperatures, too. and Murray [33] in 1970 in their study of glazing of concrete,
When exposed to high temperatures, concrete undergoes chemical which involved in exposing the concrete block at 620 °C. They
and physical changes, which result in the deterioration of proper- found that the compressive strength of concrete was substantially
ties [1,2]. regained by soaking in water after the exposure. Then in 1993, Sar-
It was generally believed that the compressive strength of con- shar and Khoury [44] reported that the concrete exposed at 500 °C
crete showed no decrease [3–5], or even slightly increased [2,6,7] could recover as much as 25 percentage points (from 40% to 65%)
when exposed to the temperature below 300 °C because of the of its compressive strength after post-fire-curing in the environ-
autoclaving condition resulted from the evaporation of water at ment with the RH (relative humidity) of 100%. In the following dec-
this temperature. In this condition, the hydration of the unhy- ades, many studies focused on the post-fire-curing have been
drated cement was accelerated [8–10]. When the exposed temper- reported. These studies have investigated the recovery mechanism,
ature reached 400 °C, the residual strength of concrete decreased recovered properties and the factors influencing the recovery. After
distinctly [11,12]. When reached 600 °C, the residual strength looking into the reports of these studies, we found that a holistic
was generally about 50% of the initial strength [7], and that was review on the topic of post-fire-curing is necessary to be
generally less than 30% after exposed to 800 °C [13,14]. Concrete conducted.
lost almost all of its strength when the temperature exceeded In this paper, the method and mechanism of recovery, and the
1000 °C [15]. Unlike the compressive strength, the elastic modulus facilities applied in the studies are summarized. The properties
started to decrease once the exposed temperature exceeds 200 °C recovered with post-fire-curing are also reviewed. Furthermore,
[16], but decreased linearly with the increasing temperature the factors influencing the recovery are investigated. The motiva-
[2,4,17–25]. The durability, in terms of the permeability, also dete- tion of this paper is to investigate the current knowledge about
riorated rapidly after the exposure [26–28]. post-fire-curing of fire-damage cement composites (including
After the fire, the damaged components need to be repaired as paste, mortar, and concrete) to provide instructions for the practi-
soon as possible. The most conventional repair method is to cal application and further studies on this subject.
replace the damaged layer with fresh concrete [29]. In recent years,
the use of fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) to reinforce the fire-
damaged concrete components has also been reported [30–32]. 2. Post-fire-curing
However, these methods require enormous extra cost such as labor
and materials for repairing. A few studies indicated that the prop- 2.1. Post-fire-curing methods
erties of fire-damaged concrete, such as strength and permeability
can be recovered if it is cured under the environment with enough When the specimens were cooled from the high temperatures,
moisture after the high-temperature exposure, and this recovery the post-fire-curing can be applied. The recovery after post-fire-
process is called post-fire-curing or re-curing [33–36]. curing is the result of rehydration, which mainly involves the reac-
Talking about post-fire-curing, it is necessary to review the tion between dehydrates and water. So, the supply of water is
changes underwent during the high-temperature exposure, which essential when post-fire-curing is applied. There are different
cause the damages to concrete. The high-temperature-induced methods to supply water to the fire-damaged concrete for rehydra-
deterioration of concrete is generally attributed to the following tion. According to the ways of supplying water, the post-fire-curing
aspects: firstly, the cracks caused by the evaporation of the free methods can be classified into three categories: 1) water post-fire-
water [37]; secondly, cracks induced by the inconsistent thermal curing, the specimens were submerged in the water for the whole
expansion of the cement matrix and aggregates [38,39]; and post-fire-curing process [34,45]; 2) water–air post-fire-curing, the
thirdly, the decomposition of hardened cement matrix and aggre- specimens were firstly submerged in the water for a period of time,
gates [40]. The deterioration is the common result of all the three and then were cured in the air with a certain relative humidity
aspects rather than any single of them. The first and second aspects [33,34]; 3) air post-fire-curing, the specimens were directly cured
can be classified as damage caused by physical changes and the in the air after the high-temperature exposure [35,46].
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 3

Table 1
Primary Bogue composition of OPC and the DCP (data from Ref. [56]).

Material type Dehydrate temperature (°C) Bogue composition (%)

C3S C2S C3A C4AF CaO
OPC / 69.72 6.08 7.76 9.36 –
DCP 700 °C 3.4 60.2 3.4 5.6 20.5
800 °C 3.7 48.8 1.9 11.1 23.3
900 °C 1.3 56.6 0.9 12.1 17.0

In some studies, the post-fire-curing process was conducted The main hydrates of cement, including hydrated silicate
after the specimens were cooled down in the air or furnace to (C-S-H), calcium hydroxide (CH), AFt/AFm, will dehydrate when
the room temperature [34,36]. In some studies, the specimens exposed to high temperatures. The C-S-H starts dehydrating at
were water-cooled, the specimens were submerged in the water 200 °C [49] and completely dehydrated to CnS above 750 °C [41];
right after the high-temperature exposure to cool down as fast as the CH dehydrates to CaO above 450 °C [49,50], and the CaCO3
a quenching process [33,35,46,47]. In these cases, the water was decomposes to CaO above 750 °C [51]; the AFt/AFm start to dehy-
introduced in the first place. Herein, it is necessary to differ the drate at 60–150 °C [50,52]. The dehydration during the high-
cooling process from post-fire-curing since for the water-cooling temperature exposure is not simply the inversion of the hydration
regime, the cooling process and post-fire-curing are overlapped. of cement grains. The chemical composition between the ordinary
The cooling of concrete is the process that the specimens cooled Portland cement (OPC) and the dehydrated cement paste (DCP) are
down from the exposed high temperatures to the room tempera- quite different. The primary mineral composition of OPC and DCP
ture, it lasts just a few hours, and even shorter for water-cooling. were compared in Table 1. It is widely known that the four main
While the post-fire-curing is a rehydration and properties- minerals in OPC are C3S, C2S, C3A, and C4AF, and calcium silicates
recovery process that begins at the inducing of water into the spec- (C3S and C2S) make up almost 70–80 percent of the cement clinker
imens and lasts for dozens of days. [53]. However, it is generally reported that the main phase of DCP
So, the post-fire-curing methods for water-cooled specimens were CaO and CnS below 1200 °C [54,55].
were classified into water post-fire-curing or water–air post-fire- From Table 1, it is easy to find out that the contents of CaO and
curing according to the followed process. It was classified as water C3S in OPC and DCP are quite different. In OPC, the C3S is the most
post-fire-curing if the specimens were cured in the water after primary content, and CaO is rarely found. But the DCP mainly con-
water-cooling, and it was water–air post-fire-curing if the speci- sists of C2S and CaO, and the content of C3S is very small. The rea-
mens were cured in the air after water-cooling. The residual prop- son for the high content of CaO in DCP can be traced upstream to
erties of specimens cooled in the water were quite different from the hydration of C3S and C2S. The hydration of C3S and C2S pro-
those cooled in the air, the residual strength of the water-cooled duces not only C-S-H, but also a large quantity of portlandite,
specimens was lower than the air-cooled ones because of the stress which remains in the hydrated cement paste (HCP). When exposed
caused by the thermal shock once the specimens contact with to high temperature at 500–600 °C, the portlandite dehydrated to
water [46,48]. The effects of the cooling regimes on the recovery CaO. In the fabrication of OPC clinker, the raw meal was subject
after post-fire-curing will be further discussed in Section 4.3.2. to the temperature as high as 1400 °C to produce Alite (impure
C3S). While the temperature that the concrete exposed to, usually
not higher than 800 °C in most of the reported studies, is much
2.2. Mechanism of recovery lower than that producing Alite [57–61]. The infrared spectroscopy
of the cement paste exposed to 800 °C matches well with the b-C2S
2.2.1. Dehydration products after high-temperature exposure [8].
The recovery by post-fire-curing is based on the rehydration of It is also interesting that the contents of CnS in DCP varies obvi-
dehydrated products. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce the ously with the dehydrated temperature because the transforma-
dehydration products produced after the high-temperature expo- tion of C-S-H at high temperature is complex. The dehydration
sure in the first place. activation energy of C-S-H varies from 83.69 to 371.93 kJ/mol,
which means that its dehydration can take place in a large range
of temperatures [62]. At the temperature up to 300 °C, the steam
effect under the condition of internal autoclaving results in addi-
tional hydration of unhydrated CnS [10], meanwhile, some C-S-H
gel depolymerizes to shorter chains and some dehydrated to anhy-
drous C2S [8]. At higher temperature, the depolymerized C-S-H
started to dehydrate, and completely dehydrated to anhydrous
C2S over 750 °C [41,49].
As is known to all, C-S-H is the most important phase in the
hydrated cement. Alonso and Fernandez [41] used 29Si MAS NMR
(magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance) to study the
transformation of calcium silicate after high temperatures. A signal
Qn was defined to represent the polymerization degree of the
SiO4 4
4 , where Q represents the SiO4 , and n is the connectivity. So
Q is the nesosilicate and anhydrous silicates, Q1 is the end group
0

