Proceedings 13th International Conference on Alkali-Aggregate Reaction in Concrete (ICAAR)

PREFACE These Proceedings comprise the consolidated contributions to the 13th International Conference on Alkali- Aggregate Reactions in Concrete (ICAAR), held in the Radisson SAS Royal Garden Hotel in Trondheim, Norway, on 16-20 July 2008. The Proceedings of this 13th ICAAR seem to break with the ICAAR tradition of printed proceedings. The 2004-edition consisted of two voluminous tomes with a total weight of just under 4kg. The present 2008- edition is easier to handle: during technical sessions, notes can be taken directly in the Program & Abstracts booklet, whereas all full papers can be searched, extracted, and printed individually from the CD, the two parts together weighing in at ~500g. However, back home, you still have the option to adorn your shelves with a solid 13th ICAAR Proceedings volume, as the CD also contains a certified pdf-file optimized for printing-on-demand (POD), including printer-ready soft- and hardcover designs. Also the Program & Abstracts book as well as the Pre-Conference Tour Guide are available for -unlimited- printing. All contributions in these Proceedings have been peer reviewed by an international board of reviewers as listed further below. For 133 full papers in the Proceedings book, in all 286 review assignments were completed, 7 review invitations were initially declined and re-assigned to alternative reviewers, and 9 more terminated by the editor-in-chief. On average, 2.15 reviews were required per manuscript before acceptance, but varied between 1 and 5, mainly regarding revision of English language and formatting/layout. I am greatly indebted to the international board of editors (listed further below); without their help, this review process would have been a sheer impossible endeavour. Also a word of thank to my PhD-student Nélia Castro for her indispensable help with the copy editing of the final manuscripts. Popular themes appear to be the effect of formate and acetate deicers on concrete and AAR, as well as observations on cracking rebars. The interest in the mineralogical and geochemical details of reactive minerals as well as reaction products with advanced characterization techniques appears emerging and offers exciting opportunities for future research. This is a fascinating time to commit research on AAR and its many and diverse related subjects, both from a concrete-structural and a materials science point of view, providing all-new insights and/or refreshing ‘established truths’. A favourite quote of mine is from the Scientific American, the editorial “In science we trust” in the December 2002 issue on page 4: “All scientific knowledge is provisional. [...] This is not a weakness of science, this is its glory.”. Thus, there can be no other conclusion that we, ie. the international community of AAR researchers, must continue our efforts to collect data and improve our understanding of this complicated matter, which in itself is a solid guarantee for subsequent ICAAR conferences. Enjoy the 13th ICAAR, enjoy the proceedings! Trondheim, June 2008 Maarten A.T.M. Broekmans Editor-in-Chief -