SCP Meeting at ASTM New Orleans

Please join us for the Society of Concrete Petrographers meeting on Tuesday evening, December 5, in New Orleans in conjunction with the ASTM meeting. The meeting will be held in the Napoleon Room A2, located on the third floor of the hotel at 5:30. Please bring some interesting slides that you would like to share, some interesting discussion topics, or a quick 10-minute presentation for the group. Hope to see you all there.

SCP Meeting at ASTM Toronto

Please join us for the Society of Concrete Petrographers meeting on Tuesday evening, June 13, in Toronto in conjunction with the ASTM meeting. The meeting will be held in the Linden Room, located on the mezzanine level of the hotel. Depending on the number of attendees, we will either convene for a review of business matters and a presentation by Laura Powers on Shotcrete and Gunite: Applications and Analysis, or move to the bar for an informal gathering. Laura's presentation will discuss the invention and development of shotcrete / gunite and describe some of the important applications. She will compare the normal features of shotcrete produced by the dry-mix process and wet-mix process and discuss the petrographic approach to assess the performance of the materials.

Petrographer Job Opening at RJ Lee Group

RJ Lee Group, Inc. is currently seeking an experienced concrete petrographer. The ideal candidate will have an in-depth understanding of the composition and structure of materials commonly used in building construction, with emphasis on concrete and concrete aggregates, and associated deterioration mechanisms of such materials. For the full posting, please visit http://www.rjlg.com/about-us/careers/petrographer/ To apply for the position, please visit http://www.rjlg.com/about-us/careers/

39th ICMA Conference Toronto, April 10-13, 2017

ICMA will hold its 39th Conference in the beautiful City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto is Canada’s largest city with a population of almost 5.6 million and is the fifth largest city in North America. Toronto is the world’s fourth most livable city. Toronto ranks second as the world’s most business competitive global city. Toronto sits on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario. The meeting place is at Crowne Plaza Toronto Airport, 33 Carlson Ct., Toronto, Ontario, Canada scheduled on April 10 – 13, 2017. The technical program includes papers that are good blend of practical applications, new techniques and novel approaches and the latest research efforts in the field of microscopic evaluation of portland cement and related materials. The Workshop Committee will prepare Panel Discussions and Workshops that are timely and interesting to the participants. The Spouse and Guest Committee has programs and tours to the many beautiful and interesting sites of Toronto, Ontario Area for the spouses and guests accompanying the attendees. Please be informed that the deadline date for submission of abstracts will be on or before December 15, 2016. Please visit the ICMA website (www.cemmicro.org) for more information about the conference.

SCP Meeting - Tuesday, June 28 in Chicago

Please join us for the Society of Concrete Petrographers meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 in Chicago in conjunction with the ASTM meeting. The meeting will be held in the Los Angeles/Miami Room – 5th Flooor at the Chicago Marriott Downtown.

Following a brief business meeting, we will have a discussion on the effect of deicing salts on freeze/thaw damage in concrete with particular emphasis on the formation of Calcium Oxychloride due to the use of Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride deicing salts. In recent years significant amounts of research has been performed on this topic, however, much of this research is based on laboratory studies. Evidence of distress related to calcium oxychloride can be very difficult to confirm in petrographic work performed on cores removed from the field. ACI 201 is currently working on a TechNote on the topic of joint deterioration due to deicing salts and the formation of calcium oxychloride.

Karl Peterson from the University of Toronto will give a brief presentation on his research on distress related to the formation of calcium oxychloride.