of a C-S-H chain and Q2 is the middle group. They found that below
450 °C, the C-S-H completely depolymerized, and a few C-S-H
dehydrated, and the C-S-H transformed into a modified structure,
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the transformation of C-S-H to CnS. This diagram was
produced referred to the result reported by Ref. [41].
which was marked as New Q1. After exposed to 750 °C, the C-S-H
4 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

Fig. 2. Healing of crack around the aggregate by post-fire-curing (modified from Ref. [35]).

Table 2
Summary of the studies on the mechanism of post-fire curing.

Refs. Authors Year Materials Exposed temperatures (°C) Findings

[33] Crook and Murray 1970 Concrete 620 Carbonation products segment the big pores to smaller ones
[45] Lin et al. 1996 Concrete 900 Rehydration products refilled the void space
[34] Poon et al. 2001 Concrete 600, 800 Rehydration products filled the internal thermal-induced
cracks, honeycombs, and capillaries
[42] Shui et al. 2008 Mortar 500 Rehydrated type I C-S-H and ettringite rebuild the internal
network structure
[65] Henry et al. 2008 Mortar 550 The hydration of unhydrated cement also contributes to the
recovery
[51] Mendes et al. 2009 Paste 800 The volume expansion due to the rehydration of CaO to CH
widened the cracks and caused further damages.
[55] Chromá et al. 2011 Mortar 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and 1200 The rehydrated CH can further carbonate to CaCO3; CAH and
CASH were formed after re-curing if the concrete was
exposed to 1200 °C
[66] Karahan 2011 Mortar 400, 600, 800, and 1000 The rehydration products healed the cracks
[35] Henry et al. 2011 Mortar 550 The rehydration helped to heal the cracks; the reformed
crystalline structure was like that before the fire exposure
[67] Henry et al. 2013 Paste & Concrete 600 In concrete, the space of thermal-induced cracks was reduced
by the rehydrated products, but in the paste, it was widened
due to the expansion of the rehydrated CH
[68] Henry et al. 2014 Concrete 600 Rehydrated products recovered the microstructure by
reducing the size and connectivity of the fire-induced pores
and cracks
[69] Wang et al. 2015 Paste 200, 400, 600, and 800 The rehydration of CH (from CaO to Ca(OH)2) was
accompanied by a 97% volume expansion and it led to
strength lose by causing cracks
[70] Pei et al. 2017 Paste and Mortar 200, 400, 500, 600, and 700 The rehydration products (CH and C-S-H) occupied the cracks
and capillary pores

2.2.2. Recovery and rehydration

The dehydrated phases can get hydrated in the post-fire curing
process with sufficient water [43,63,64]. CaO can rehydrate to CH
[33,54], and the dehydrated CnS can rehydrate to C-S-H
[41,43,63]. It is believed that the recovery of post-fire curing
results from these rehydration products. These rehydration prod-
ucts can fill the thermal-induced cracks and heal the damages. It
is worth noting that the rehydration is based on the cement matrix,
it only occurs where the cement matrix exists. Which means that
only the cracks in the cement matrix and in the matrix-aggregate
interfaces can be healed, as shown in Fig. 2.
Table 2 summarized the recovery of the mechanism of post-
fire-curing reported by studies since first disclosed by Crook and
Murray [33] in 1970. When discovered, Crook and Murray believed
that the carbonation products segmented the big pores to smaller
ones which helped to regain the strength. Lin et al. [45] reported
Fig. 3. XRD spectrogram of HCP, DCP of 800 °C, and the rehydrated DCP. This that the rehydration of calcium oxide could refill the void space
spectrogram is reprinted from Ref. [43] with permission from Fire and Materials. in thermal-damaged concrete and benefit the recovery. Later, some
studies [34,42,43] reported that the C-S-H was also rehydrated in
the C-S-H transformed completely into the nesosilicate form with a the post-fire curing.
C2S stoichiometry close to larnite, which was represented as New The XRD and SEM analysis indicate that the chemical composi-
Q0. The transformation of calcium silicate reported by Alonso and tion of the rehydration products is similar to HCP, mainly C-S-H, Ca
Fernandez [41] is summarized in Fig. 1. (OH)2 and ettringite [41,43,69]. For those dehydrated from 800 °C,
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 5

Fig. 4. SEM images of HCP and rehydrated DCP at early ages: (a) HCP at 3 days; (b) HCP at 7 days; (c) 3-day rehydrated DCP of 600 °C; and (d) 7-day rehydrated DCP of 600 °C.
This figure is reprinted from Ref. [63] with permission from Construction and Building Materials.

