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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
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    <item>
      <title>Effect of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) and waste products on Critical Chloride Threshold, CT, of Concrete</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2694441</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcing steel is one of the most significant durability challenges facing concrete infrastructure, especially for bridges, pavements, and marine or deicing-salt exposed structures. A critical parameter controlling corrosion initiation is the critical chloride threshold (CT), yet existing test methods produce inconsistent values and do not fully reflect the behavior of modern concrete mixtures containing supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) or waste-derived additives. As transportation agencies adopt newer binder systems such as Type IL cement and increase the use of SCMs, the need for reliable, practical, and reproducible CT measurement techniques has become increasingly important for service-life design.
This project addresses these needs by evaluating how Class C fly ash, Class F fly ash, and metakaolin, each applied at two replacement levels with Type IL cement, affect the CT of reinforced concrete. The study employs the newly developed OCcrit test method, which measures CT directly on mortar specimens under controlled electrochemical conditions. OCcrit offers improved reproducibility and more realistic assessment of steel–concrete interactions compared to traditional embedded-bar or potentiometric techniques, making it a promising method for future durability evaluations.
In parallel, the project will investigate a second approach to CT measurement using cyclic polarization. While this method has previously been applied only to steel samples immersed in simulated concrete pore solutions, results have not aligned with OCcrit values which is believed to be due to the absence of true concrete environments. Leveraging a high capacity potentiostat, this research will apply cyclic polarization directly to mortar samples for the first time, enabling a meaningful comparison with OCcrit and helping determine whether the method can be adapted into a practical tool for corrosion threshold assessment.
Finally, the project will examine the role of waste-derived materials by assessing the influence of acid- and base-pretreated ground tire rubber (GTR) on CT. Previous studies showed that untreated GTR can affect corrosion initiation, but the mechanisms remain unclear. By evaluating chemically surface modified GTR using the OCcrit method, the project will clarify how surface treatments alter particle–matrix interactions, pore solution characteristics, and overall corrosion behavior. The combined findings will provide transportation agencies with more accurate data and improved testing methods for designing durable, long-lasting concrete infrastructure exposed to chloride environments.
The proposed research directly aligns with CHDT’s core mission to enhance the durability and service life of transportation infrastructure through innovative materials and techniques. CHDT emphasizes the development of sustainable, performance-driven construction materials, particularly the reuse of recycled and waste materials such as rubber and industrial by-products, to improve structural longevity and reduce maintenance costs. By evaluating how SCMs and treated GTR influence corrosion resistance and by advancing CT testing methods, this project extends CHDT’s ongoing portfolio of work on freeze-thaw durability, corrosion mitigation, and the beneficial use of waste materials in concrete pavements.

]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:35:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2694441</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Protection of Precious Waters from Road Salt: Mitigation Through Roadside Ditch Capture</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577115</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Roadway deicers are essential to the functioning of daily life in northern states in winter. After plowing, roadway salting is currently the most practical way of making safe transportation possible in winter. However, road deicer chloride (salt) has a severe negative effect on surrounding watersheds. Yet, currently no methods or procedures
have been developed to capture the chloride. The situation is particularly dire where highways cross small receiving streams that are the habitat of endangered and threatened species, such as the Topeka Shiner, because the high concentration of chloride in the highway runoff does not dilute sufficiently to prevent toxicity in the
hatching and juvenal rearing areas of the streams. This project developed in-ditch salt capture techniques based on mitigation of chloride migration through absorption and capture in a manufactured backfill media. Chloride mass in drainage water was observed and monitored at a range of concentrations before and after percolation through granular soil mixtures “manufactured” to capture chloride and deployed in flow-through sandbags.
Absorbance of chloride was quantified by manufactured soil sandbags in ditch-deployed configurations, allowing optimization of the deployed geometry. Field test installation approaches were designed and tested for chloride capture from actual winter maintenance operations.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jul 2025 11:30:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2577115</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Developing High-Performance Nanocomposite Coating for Steel Reinforcement Protection in Chloride-Rich Concrete</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1856472</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Anti-corrosion coating is one of the most widely used technologies to mitigate corrosion of steel reinforcement in chloride-contaminated concrete. The durability of epoxy-coated reinforcement commonly used is of great concern due to its failure record in high chloride environments and localized corrosion conditions. In this context, this project aims to design a long-lasting, high-performance rebar coating that increases the service life of the rebar in concrete by reducing corrosion at the interface between the rebar and the surrounding chloride-contaminated concrete. A two-layer coating will be applied on steel rebar, with an inhibitor-loaded epoxy nanocomposite coating as the primer and a minerals-loaded epoxy-polyurethane nanocomposite coating as the top coat. Electrochemical corrosion tests, surface analyses, and mechanical tests will be conducted to assess and elucidate the effect of different constituents on the protective performance of such novel epoxy-based nanocomposite coatings.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 05 Jun 2021 16:31:24 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1856472</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Effectiveness of Epoxy Chip Seals for SD Bridge Decks</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1844017</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Since the early 1990’s, the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) has been using epoxy chip seals on bridge decks to reduce the water and chloride infiltration that leads to rapid deck deterioration. To check the effectiveness of the epoxy chip seals, SDDOT conducted tests on core samples from two bridge decks, a bridge deck with an epoxy chip sealing overlay and a deck without an overlay. It was found that the core samples with the overlay had more chloride contamination than those without the overlay. This obviously casts doubt on effectiveness of the current epoxy chip seals in preventing water or chloride infiltration. Research on the effectiveness and performance of different types of epoxy chip seals for bridge decks is required to reduce maintenance costs, and improve structure life. The objectives of this research are to: (1) Determine the effectiveness of various deck sealers for chloride infiltration available on the market today and (2) Determine if single or double coats of epoxy deck sealers are more effective at reducing chloride infiltration. