Superabsorbent Polymers — An Additive to Increase the Freeze-Thaw Resistance of High Strength Concrete

This paper presents the results of freeze thaw resistance tests performed on a reference mixture and a mixture with superabsorbent polymer (SAP) addition. The SAP mixture showed 40% less scaling than the reference mixture and a slight increase of the compressive strength. A simulation performed with the Hard Core Soft Shell model (HCSS) explains the good performance of the SAP mixture with the formation of a number of small, spherical and closely-spaced voids within the cement paste, which have the same function as air entrainment.