its XRD spectrogram matches well with the hydrated cement paste X-ray diffraction [43,69,71]. With the 29Si MAS-NMR (magic angle
[43], as shown in Fig. 3. The 29Si MAS NMR analyze also indicated spinning nuclear magnetic resonance) analysis, Alonso and Fernan-
that the polymerization degree of C-S-H in rehydrated DCP from dez [41] reported that after dehydrated at 750 °C and rehydration,
750 °C is close to the HCP [41]. the content of anhydrous cement was practically unaltered. How-
Although the chemical composition of the rehydration products ever, in some reported studies [65], it was pointed out that these
is similar to the HCP, the mechanical properties of the fire- unhydrated cement grains can get further hydrated during post-
damaged concrete can hardly recover to the unheated level. Firstly, fire curing, and it can also benefit the recovery of the
the structure formed by these rehydration products were not as fire-damaged concrete. Shui et al [63] used ground 30-day HCP
tight as the HCP. As shown in Fig. 4, after 7-day hydration/rehydra- to fabricate paste samples, in which no dehydrate phases exist,
tion, the microstructure of the rehydrated DCP is poriferous while but these samples gained about 5 MPa compressive strength after
that of the HCP is very compact. Secondly, the thermal-induced curing for 28 days. Xuan and Shui [43] reported the same result,
cracks in the fire-damaged concrete cannot be completely healed and they believed that this implies that the initially unhydrated
by the rehydration products. Especially for the paste-aggregate cement may progressively hydrate and help the structural strength
interfacial cracks, which is critical to the strength of concrete, the formation. It is still not clear that if this unhydrated cement would
rehydration products can only grow from one side of the cracks, get further hydrated in the post-fire curing. If so, more convincing
as shown in Fig. 2. After 28-day post-fire-curing in water, the total evidence is needed to explain how the hydration behavior of unhy-
volume of pores can be decreased to the pre-fire level, but the vol- drated cement grains and its contribution to the recovery. On the
ume of the connected pores is significantly larger than the contrary, if the unhydrated cement would not get further hydrated,
unheated specimens [68]. Li et al. [36] reported that after 30-day reasonable reasons should be given to explain the strength gaining
post-fire-curing, the thermal-induced cracks, even decreased lar- of the samples made from the ground HCP.
gely in total length, were still visible inside the concrete.
And the rehydration behavior of the dehydrated cement was 2.3. Property testing and analyzing methods
different from that of the original cement. The hydration speed of
the dehydrated cement was faster, and the dehydrated cement To evaluate the recovery by post-fire-curing, some properties
required much more water to reach the same consistency as the are needed to be tested and analyzed. The testing and analysis of
original cement [43,54,63]. The b-C2S, which is the main dehy- mechanical properties, durability, physical and chemical proper-
drated product of C-S-H, is less reactive than C3S, but the dehy- ties have been reported. For a certain property, there may be sev-
drated products present a quicker setting because of the eral methods to test it, as summarized in Table 3.
presence of CaO [63]. As a kind of building material, the strength, resistance to defor-
In the cement-based composites, the hydration of cement mation and durability are important properties directly related to
usually lasts for decades. In the 28-day-hydrated cement paste, the performance of structures. Compressive strength is the most
the unhydrated phases, such as C2S, were usually recognized with basic mechanical property of concrete, and it is most commonly
6 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

Table 3 reinforcing steel and the steel help improve the carrying capacity
Property testing and analyzing methods used in the studies of post-fire curing. of concrete. For reinforced concrete, the impermeability, resistance
Testing Methods used Type of Refs. to chloride-ion penetration and resistance to carbonation are very
properties materials important properties directly related to the durability of concrete
Mechanical Compressive Concrete [33,34,36,44,46,60,73– and the durability of reinforcing steel. So, the recovery in durability
properties strength 87] was also studied in some studies. As reviewed in Section 2.2, the
Mortar [35,42,55,65,66,88,89] recovery in mechanical properties and durability with post-fire-
Paste [44,69,86]
Split tensile Concrete [75–77,87,90,91]
curing is based on the rehydration, the products of which can heal
strength the thermal-induced cracks and pores. Therefore, pores and cracks,
Bending strength Mortar [55,89] micromorphology and chemical composition were also analyzed to
Elastic modulus Concrete [75–77,82,83] reveal the mechanism of the recovery.
Durability Permeability test Concrete [75] The pore and crack characteristics are widely tested in the
Mortar [35,70] reported studies. Because of the dehydration of hydrated cement
Paste [92]
and the differences of thermal stains between cement paste and
Chloride-ions Concrete [34]
penetration aggregates, porosity and pore size in heated cement-based materi-
Carbonation test Concrete [46] als are higher than those in the unheated ones [2]. As reviewed in
Pores and cracks Mercury intrusion Concrete [33] Section 2.2, the recovery after post-fire-curing is the result of the
porosimetry Mortar [34,35,55,65,81,88] healing of thermal-induced pores and cracks. For concrete, the pore
Paste [69,85,86,92] structure is essential to its engineering properties such as strength
Water absorption Mortar [89] and permeability [93,94]. So, more in-depth review and analysis
Paste [92]
Epoxy injection Mortar [35,65,88]
were given on measuring of pores and cracks.
X-ray CT (lCT) Concrete [67,68] The simplest method to measure porosity is water absorption.
Paste [70,71] By measuring the dry weight and saturated-surface-dried weight,
Optical Mortar [89] it is very easy to calculate the cavity volume of a specimen with
microscope
the assumption that the free water just fills up the cavities
Image analysis Concrete [36]
[89,92]. However, with this method, only the total volume of pores
Micromorphology SEM observation Concrete [45,74,82,83]
and cracks can be measured, and it is not able to acquire the pore
Mortar [34,42,65,66,81,88]
Paste [69] size distribution. Moreover, because the dehydrated phases can
Optical Mortar [89] rehydrate with water, water absorption is not suitable to measure
microscope the porosity of heated cement-based materials.
Chemical XRD Mortar [35,42,55,82,83] The mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) is the most widely
composition Paste [69–71,74,86] used method to determine the pore characteristics. Pores between
TGA Concrete [33,82,83] about 1000 lm and 2 nm can be investigated, and it takes as short
Mortar [35,42]
as half an hour to complete one analysis [95,96]. Since mercury
Paste [69–71]
NMR Paste [41] does not wet the cementitious solids spontaneously, it does not
intrude in empty pores unless pressure is applied [97]. And the
smaller the pores, the higher pressure is needed. So, it can not only
acquire the total volume of pores, but also the size distribution of
these pores. The largest pore that can be detected is determined by
the head pressure, which was affected by the height of the samples,
and the smallest pore can be detected is dominated by the maxi-
mum pressure applied. Because of the principle of MIP, there are
some shortages in its applications [95–98]: 1) the pore size
detected is not real size, but the largest entrance to the pores
because of the ink-bottle effect, as shown in Fig. 5; 2) pores with-
out access to the surface of the sample are undetectable since there
is no path for the instruction of mercury; 3) pore structure may be
changed by the high pressure.
However, MIP is still a useful porosimetry analysis method of
cement-based materials since it reflects the pore situation and
the results are comparable. From Table 3, it is easy to find out that
most of the tests adopted mortar and paste as the testing samples
for the MIP analysis.
Fig. 5. Illustration of ink-bottle effect (modified from Ref. [96]). Recently, there are also some reports [67,68,70,99,100] about
determining the pores and cracks by X-ray computed tomography
(CT), which is very accurate for defects detection. The smallest
tested since concrete is always applied to carry the compressive pores detected with CT depends on the facility and resolution of
load. The tensile strength can be tested either by split tensile test the images. To analyze the pores in cement-based materials,
or bending test. The tensile strength is not tested as common as micro-computed tomography (lCT) was always used because it
the compressive strength, but it can be used to evaluate the can detect smaller pores than the general CT. In some reports
strength of the mortar-aggregate interface [72], which is critical [68,101], pores larger than 50 lm were detected. Cnudde et al.
to the strength of concrete. The deformation of a concrete struc- [102] even reported that pores as small as 10 lm can be detected.
tural component under certain load is determined by the elastic With the help of image analysis, it can not only obtain the size dis-
modulus of concrete, so the recovery of elastic modulus was also tribution, but also the 3-D information, such as morphology and
studied in a few articles. Generally, concrete is used as reinforced connectivity of the pores. Compared to MIP, the advantage of the
concrete, in which the concrete provides protection to the lCT is obvious: 1) it can get 3-D information of the pores and
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 7