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:40:49 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1844017</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Impacts of Magnesium Chloride Deicer on the Durability of Nanosilica-Modified HVFA Concrete</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1744725</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In the U.S., approximately 20 million tons of sodium chloride used for every typical winter season, along with unconventional deicers for snow and ice control present new challenges for the durability of concrete infrastructure, beyond freeze/thaw (F/T) damage. For instance, deicer magnesium chloride (MgCl2) is commonly used when pavement temperature drops below 15F, and our recent study [4] has revealed that this chemical can compromise the strength of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete without any visible surface distress, thus evading the traditional inspection methods. In this context, there is an urgent need to identify concrete mixes that are more resistant to MgCl2 by design. High volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete can be cast with denser microstructure and reduced pore sizes, but its resistance to the impact of MgCl2 remains poorly known. Compared with OPC concrete, HVFA concrete (with or without modification by nanosilica) features different microstructure as well as different chemistry of hydrates, and thus may exhibit different behaviors when subjected to physical loading (e.g., F/T cycles) and chemical loading (e.g., MgCl2). The overarching goal of this project is to investigate the impacts of MgCl2 on the durability of HVFA concrete in cold climates and the role of nanosilica in the HVFA concrete, in terms of both engineering properties and fundamentals at the micron and nanometer scales. To achieve the goal, this study aims to:
(1) investigate the influences of concentrated and diluted MgCl2 solutions on the durability of HVFA concrete (with or without modification by nanosilica) under both constant ambient temperature and F/T cycling conditions,
(2) characterize physical and chemical deteriorations of the microstructures and different phases of HVFA concrete and elucidate the role of nanosilica on the improved resistance against MgCl2 attack.
The engineering properties of HVFA concrete will be characterized through weight change, compressive and split tensile strengths, water sorptivity and surface resistivity tests. Afterwards, the physical and chemical deteriorations of the microstructures and different phases as well as the beneficial role of nanosilica for the durability will be examined and analyzed through microhardness test, SEM/EDX, XRD, DSC/TGA, EMPA/WDS, and 29Si/27Al MAS-NMR.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2020 11:02:09 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1744725</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Surface Resistivity for Concrete Quality Assurance</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1595447</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of SRT for concrete quality
assurance and to evaluate the relationship between SRT and the three chloride ion ingress methods currently used by various State DOTs. Additionally, the influence of binder type and content, concrete age, and water-to cementitious materials ratio on the experimental results were also examined.
In this study, Type V Portland and three SCMs; namely fly ash, slag, and silica fume were used. Fine and coarse, aggregates were supplied by a local quarry. To evaluate the transport properties of the studied concretes, RMT, RCPT, and ACT were employed. The evaluations of experimental results were based on binder content, binder type, w/cm, and concrete age. 
The findings of the experimental program revealed improvements in the results of SRT, RCPT, RMT and ACT due to increases in the binder type and content, as well as concrete age. On the other hand, increases in water-to-cementitious materials ratio displayed a reversal trend. Incorporation of the secondary cementitious materials (SCMs), as a partial substitution of Portland cement, improved the results for the four testing methods and the outcomes improved with the increases in the partial replacement of Portland cement with SCMs. Amongst the three utilized SCMs, silica fume produced superior performance in all four testing programs when compared to slag and fly ash. The studied slag concretes produced better results as compared to those of the fly ash mixtures. The statistical evaluations of the test results showed strong inverse relationships between SRT and the three chloride ion penetration methods, substantiating the use of surface resistivity test for concrete quality assurance and paving the way for its adoption by the Nevada Department of Transportation and other public and private agencies.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Aug 2019 19:37:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1595447</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Long Term Performance of Overlays: Thin Epoxy Overlay vs. Traditional Rigid Overlay</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1508217</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objectives of the project proposed here include: 1) evaluate the bond strengths of two types of overlays (i.e. thin epoxy overlay and LSDC overlay) and investigate the change in bond strength over time with on-site testing; 2) understand the long term performance of epoxy overlays and rigid overlays via accelerated lab testing; 3) investigate how existing chloride that has been sealed in a deck by an epoxy overlay migrates and how that might relate or contribute to additional deck deterioration; 4) identify factors that affect the initial and long term performance of overlays; and 5) estimate the expected service life for these two types of overlays. The following tasks are proposed for this work. These tasks have been developed to allow for the evaluation of the performance of epoxy overlays as compared to the performance of LSDC overlay using both on-site and lab testing. Task 1. information collection: collect needed information on bridges to be tested. Task 2. field testing: on-site pull-off testing and visual inspection. Task 3. laboratory testing: accelerated freeze-thaw and salt treatment lab testing. Task 4. reporting.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 09 Apr 2018 11:48:02 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1508217</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Construction of Crack-Free Concrete Bridge</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1229936</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Cracks in concrete bridge decks provide easy access for water and deicing chemicals (chlorides) that shorten the life of the deck due to freeze-thaw damage and corrosion of reinforcing steel. Measurements show that high quality concrete can significantly slow the penetration of chlorides to the level of the reinforcing steel. In contrast, measurements taken at cracks show that the chloride content of the concrete can exceed the corrosion threshold at the level of the reinforcing steel by the end of the first winter. An ongoing two-phase Pooled-Fund study at Kansas University (KU), anchored by the Kansas Department of Transportation, is aimed at reducing cracking in concrete bridge decks using better design, construction, and material specifications. The purpose of the study is to work with participating states, Transportation Research Institute (TRI), and industrial partners to use new materials and modified construction techniques to construct crack-free bridge decks.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:51:03 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1229936</guid>
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