Feasibility of utilizing oven-drying test to estimate the durability performance of concrete

The increasing concern for reinforced concrete structure durability has been justifying in many ways in the last few decades. However, there is no perfect durability test method till now. In this research an alternative method, which is based on the cumulative moisture loss percent of the concrete specimens after oven-drying, was proposed to estimate the durability performance of the concrete. Two temperatures were considered for the oven-drying tests: $100^{\circ}C$ and $200^{\circ}C$. Test results showed that oven-drying at $200^{\circ}C$ was obviously an unsuitable procedure to preserve the fragile microstructure of cement-based materials. By contrast, experimental results through oven-drying at $100^{\circ}C$ allowed estimating the moisture loss percent of cement-based materials in a more rational manner. Moreover, the magnitudes of the cumulative moisture loss percent obtained from oven-drying tests at $100^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours have good correlations with the data of other well-known methods, namely, electrical resistance test, water permeability test, and mercury intrusion porosimetry test. This investigation established that regarding the oven-drying test as one of the tests for evaluating the potential durability of concrete is considerably practicable.