Table 4
Comparison of MIP and lCT for pore analysis.

Methods Advantages Disadvantages Pore size range Applicability

MIP 1) Most widely used and plenty of 1) not able to acquire real pore 2 nm~500 lm Porosity and size distribution of pores
reference data size distribution between 2 nm and 500 lm in mortar and
2) As short as 30 min to complete an 2) not able to detect isolate pores paste
analysis 3) pore structure may be
changed by the pressure
CT 1) Able to get the 3-D information of the 1) The facility is very expensive >50 lm The situation of pores and cracks larger
pores and cracks 2) Following image processing is than 50 lm, including porosity, pore size
2) both isolate and connected pores can be needed distribution, connectivity, and 3-D
detected 3) pores smaller than 50 lm reconstruction
3) Porosity, size distribution, connectivity cannot be detected
of pores can be acquired

cracks; 2) it can get the real size and shape of the pores and cracks;
3) isolate pores can also be detected. 4) It can detect large pores on
the scale of millimeters.
Considering the advantages and disadvantages of MIP and lCT,
as summarized in Table 4, it is suggested to use these two methods
as complementary tools for pore analysis. The MIP can get very
accurate results for the pores as small as 10 nm, while the lCT
can detect pores larger than 10 or 50 lm, so it was recommended
to combine these two methods to acquire the situation of pores
from nanometer level to millimeter level in cement-based materi-
als [101–103]. The pores and cracks in the thermal-damaged con-
crete vary from several nanometers to almost 1 mm, so the
combination of these two methods shows extra advantage and
necessity in analyzing the thermal-induced pore and cracks in con-
crete exposed to elevated temperatures.
Henry et al. [35,65,88] reported an epoxy-injection method to
determine the crack patterns, and this method could be used to
evaluate the healing of the cracks. This method is always coupled
with image analysis, so the crack that it can detect depends on
the resolution of the images and the size of the epoxy. According
to Henry et al. [35,65,88], the epoxy can fill the cracks larger than
6 lm. Other methods such as the optical microscope and image
analysis had also been reported in analyzing the feature of cracks
[36,89].
There are some other methods to measure the pore features of
materials, while the appliance of which in studying fire-damaged
concrete after post-fire-curing has not been reported yet. One is
gas adsorption, and another one is nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR). Gas adsorption is based on the phenomena that gas mole-
cules can be adhesive to solid surfaces. The use of nitrogen adsorp-
tion to determine the porosity and pore size distribution has been
widely reported [104–107]. The fast exchange model of relaxation
makes it possible to use NMR to determine the pore size distribu-
tion of materials [108,109]. The use of NMR to determine the pore
features of porous materials, such as rocks, coals and concrete has
been widely reported [110–113]. In future studies, nitrogen
adsorption and 1H NMR can be used to determine the porosity
and pore size distribution of the fire-damaged concrete after
post-fire-curing.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation is widely
adopted for the micromorphology analysis for the post-fire-cured
samples. It can be used not only to observe the healing of cracks
[34], but also as an assistant analysis of the rehydration products
[36,69]. With the attached energy dispersive X-ray detector
(EDX), it can also determine the content of each chemical element Fig. 6. Compressive strength recovery of OPC concrete after post-fire curing: (a)
such as Si, Ca and Al [74]. relative compressive strength after recovery, which is calculated by dividing the
X-ray diffraction (XRD) is the most general method to compressive strength of post-fire-cured specimens with that of the unheated; and
(b) recovery in percentage points, which is the difference of relative compressive
determine the chemical composition of the specimens. The major
strength before and after the post-fire-curing. (Data from Refs. [33–
difference between XRD and EDX is that XRD can give the content 35,44,46,55,66,75,78,79]).
8 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

of each crystalline phase rather than just the element. Another dif-
ference is that EDX analysis can be conducted directly under the
SEM vision while the XRD needs the samples grounded into pow-
der and tableted. The XRD analysis was always applied to mortar
and paste rather than concrete because the minerals in the aggre-
gate can interfere with the results. Thermogravimetric analysis
(TGA) was also applied in determining the chemical composition.
With TGA, the chemical compositions cannot be acquired directly,
but the dehydration of the hydrated products at different temper-
atures can be deduced by analyzing the weight changes along with
the temperatures. The 29Si MAS NMR was used to determine the
polymerization degree of C-S-H, and the transformation of calcium
silicate during high temperature was discovered with it. The 1H
NMR was also reported being used to decide the morphology prop-
erties such as densification, composition and desorption isotherm
of C-S-H in cement paste [114–116]. It is recommended to apply
these technologies and methods to the study of post-fire-curing,
especially the rehydration behavior and the rehydration products.
The more specific study on the densification and composition
study on the rehydration products can lead to further and clearer
understand of the recovery.

3. Recovery of properties

In this section, the recovery of the properties, including

mechanical properties and durability were reviewed. The recovery
of these two properties is the result of the recovery of pores and
chemical composition.

3.1. Mechanical properties

3.1.1. Compressive strength

The recovery of the compressive strength of fire-damaged con-
crete after the exposure to different temperatures is shown in
Fig. 6. The range of the exposed temperature involved by most of
the references is from 300 to 800 °C. Therefore, the following dis-
cussion about the recovery of compressive strength is limited in
this range of temperature. The blending of pozzolanic materials
such as fly ash and slag will significantly affect the recovery of
post-fire-curing, which will be reviewed and discussed in Sec-
tion 4.2, so, only the recovery of the ordinary Portland cement-
based concrete without blending materials was reviewed in this
section.
In Fig. 6(a), the recovery of compressive strength is shown as
relative strength comparing to the unheated concrete, which is cal-
Fig. 7. Recovery of the tensile strength of concrete after water re-curing: (a)
culated by dividing the residual compressive strength of high- Relative tensile strength after recovery, which is calculated by dividing the tensile
temperature exposed specimens with that of the unheated. It can strength of post-fire-cured specimens with that of the unheated; and (b) recovery in
be concluded that the recovered strength decreases with the percentage points, which is the difference of relative tensile strength before and
increasing exposed temperatures, and the water post-fire-curing after the post-fire-curing. (Data adapted from [55,77,89,91].)

