ABSTRACT
Over the recent years, hairline cracks in cement concrete pavements appear often very early, within a few months or a couple of years after the concrete is laid. Visible cracks arise primarily around joints at the edges and in the corners of concrete slabs; from there, they gradually spread over the whole slab. This fault does not only occur in the Czech Republic, but currently also in other European countries, the USA, etc. As the cracks occur in pavements with heavy traffic as well as without traffic, the reason for the occurrence of cracks seems to be grounded in technology. The cause is the expansive reaction in concrete. Despite considerable effort of specialists on international level, no generally recognized methodology leading to successful diagnostics has been discovered. This paper presents one of new concepts of geologic diagnostic research of concrete and its components using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and chemical microanalyses.
