SCP Meeting Minutes - New Orleans, December 9, 2014

Attendees: Ted Sibbick, Laura Powers, Adam Brewer, Gerard Moulzolf, Ron Sturm, Jeff Varga, Ray Henderson, Kristen Freeman, Bob Jenkins, Nick Scaglione, Victoria Jennings, Frank Gay, Derek Cong and Fred Shrimer

Call to Order (6:35pm)

Introductions

Review of Membership: 96 members - 72 voting, 24 associate

Business Items
a. It’s time to elect new officers. Laura Powers, as past president, will be heading up the task of putting together the new slate of officers for election.

b. Website – Several items were discussed regarding the website:
- Someone who posted an item on the discussion board wanted to attach photos, although this is currently not an option. It was decided that if possible we will provide the option of attaching photos.
- This brought up additional discussion regarding adding a page to the website, where photos of various petrographic features can be shown. It was determined that this should be a priority to get done.
- In the past we have posted job openings for members. There was a request from a non-member to post their job opening for a petrographer on our website. Discussion was favorable for SCP to provide that service for potential employers. c. Webinars – Prior to the meeting Nancy Whiting brought up the idea of providing webinars to the SCP membership. She states that by having our the SCP meetings in conjunction with the ASTM meetings we only reach a small percentage of our membership and that webinars have the potential to reach the members that don’t attend the ASTM meetings or can’t attend on a regular basis. SCP can use this format to share ideas, recent research and perhaps training. Nick Scaglione suggested that this can be done under the direction of the Programs Committee, although Laura Powers thought it would be better to form a new Educational Committee. Several of the members shared their positive experiences with webinars that they have been involved with. There was also some discussion on a way to make our SCP meetings at ASTM available to members not able to make it to the meeting. d. Petrographic Symposium – ASTM will be holding a Petrographic Symposium at a future meeting. Keep an eye out for the Call for Papers and consider submitting a paper for the symposium.

Presentations
Gerard Moulzolf presented on two petrographic analyses:
- A case study of sodium chloride scaling of a slab-on-grade
- An interesting moisture vapor issue in a terrazzo floor

Nick Scaglione presented on two petrographic analyses:
- Low strength grout cubes, which involved an admixture incompatibility issue and lack of cement hydration
- ASR/Freeze thaw distress of a 1920’s bridge structure in Philadelphia, PA, with a look at the different types of cracking distress dependent on the level of moisture exposure

Bob Jenkins presented some imagery from the Giant Crystal Cave in Mexico for discussion

Discussion
The meeting was finished up with a brief discussion of an advertisement in ACI International of a silicate based “troweling aid” product that is mixed with 4 parts water and how this may adversely affect the surface quality. The trend of using silicate-based ‘cure and seal’ products was also discussed.

Meeting Adjourned (8:15pm)

SCP to meet at ASTM in New Orleans, 12/9/14

The Society of Concrete Petrographers' will meet in conjuction with the ASTM C09 Meeting in New Orleans, LA.  The semi-annual SCP meeintg is Tuesday, December 9, 2014 from 6:30 until ~ 8:00, in the Bayside A Room -  located on the 4th floor of the conference hotel. 

Following a brief business meeting the floor will be opened to short 5 to 15 minute presentations by attending members who wish to share any recent interesting petrographic work.  This may be as simple as sharing a few interesting photographs to a brief PowerPoint presentation on a recent petrographic project.

Link to the ASTM meeting: http://www.astm.org/MEETINGS/nextmeeting.cgi?+++C09

SCP Meeting Minutes - Toronto, June 24, 2014

The meeting was well attended with a total of 21 members or guests.

Attendees: Derek Cong, Patrick Miller, Bob O’Neill, Laura Powers, Nick Scaglione, Mauro Scali, Ted Sibbick, John Taylor, Fred Shrimer, Carole Anne MacDonald, Ron Sturm, Daniela Mauro, Rachael Barbour, Mengesha Beyene, Karl Peterson, Robert Jenkins, David Rothstein, Gerard Moulzolf, Bill Rebel, Dale Miller, Mark Bury, Jacki Atienza

Review of Membership: Currently 92 members

Review of Log-in procedures for the SCP website

Bob O’Niell and Ted Sibbick gave a brief review of the ICMA Meeting in Milan, Italy
- 125 people in attendance
- Lots of good papers on petrogragraphic topics
- Field trip to the Mapei Facility R & D and tech center

Laura Powers spoke about Masonry Symposium.

Presentation
Jacki Atienza gave a presentation on the new Microsphere technology that BASF has developed for the replacement of air entraining admixtures for freeze/thaw durability. The product is identified as Mastershpere FT300. The presentation was very interesting and Jacki did a great job of presenting the information from a petrographer’s perspective. Mark Bury, a Product Manager from BASF was also on hand to answer production/marketing questions.

Euroseminar on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials

The 15th Euroseminar on Microscopy Applied to Building Materials (EMABM) which will be held on June 16-19, 2015 in Delft, The Netherlands.

EMABM is one of the most important meeting series which brings academicians, students, engineers, geoscientists and industry professionals together in order to share the latest developments and results in the field of building materials characterization. EMABM covers all traditional and modern materials characterization techniques while special emphasis is given on microscopy.

One of the highlights of EMABM 2015 will be the 1st EMABM Photomicrography Competition.Euroseminar participants are invited to submit their best optical and/or electron photomicrographs to the competition. Our aim with this competition is to promote the importance of high quality photomicrography in building materials characterization.

Deadline for submission of abstracts is September 1, 2014.  Please see the following link for more information: http://www.citg.tudelft.nl/en/current/events/events-materials-environment/emabm-2015

SCP Meeting, June 24, 2014, Toronto

Please join us for our SCP meeting in Toronto during the ASTM meeting.  The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Centre Hotel - Kent Room (second floor) on Tuesday at 6:30. 

We will have a presentation by Jacki Atienza of BASF Construction Chemicals on a new concrete admixture being produced by BASF that would be used as an alternative to air entraining admixtures for the production of freeze/thaw durable concrete.  The liquid admixture uses millions of tough but flexible polymeric microspheres. The microsphere voids provide internal cushioning during freeze-thaw cycles for greater durability.  The recommended dosage rate of the microspheres is 1% by volume to provide the equivalent freeze/thaw durability of typical air-entrained concrete.  Due to this low volume, the concrete can be up to 30% stronger relative to typical air entrained concrete.  Laboratory testing including ASTM C666 freeze/thaw testing and full-scale field trials have been performed.  Pilot road projects are being planned in Minnesota, Virginia and Ohio to seek the approval of standards boards.

Jacki is a concrete petrographer at BASF and has been involved with the testing of this new admixture.  She will discuss the use and implications of this new admixture from a petrographer’s perspective.