always resulted in better recovery, the recovered compressive

strength was higher. Below 300 °C, the recovered compressive
strength even exceeds the initial strength. From 400 to 500 °C,
the recovery varies with the recuring methods. The recovery with that the recovered pp of the strength increases with the exposed
water re-curing was reported to exceed the initial strength, and for temperatures with water post-fire-curing [78].
water–air re-curing, it can recover to at least about 80% of the ini- Except for the post-fire-curing methods, the recovery is affected
tial strength. Above 600 °C, the strength recovery became more by many factors such as heating and cooling regimes, blending
dispersive, and the better recovery of water re-curing became materials, age of concrete, etc. So, the data in Fig. 6 looks disper-
more obvious. sive. Even though, the better recovery with water post-fire-
To minimize the effect of the residual strength, the relative curing is still obvious compared to water–air post-fire-curing. As
recovered strength was shown in terms of percentage points (pp) reviewed in Section 2.2, the recovery was the result of rehydration,
in Fig. 6(b), which is the difference between the relative strength which is dominated by water supply. With water post-fire-curing,
before and after post-fire-curing. In terms of the recovered per- water was continuously supplied and more water was absorbed by
centage points, the better recovery of water post-fire-curing is concrete for rehydration [35]. It is widely known that the water
more obvious, and the recovery does not decrease with the increas- transfer in concrete in terms of diffusion, which is largely affected
ing temperature. The data from the same reference even indicates by the ambient relative humidity and temperature [117].
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 9

post-fire-curing without the needs of special repairments if the

temperature could be kept below 600 °C.
However, from Fig. 6(a), it is obvious that even with the same
post-fire-curing method, the strength after recovery varies dozens
of pp from different references. It is difficult to estimate the
strength recovery before the application of post-fire-curing. Lin
et al. [78] reported a residual strength-UPV (ultrasonic pulse veloc-
ity) relationship to estimate the residual strength ratio of post-fire-
cured concrete. But the relationship between strength and UPV is
not able to estimate the recovery before the post-fire-curing was
conducted. The estimation of the recovery potential should be
based on the damage and the rehydration capacity. The damage
can be reflected by the porosity, and the rehydration capacity is
dominated by the dehydrated products and the post-fire-curing
condition. The dehydrated products depend on the temperature
history during the high-temperature exposure. Li et al. [36] pro-
posed a heat accumulative factor to estimate the potency of
strength recovery after post-fire-curing, but they just reported that
the heat accumulation factor was positively related to the recov-
ery, the relationship was not quantitative. So, it is suggested to
carry out studies focusing on the estimation of strength recovery
potential after the post-fire-curing.

3.1.2. Tensile strength

Although several references have involved in the tensile
strength, as shown in Table 3, the usable data can just be obtained
in a few of them, as shown in Fig. 7. The tensile strength can be
partly recovered after post-fire-curing, but the relative recovered
tensile strength decreases with the increasing temperature, as
shown in Fig. 7(a). However, in terms of the recovered percentage
point, the recovery seems to increase with the exposed tempera-
ture, as shown in Fig. 7(b). With the increase in temperature, the
data from different references become more dispersive. The recov-
ery of tensile strength is quite different from the compressive
strength. As shown in Fig. 6(a) and Fig. 7(a), the recovered com-
pressive strength shows very limited decrease below 400 °C, while
the tensile strength decreased all along with the increasing tem-
perature. It has been reported that the tensile strength was more
sensitive to the cracks because of the crack behavior during load-
ing. In the tensile strength test, the cracks decrease the load-
carrying area and trend to propagate and coalesce, while some
crack trend to close up under the compressive load during the
compression test [118,119].

3.1.3. Elastic modulus

Fig. 8. Recovery of the elastic modulus of fire-damaged concrete after re-curing: (a) The reports about the recovery of elastic modulus after post-
Relative elastic modulus after recovery, which is calculated by dividing the elastic
fire-curing is also limited, but it can be concluded from the limited
modulus of post-fire-cured specimens with that of the unheated; and (b) Recovered
percentage points, which is the difference of relative elastic modulus before and data that the elastic modulus of the fire-damaged concrete can be
after the post-fire-curing. (Data adapted from [75–77].) significantly recovered after post-fire-curing if the exposed tem-
perature was below 600 °C, as shown in Fig. 8. Same as the tensile
strength, the recovered elastic modulus decreased all along with
Therefore, it is understandable that water post-fire-curing always the increasing temperature, but the decrease became sharper over
resulted in better recovery. 600 °C. In terms of the recovered percentage points, it did not show
The effect of exposed temperature is relatively complicated an obvious increase with the increasing temperature as the tensile
because its effects on damage and the rehydration were contradic- strength. After exposed to high temperatures, the disintegration of
tory. Higher exposed temperature resulted in more dehydrated hydrated products and the breakage of bonds in the microstructure
products for rehydration, but also more difficult to be recovered of cement paste reduced the elastic modulus [120]. The porosity is
by rehydration because of severer damage to the concrete. So, the major factor affects the elastic modulus of concrete [121], so
there should be a temperature at which the damage and the rehy- the thermal-induced cracks and pores are also related to the loss
dration could reach a balance and the best recovery could be of elastic modulus. The futures studies should be focused on the
gained. Lin et al. [78] reported that with water post-fire-curing, relationship between the elastic modulus recovery and the recov-
the strength after recovery showed a small change between 400 ery of the porosity.
and 500 °C but decrease sharply at 600 °C. Poon et al. [34] reported The exposed temperature and post-fire-curing methods are the
that compared to 800 °C, concrete exposed to 600 °C received two major factors that influence the recovery of mechanical
better recovery after post-fire-curing and they recommended properties after post-fire-curing. Compared to water–air
that the concrete can recover its original strength with proper post-fire-curing, water post-fire curing results in better recovery.
10 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

The recovery of the mechanical properties is largely related to the

recovery of the pore structure, which will be reviewed in Sec-
tion 3.3 in this paper. In the concrete components, the concrete
always works with reinforcement.
After the exposure to high temperature, the bond strength
between concrete and steel reinforcement decreased significantly
[122]. However, there are few studies involved in the bond
strength between concrete and reinforcement. The loss of elastic
modulus of concrete also influences its cooperation with the steel
reinforcement. The cooperating behavior of concrete and steel
reinforcement should be considered in future studies to practice
post-fire-curing in repairing the fire-damaged reinforced concrete
structures.

