Freezing pores

In cold climates, where this form of damage is a problem, the use of air-entrained concrete is specified. Such concrete has demonstrated its ability to provide durable long-term service. Essentially, additives create air voids entrained in the concrete. The freezing pore solution can then expand into this interconnected system of air voids. Usually the air content of this type of concrete is between 3 and 8 volume percent. However, the total air content alone is not necessarily adequate to assure resistance to freeze-thaw damage. The distribution and size of the entrained air voids are also of major importance. A tradeoff exists between air content and strength. 

Besides the chemical composition, porosity is another property of stone which has great influence on its preservation. An increased porosity increases the exposed surface and pores allow movement of materials such as water and its solutes through the stones. If the pores are blocked or reduced in diameter such substances may be trapped within resulting in increased local interior damage. Exposure to the climatic elements is one important source of decay. Freeze-thaw cycles, in particular, result in pressures on the pore walls of the stone s interior from changes in volume during the phase transition... 

Air-Entrainment Agents. Materials that are used to improve the abiUty of concrete to resist damage from freezing are generally known as air-entrainment agents. These surfactant admixtures (see Surfactants) produce a foam which persists in the mixed concrete, and serves to entrain many small spherical air voids that measure from 10 to 250 p.m in diameter. The air voids alleviate internal stresses in the concrete that may occur when the pore solution freezes. In practice, up to 10% air by volume may be entrained in concrete placed in severe environments. 

Supercritical and Freeze Drying. To eliminate surface tension related drying stresses in fine pore materials such as gels, ware can be heated in an autoclave until the Hquid becomes a supercritical fluid, after which drying can be accompHshed by isothermal depressurization to remove the fluid (45,69,72) (see Supercritical fluid). In materials that are heat sensitive, the ware can be frozen and the frozen Hquid can be removed by sublimation (45,69). 

A number of recent studies consider more complex systems, such as freezing vesicles [246] (freezing can be induced by reducing the tether length) or mixed membranes which contain more than one component [247,248]. The possibility that a membrane may break up and form pores has also been considered [249]. 

This methodology developed to observe water freeze-thaw in concrete materials, may be used quite generally to observe solid-liquid phase transitions in many different materials of industrial and technological interest. The method could be also applied to other problems involving freezing and thawing of water in confined pores. 

Many structural components of the tight junctions (TJs) have been defined since 1992 [85-97]. Lutz and Siahaan [95] reviewed the protein structural components of the TJ. Figure 2.7 depicts the occludin protein complex that makes the water pores so restrictive. Freeze-fracture electronmicrographs of the constrictive region of the TJ show net-like arrays of strands (made partly of the cytoskeleton) circumscribing the cell, forming a division between the apical and the basolateral... 

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