3.2. Durability

The durability of concrete is the ability to last a long time with-

out significant deterioration in its service environment. It covered a
large scale of ability including resistance to chloride-ion penetra-
tion, resistance to carbonation, freezing and thawing cycle, resis-
tance to sulfate attack, etc. Among these properties, only
chloride-ion penetration and carbonation were reported in the
study of post-fire curing, as summarized in Table 3.
Impermeability can be defined as the ability of concrete to resist
the fluid pass through it with a pressure differential, while perme-
ability is an opposite definition of impermeability. As summarized
in Table 3, the permeability or impermeability of the concrete is
always tested to evaluate the durability recovery of concrete after
post-fire-curing, and gas and water are both used for the perme-
ability test. The permeability of concrete is dominated by the
linked capillary pores in the range of several hundred nanometers
to dozens of micrometers in diameter [123,124]. Due to the
thermal-induced pores, the permeability of fire-damaged concrete
increases significantly after exposure to 400 °C and increases fast
with the increasing temperature [70]. The gas permeability of con-
crete exposed to 700 °C is more than four hundred times of that
dried at 105 °C, but the recovery after post-fire-curing is also very
profound. The gas permeability of concrete post-fire-cured
from 700 °C was just about 2.7% of that without post-fire-curing,
but still about ten times of that dried at 105 °C, as shown in
Fig. 9(a).
The resistance of chloride ingress is extremely important for
concrete when cooperating with steel reinforcement because the
chloride ions can cause corrosion of steels. The means by which
chloride ions penetrate concrete include capillary absorption,
hydrostatic pressure, and diffusion, and the most familiar way is
diffusion [125]. The diffusion of chloride ions in concrete was
affected by the pore structure of concrete and water content in
the pore [126]. The chloride penetration test is usually used for
testing the resistance to chloride ingress. As shown in Fig. 9(b),
the resistance to chloride-ion penetration decreased sharply after
exposed to 600 and 800 °C because of the thermal-induced cracks
and pores, but it can be significantly recovered after post-fire-
curing [34]. The results reported by Poon et al. [34] indicated that
although it can hardly recover to the pre-fire level, the chloride-ion
penetrability of concrete after post-fire-curing from 600 °C is ‘‘low”
for high strength concrete blended with 30% fly ash or ground
granulated blast furnace slag, according to the criterion of ASTM
C1202-19 [127]. It still meets the durability requirement of the
Fig. 9. Recovery of the durability of fire-damaged concrete after water re-cured: (a)
American Concrete Institute Code (ACI 318-14) [128] in most situ-
Gas permeability; (b) chloride-ion penetration; and (c) carbonation resistance. ations except the offshore structures which require very low per-
(data adapted from (a) Ref. [70]; (b) Ref. [34]; and (c) Ref. [46].) meability if proper post-fire curing was applied.
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 11

The re-cured concrete always saturated with water, while that

without re-curing was dried because of the high-temperature
exposure. So, it is necessary to dry the re-cured concrete before
the carbonation test to get comparable results.
The durability properties of concrete are internally related
[131]. Theoretically, the chloride ions and CO2 penetrate concrete
mainly by means of diffusion, which is directly related to the pore
and crack structures in concrete and the ambient condition. In fire-
damaged concrete, the durability deteriorates because of the
thermal-induced pores and cracks. After pot-fire-curing, these
thermal-induced cracks and pores can be substantially recovered,
as reviewed in Section 3.3, so the impermeability and resistance
to chloride-ion penetration were significantly recovered after
post-fire-curing.

3.3. Pores and cracks

As reviewed above, the pore structure is the major factor that

determines the mechanical properties and durability of concrete,
so the pore structure is widely analyzed in the studies of post-
fire-curing, as summarized in Table 3. After post-fire-curing, the
pore structure was recovered by means of the decrease in porosity
and the pore size, as shown in Fig. 10. When first discovered the
phenomenon of recovery with post-fire-curing, Crook and Murray
[33] found that after post-fire-curing, the total porosity was
decreased, moreover, the proportion of small pores was increased
and that of big pores decreased because the rehydration products
segment the big pores into small and isolated ones. The following
studies [34,55] also reported the decrease of total porosity and
average pore size after post-fire-curing. Henry et al. [68] reported
the pore structure of post-fire-cured concrete measured with lCT
after exposed to 600 °C. With lCT, both isolate and connected
pores larger than 50 lm can be detected. According to their study,
after 28-day water post-fire-cured, porosity of concrete can be
recovered to the unheated level, but the connectivity of the pores
was increased.
As shown in Fig. 10, the porosity and the average pore size can
be substantially recovered after post-fire-curing, and the mechan-
ical properties and durability of concrete were consequently recov-
Fig. 10. Recovery of pore structure of concrete after post-fire-curing determined by ered. For concrete exposed at the temperature below 600 °C, the
MIP: (a) recovery of porosity; and (b) recovery of average pore size (data from Refs. water post-fire-curing method can recovery the porosity and aver-
[34,35,55,81]). age pore size to the unheated level, but the mechanical properties
and durability were not completely recovered. After reviewing the
reported studies, we believe that the following reasons can be
Carbonation is another threat to concrete for long time service- given to the incomplete recovery of mechanical properties and
ability. It can change the alkaline environment of concrete because durability: 1) the damage to the aggregate was not able to recover
CO2 can react with Ca(OH)2 and form CaCO3. As a result, the corro- by post-fire-curing. 2) The methods used to determine the pore
sion of the reinforcement will start because the protection of the structure only give the information of pore size, not the informa-
passive layer is dissolved. The carbonation of concrete is controlled tion of the pore location. From Fig. 2, it can be derived that the
by the ingress of CO2, which is a diffusion process. The resistance to recovery of the cracks in the paste was better than those in the
carbonation also decreased after the high-temperature exposure interfaces. So, after the recovery, the pores and cracks may largely
because of the thermal-induced pores and cracks, but unlike other locate at the paste-aggregate interfaces. This means that the inter-
properties, the carbonation resistance is not able to be recovered facial strength of post-fire-cured concrete was weaker than that of
by post-fire-curing [46], as shown in Fig. 9(c). At the temperature the unheated ones, so the strength of post-fire-cured concrete was
above 450 °C, the carbonation resistance even reduced after 90- lower. 3) MIP, the most common method to determine the pore
day post-fire-curing. It is worth noting that the carbonation depth structure is, as reviewed in Section 2.3, is not able to detect the
at 750 °C before and after the post-fire-curing is the same because pores larger than 500 lm. The reported studies usually detect
50 mm is the edge length of the specimen, which means that the pores no larger than 100 lm with MIP [34,35,55,81]. But the pores
carbonation had penetrated the specimens. A given reason was and cracks larger than 100 lm were observed in the post-fire-
that the rehydration of Ca(OH)2 caused damage to the concrete cured concrete [68], and macroscopic cracks also exist [36]. These
pore structures [46]. This explanation is not convincible enough pores and cracks in the macroscopic scale are detrimental to the
because some other studies indicated that the pore structure was strength and durability of concrete.
recovered after post-fire curing [35,65]. Previous studies In the future studies on the pore structures of post-fire-curing
[129,130] have reported that the pore structures and the moisture of fire-damaged concrete, it is recommended to combine MIP with
in the pores were two major factors determine the ingress of CO2. lCT to obtain the pore information in multi scales. Besides, it will
12 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

Fig. 11. Chemical changes of the hardened cement paste at high temperatures and after post-fire-curing.

Table 5
Summary of the studies on the effect of the presence of aggregate on the recovery of
influence on the residual strength of the fire-damaged concrete
fire-damaged concrete after post-fire-curing.
[2,54], the dehydration of CH and C-S-H was directly related to
Type of Recovery Ref. the recovery by post-fire-curing. The chemical changes of the
composites
HCP during the high-temperature exposure and after post-fire-
Concrete Positive [33,34,36,44–46,55,66–68,70,73,75– curing are summarized in Fig. 11. The change of the main hydra-
80,84,85,90,91] tion products can be concluded as follow:
Negative –
Mortar Positive [35,42,65,88,89,134]
The ettringite decomposes at 60–150 °C [49], and it will get
Negative –
rehydrated in the post-fire-curing process.
Paste Positive [92]
The unhydrated cement can get hydrated below 400 °C with the
Negative [44,51,67,69,71]
internal autoclaving condition caused by the evaporation of
water [2,10,41]; the C-S-H, both the old and new hydrated,
losses its bond water and crystal structure at 100–300 °C, at this
be interesting to analyze the change of pore distributed locations
stage, the degree of polymerization of the C-S-H decreased
after post-fire-curing.
[41,43,49,132]; at 450–800 °C, the C-S-H dehydrates to CnS
[41,133]. And the dehydrated products can rehydrate to C-S-H
4. Factors influencing the recovery with the presence of water during post-fire-curing [41,69,71].

CH starts to dehydrate to CaO slightly at 300 °C, and the dehy-
4.1. Exposed temperatures dration proceeds rapidly at 400–500 °C [2,12,41,62,132]; at
650–1000 °C, the CaCO3 decomposes to CaO and CO2
As reviewed in Section 2.2, the recovery after post-fire-curing is [2,8,70,132,133]. The CaO may participate in the rehydration
based on the rehydration of dehydrated products, and possibly, the of the C-S-H, but it mainly hydrate to CH during post-fire-
further hydration of the unhydrated cement grains. Although it curing, and further carbonate to CaCO3 with the presence of
was reported that the dehydration of CH and C-S-H had limited CO2 [33,41,69,71].

Table 6
Summary of the effects of blending materials on the recovery of fire-damaged concrete after post-fire-curing.

Refs. Blending material Type of Exposed Effects

specimens temperatures
(°C)
[60] Pozzolana and fly ash Concrete 200, 400, 600 The rehydration rate was slower than the conventional concrete
and 800
[44] Silica fume, slag, and fly Paste and 300 and 500 Blending materials can stop the paste from disintegrating in post-fire-curing, and the concrete with
ash concrete fly ash has the best recovery after 180-day post-fire-curing
[34] Fly ash, silica fume, slag Concrete 600 and 800 In terms of compressive strength, the fly ash and slag were positive for the recovery while the silica
and metakaolin fume and metakaolin are negative. Fly ash can help the rehydration of C-S-H
[42] Fly ash Mortar 200, 500 and Fly ash can reduce the content of CH and help the form of C-S-H in the rehydration process by the
800 pozzolanic reaction
[54] Slag, fly ash and Paste 200 to 1200 at The paste grounded limestone shows better recovery while the slag and fly ash has no positive
grounded limestone every 200 °C effects
[79] Slag Concrete 400, 500, 600, The rehydrated CH can react with slag, and the products are finer
700
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 13

Generally, higher exposure temperature results in more rehy- than the ordinary concrete after post-fire-curing from 600 and
dration products, faster rehydration speed and denser microstruc- 800 °C. It was believed that fly ash can help the rehydration of C-
ture [42,43]. However, it not simply means better recovery. Firstly, S-H. As shown in Fig. 10, concrete blended with 30% fly ash also
at the temperature higher than 800 °C, the transformation of the recovered better in porosity and average pore size with the same
dehydrated products may take place, which was not beneficial or exposure and post-fire-curing condition.
even harmful to the recovery [43,54]. Secondly, the rehydration It was generally believed that most of these pozzolanic materi-
of CH is accompanied by volume expansion, which may cause als are beneficial to the recovery because it can consume the CH
cracks and further damages to the concrete [69]. Taking the recov- and help rehydration of C-S-H. The rehydration of CH is accompa-
ered properties into account, the best recovery can be expected at nied by volume expansion, which will cause further damage to the
600 °C, at which the damages are not as severe as 800 °C, and the concrete. So, the consumption of CH can effectively reduce the
degree of rehydration products are also considerable. damage caused by the rehydration of CH. Shui et al. [42] reported
a decrease of CH in the concrete blended with fly ash after post-
4.2. Mixture fire-curing and they believed that it proved that the fly ash had
helped the formation of the C-S-H from the pozzolanic reaction.
4.2.1. Presence of aggregate Although it was reported by Poon et al. [34] that the silica fume
According to the presence of the aggregate (coarse and fine), the was unbeneficial to the recovery of concrete, Sarshar and Khoury
cement-based materials can be classified as paste (cement only), [44] reported that silica fume, as well as slag and fly ash, could
mortar (cement and fine aggregate) and concrete (cement, fine reduce the content of rehydrated CH by reacting with it, conse-
aggregate and coarse aggregate). It is interesting that after post- quently, it prevented the cement paste from disintegrating. Yaragal
fire-curing, the cement paste exposed to the temperature over et al. [79] also reported that the slag could react with the rehy-
400 °C showed no recovery in properties while the concrete and drated CH to form finer particles, which can fill the capillaries
mortar did, as shown in Table 5. The presence of aggregate may and decrease the total porosity of the concrete.
introduce more damage to the cement matrix because of the
inconsistency of the thermal strain between the cement matrix 4.3. Post-fire-curing conditions
and the aggregates [1]. Over 150 °C, the cement matrix started to
shrink while the concrete kept expanding, then cracks can be The factors in the post-fire-curing conditions generally include
induced around the aggregates [40]. Therefore, it can be derived temperature, moisture content, and curing duration. The tempera-
that there are more thermal-induced cracks in concrete than in ture used in the post-fire-curing is usually room temperature, gen-
cement paste. The more thermal-induced cracks in the concrete erally between 20 and 25 °C. Therefore, in this section, only
result in severer damage, but also provide enough space for the moisture content and post-fire-curing duration are discussed.
generation of CH and ettringite in the post-fire-curing process
[67]. But this assumption has not been directly proved yet. There- 4.3.1. Moisture content
fore, it is suggested to carry out studies focused on the crack The moisture content is the main factor of post-fire-curing con-
behavior of cement paste and concrete during the high- ditions influencing the recovery because the water supplied by the
temperature exposure and post-fire-curing. environment is necessary for the rehydration reactions. Different
post-fire-curing methods result in different moisture content for
4.2.2. Blending materials rehydration. Generally, water post-fire-curing results in better
Some pozzolanic materials such as fly ash, silica fume, slag, and recovery in compressive strength than water–air post-fire-curing,
metakaolin have been blended in the concrete and their effects on as shown in Fig. 6. Park et al. [91] studied the recovery of the split
the recovery after post-fire-curing were also studied. As summa- tensile strength of concrete after post-fire-curing at different rela-
rized in Table 6, most of the pozzolanic materials are beneficial tive humidity (RH) and found that the recovery was much better
to the recovery. Poon et al. [34] reported that the concrete with with higher RH. The recovery of the split tensile strength of con-
30% fly ash can regain about 25 pp of compressive strength more crete post-fire-cured at RH of 100% (water post-fire-curing) was

Fig. 12. Recovery in the porosity of concrete post-fire-cured with different methods Fig. 13. Compressive strength recovery at different post-fire-curing ages (data from
(data from Ref. [34,35]). Ref. [34,35,46,80]).
14 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564

much better than those at lower RH. At RH lower than 60%, the Fig. 13, the results of Henry et al. [35] indicated that although with
strength of concrete may further decrease after post-fire-curing water post-fire-curing, the strength recovery of water-cooled spec-
[35,55,66,86,88]. As shown in Fig. 12, with the same high- imens was faster than the air-cooled specimens in the first 3 days,
temperature exposure condition, water post-fire-cured can result the 28-day post-fire-cured strength of the water-cooled was much
in better recovery in porosity. And the decrease of porosity was fas- lower than the air-cooled. The results from Mirmomeni et al. [80]
ter for the water post-fire-cured concrete than the air–water post- was different. The strength of water-cooled and air-cooled almost
fire-cured for in the earlier age of post-fire-curing. recover with the same rate at the first 7 days of post-fire-curing,
The less recovery or even further damage of concrete post-fire- but the strength recovered much faster for the air-cooled specimen
cured with lower RH can be ascribable to the rehydration of CH, during the 7th to 28th day of post-fire-curing. Although water
which was hydrated from CaO and accompanied by volume expan- cooling can introduce more water into the concrete for rehydra-
sion [51]. Akca and Özyurt [82,83] found out that in the water tion, the rehydration rate of water-cooled concrete may be faster
post-fire-cured concrete, the diffraction peak of CH was not as than the air-cooled one, it did not result in better recovery than
obvious as it in the air post-fire-cured concrete, and the diffraction or faster recovery than the air cooling. Compare to the air-cooled
peak of C-S-H was stronger than it in the air post-fire-cured con- specimen, the water-cooled specimens were more difficult to
crete. Which indicates that the CH was less in the water post- recovery since severer damage was caused by the thermal shock
fire-cured concrete. A possible explanation was given that the CH in the water-cooling process. Therefore, it is not able to figure
dissolved in curing water and its negative effect after rehydration out the clear relationship between the rehydration rate and the
was eliminated. But we believe that the rehydrated C-S-H in water strength recovery rate. More studies aimed at the direct relation-
post-fire-cured concrete also had positive effects on the recovery. ship between the rehydration and the strength recovery rate are
Scientifically, water post-fire-curing is recommended in the needed to be carried out, especially the relationship between the
post-fire-curing of fire-damaged concrete since it can get better growth of the rehydration products and the crack healing based
recovery, but practically, water post-fire-curing may not be opti- on the microscale observation and analysis, and the model reflects
mal since it is not easy to soak an entire structure component in the relationship between the crack healing and the strength
water. So, for the practical purpose, some practical post-fire- recovery.
curing methods need to be proposed and the recovery with these
methods also needs to study.
5. Conclusions and research needs
4.3.2. Post-fire-curing duration
The rehydration is a chemical process, so the degree of rehydra- In this paper, the recovery of post-fire-curing of fire-damaged
tion varies with the post-fire-curing duration. And the recovery concrete was introduced, the mechanism of the recovery was
speed differs with the post-fire-curing methods. As shown in reviewed as well as the recovery in properties such as mechanical
Fig. 13, with different post-fire-curing methods, the recovered properties, durability, pore and cracks, and chemical properties.
strength increases with the post-fire-curing ages, but the recovery Moreover, the effects of some factors, including the blending mate-
varies with the post-fire-curing methods. As reviewed above, the rials, the mixture of materials, and post-fire-curing conditions
recovery is based on the rehydration, which is dominated by the were discussed. Based on the review and discussion of the previous
moisture content in the concrete. After exposed at high tempera- studies, the main conclusions and research needs were drawn as
tures, the concrete was always completely dehydrated without follow:
any free or bond water. In the post-fire-curing process, the first The mechanical properties and pore structure of fire-damaged
step is the ingress of moisture by means of capillary absorption concrete can be recovered after post-fire-curing. The recovery is
and diffusion, which is largely affected by the moisture content based on the rehydration of the dehydrated products introduced
in the environment. Then, the rehydration process of dehydrated in high-temperature exposure. The rehydration products can fill
products takes place. The rehydration process was controlled by the cracks to repair the microstructure of the cement matrix.
both the moisture ingress and the rehydration speed of the dehy- Although the porosity can recover to the unheated level, the
drated products. Shui et al. [63] measured the rehydration degree microstructure of the rehydration products was not as dense and
of DCP in different ages, in their study plenty of water was supplied compact as the originals. So, the mechanical properties and the
for rehydration. They found out that for DCP made above 600 °C, durability cannot recover to the unheated level.
the rehydration degree was almost 70% after the first day and The chemical composition of the rehydrated cement is similar
increase gradually with the post-fire-curing ages. They also to the original hydrated cement, but the chemical composition of
reported that the compressive strength of rehydrated DCP devel- the dehydrated phase was different from the original cement clin-
oped very faster than the cement at the earlier ages [63,135]. Their ker. After the exposure below 1200 °C, the main dehydrate prod-
findings indicated that the rehydration of the dehydrated products ucts were CaO and b-C2S, while the C3S, which is the major
proceeds very fast with enough moisture supply. From Fig. 12, it is content of the cement, was rarely found in the dehydrated prod-
obvious that the porosity of water post-fire-curing concrete recov- ucts. Although b-C2S is less reactive than C3S, the rehydration
ered much faster than the air–water re-cured and the air post-fire- speed of the DCP is faster than the original cement because of
cured in the early age of post-fire-curing. It indicates that more the existence of CaO in DCP. The blending of pozzolanic materials
rehydration products were produced in the water post-fire-cured always resulted in a better recovery by consuming the Ca(OH)2
specimens, in which more water was absorbed by the concrete in produced in the rehydration process. It was generally believed that
the early days of post-fire-curing. So, it can be derived that the the unhydrated cement grains can get further hydrated in the post-
rehydration process is a moisture-ingress-controlled process. fire-curing, and it can also help the recovery. But the mechanism
But the relationship between the rehydration rate and the and the contribution of the unhydrated cement grains were still
strength recovery rate is not simple positive correlated. Faster not clear.
rehydration rate not usually resulted in faster strength recovery. Moisture supply is the key to rehydration and recovery. The
Tanaçan et al. [136] reported that if the concrete was water- mechanical properties and durability recovered with the post-
cooled after the high-temperature exposure, its water absorption fire-curing ages. The rehydration of dehydrated products in fire-
ratio was higher. This means the water ingress of water-cooled damaged concrete is a water-ingress-controlled process. So, water
specimens was faster than it of the air-cooled. As shown in post-fire-curing results in better recovery in both the mechanical
 L. Li et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117564 15

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